Acknowledgment

The author would like to thank the Skyships of Atlantis! adventurers: Kyrinn “Klarien Wl” Eis, Christina “Strasha Yol”
Meyer, Duke “Merac” Barclay, Lan “Isarno the Cat” Kelly, Jeffrey “Sarkess” Osthoff, Shoe “Akakios” Skogen, and
Doug “SourApple” Bellew for play testing and just being awesome. Special thanks to Russell “Orian” Impagliazzo,
for design and mathematical help. Without them this would be a different and worse game.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
To view a copy of this license, visithttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/ or send a letter to Creative
Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.
The illustrations in this work are all either public domain in the US (all the non-computer generated art), or created
by the author and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States
License, visible at
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/ . Most of the public domain art falls under the “life of cre-
ator plus 70 years” rule, making it public domain in most localities; a few pieces fall under US-only doctrine of being
published pre-1923 or pre-1964 and not having had their copyrights renewed within 28 years. If you are in a jurisdic-
tion where you believe this is a problem for you, the author would be happy to provide a version of Zounds! without
any illustrations upon request.

Various fictional characters that are mentioned in passing in this work may be the trademarks of their respective
owners; if they are they are being used without permission, and the publication of their names is not authorized by,
associated with or sponsored by their respective trademark owners. This game has no permission from, connection
with, or endorsement by any of the trademark holders of such characters as Bilbo Baggins or Fafhrd that might
be mentioned as examples. DO NOT READ OR PLAY THIS GAME UNDER ANY MISAPPREHENSION THAT THE MENTION
OF CERTAIN FAMOUS TRADEMARKS MAKES THIS AN OFFICIAL PRODUCT SPONSORED BY ANY OF THE TRADEMARK
HOLDERS.
You won’t find any stats, descriptions, or images of any of the aforementioned trademarked characters; their
names are used purely nominally as points of reference.
Zounds! is (c) Joshua Macy 2011. Zounds! and SFX! are trademarks of Joshua Macy.
This document is version 1.00, last revised January 21, 2013.
Introduction
Zounds! is a role playing game of high fantasy adven-
ture. It is meant to give the players and GM the tools
for playing and producing results that feel like fantasy
adventures, without bogging them down in unnec-
essary detail, with rules that work with the player’s
mental pictures of the events. Zounds! is part of the
SFX! game system, along with such games as Kapow!,
Argh!, and Zap! Knowledge of the other SFX! games
is not necessary to play; players familiar with SFX! will
find Zounds! quiet easy to pick up, though there are
differences to fit the genre. Zounds! is primarily about
play that feels and sounds like fantasy fiction, espe-
cially from books and movies; it is not particularly
suited for dungeon-delving or emulating other fantasy
games.
The Primary Rule of Zounds! is that actions have to
make sense in a fantasy adventure kind of way and
the players will continually be asked to describe their
actions in terms fit the conventions of the genre. In
Zounds! it isn’t enough to say “I attack with my Fire
Magic, that’s 2d6”; Zounds! asks you to describe how
you’re using your power, almost as if you were nar-
rating the action in a fantasy adventure: “I use my
Fire Magic to try to cause the fire from the torches in
the wall sconces to leap onto the vampires clothing,
setting him on fire”, or “Since the golem seems im-
mune to flame, I use my Fire Magic to cause the flame
from the candles on the chandelier to burn through
the rope, dropping the chandelier on him.” When
in doubt, ask yourself “Does this sound like something
from a fantasy adventure?” The Primary Rule applies
to the plausibility of actions, particularly the results of
actions involving supernatural powers and spells and
how they interact that are far outside of the realm of
ordinary physics or common sense; it is not intended
to force a particular outcome or story, or to substitute
collaborating on fantasy adventure-style fan-fiction
for role playing.
Zounds! is designed to be simple enough for novices
to play, though perhaps not simple enough for
Game Masters with no prior experience in role-playing
games. It’s assumed that the players know what
fantasy adventures are about and what sort of game
they want to play. It’s particularly important for the
players and the GM to be on the same page about
genre conventions such as whether adventurers are
frequently killed by the horrors they face or gener-
ally kick its ass, whether they can actually achieve
victory or at best stave off certain doom for another
i
day, and just how graphic and creepy the descrip-
tions of the action and monsters ought to get. If one
player wants a game where the fate of the world rests
on the character’s shoulders and the over-matched
heroes struggle against the odds to prevent the forces
of darkness from achieving final victory, possibly los-
ing boon companions and even members of their fel-
lowship along the way, and another wants to play
the brawny barbarian who kicks Dark Lord’s butts and
treads the jeweled thrones of the world under his san-
daled feet, it’s unlikely that they can both be satisfied
with the same campaign. This sort of conflict of ex-
pected tone should be resolved before play begins.
It should be the goal of everybody at the table to
play up and play into whatever approach the play-
ers want to take.
Zounds! includes everything you need to create
adventurers and supernatural creatures and save
the world: rules for character generation, cam-
paign scope, supernatural powers and character
templates, vehicles, strongholds, warfare and con-
flict between units ranging from individuals and small
squads up through entire kingdoms or even compet-
ing religions and philosophies, adjudicating actions
and resolving combat, designing a setting, fantasy
adventure campaigns, sample supernatural crea-
tures, organizations and non-player characters, and
some example characters.
This book consists of three sections: Creating a
Character, Playing Zounds!, and Game Mastering.
The first two sections contain all the rules of the game,
on how to create and how to play characters us-
ing Zounds!, while the final part contains advice on
running fantasy adventure campaigns applicable to
most systems.
The Primary Rule

“Does this sound like something from a fantasy adven- tion such as the villain hovering fifty feet in the air, but
ture?” the GM won’t override the players unless she knows
The Primary Rule of Zounds! is that actions have to something they don’t that makes the action impossi-
make sense in a fantasy adventure kind of way. It will ble (such as the characters are actually fighting an
be referred to a lot in the following rules, because it’s a illusion).
departure from the way many RPGs handle mechan-
ics and dice rolling. In Zounds! you don’t even roll the The Rule of Three
dice if the action is obviously something a charac-
ter with that ability can do. Where in most RPGs you As a rule of thumb, three is the magic number in
wouldn’t bother rolling to see if you could walk across Zounds! If there is a rule with a specific number at-
a room or sit in a chair, Zounds! extends that notion tached to it, it’s almost always three. Three is the
so that you won’t bother rolling to see if your barbar- number of starting Boosts you have to spend (before
ian can scale a wall, or your wizard can successfully bonuses); three is the number of turns you are Out be-
research a spell that will trap the vengeful spirit; pro- fore you can automatically return to combat; three is
tagonists in fantasy adventures are rarely confronted how much you have to beat something’s Toughness
with situations where simple bad luck or failure to per- to score an Overkill; three is the number of sub-units a
form a task up to their usual standards (a bad die-roll) larger unit divides into when taking a large-scale con-
prevents them from continuing the adventure....if they flict down a scope level for more detailed resolution;
fail, it’s almost always because of active opposition, a three is the number of Range categories there are,
foolish decision, or an act of fate. etc. This reduces the need to look things up in the
Contrariwise, where other RPGs might just leave it middle of play: if you can’t remember, just use three.
up to the dice to decide whether a vampire’s mes-
meric gaze can work against an animated statue
(rolling damage vs. its mental resistance) or decide
it based on whether the character had paid extra for
the gaze power when it was created to have it work
against inanimate creatures, Zounds! will ask the play-
ers the consider the plausibility of the action before
they commit to it and roll the dice, and the decision
may turn on details of the description of the golem
such as whether it is animated by a human spirit or
simply carrying out the instructions of a spell. If given
the particular golem’s description it can’t plausibly be
hypnotized by the vampire, the vampire’s gaze can’t
work no matter how powerful it is.
This means that the player will often be able to con-
trol whether an action can be taken according to the
Primary Rule by the way they describe how they’re
employing their Power. In fact, that’s the point of the
Primary Rule: to require the players to narrate their
actions in a more interesting way than just announc-
ing “I use my Flame Blast, that’s a d6, d6 attack” by
making the details of the narration matter. This also
helps novice role-players, who naturally tend to do
this. To further this goal, and speed things along, fi-
nal decisions as to the plausibility are placed in the
hands of the player. The GM can suggest reasons that
the action as described might not be all that plausi-
ble or should take into account facts about the situa-
ii
Contents

Contents 1

List of Tables 6

I Creating A Character 7

1 Steps To Creating A Character for Zounds! 8

Before You Begin: Scope and Tone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Adventure Scope and Personal Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Tone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Quick-and-dirty player character creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

2 Concept 13

3 Filling In The Templates 15

The Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Initiations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Non-humans in Zounds! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Describing Abilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Mechanics for Abilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

4 Advantages, Disadvantages and Restrictions 21

Advantages: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Disadvantages: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
New Advantages and Disadvantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Mishaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

5 Spending your Boosts 27

Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

6 Complications 32
Note On Complications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

7 Fleshing out Your Character 33

Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Back-story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

8 Example Characters 34
Ailie the Cat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Hannah the Barbarian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Fiero the Fire Mage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Markov the Magus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Demetrios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Anariel, Elf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
1
C ONTENTS

Dorin, son of Darin, Dwarf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

9 Non-human templates 36

II Playing Zounds! 37

10 Quick Summary 38
Tropes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

11 Defining Abilities 40
Disagreements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Power Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Regular Powers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Movement Powers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Shticks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Active vs. Automatic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

12 Using Abilities 45
Uncontested Abilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Contested Abilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Damage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Countering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Combining Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Splitting Abilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Disabling Abilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Duration Of Abilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

13 Tropes 57
Aid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
All for One, And One For All . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Battle Cry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Berserk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Careful Aim And Pulling Your Punch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Carouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Failure Is Not An Option! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Intimidation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Riposte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Second Wind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Supreme Effort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Sheer Determination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Take the Hit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
This Ends Now! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Wild Swing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

14 Rounds And Turns 61

15 Special Situations 62
Mobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Crossing Scopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

16 Range 64
Movement And Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Senses And Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

17 Investigation 66
A Note On Investigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

18 Negotiations 68

19 Arcane Research 70
2
 Contents

20 Equipment 72
Equipment Dice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Equipment Mishaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Example Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Encumbrance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

21 The Environment 75
Environment Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Fortifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
More Stuff To Break . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Perils and Obstacles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

22 Wealth 79
What Money is Called . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Buying Stuff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Wealth and Adventure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Wealth and Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Income . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Wealth and Trade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

23 Trekking 81
Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Translating Distance to Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Cutting to the Chase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Typical Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

24 Questing 83
Preparing for the Quest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Starting the Quest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Narrating the Journey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Impediments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Great Wealth and Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Adapting to the Player’s Decisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

25 Experience 87

26 Domains and War 88

Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Powers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Domain Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Playing a Domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Wealth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Occupying a Domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Zooming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Optional Trope: Free Enterprise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Zooming Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Founding a Domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Other Types of Domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

III Game Mastering 96

27 Campaign design 97
Setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Gritty Campaigns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Plausibility of the Fantastic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Establishing the Tone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
3
C ONTENTS

28 Designing an Adventure 104

What you need to design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Adventure Arcs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Interleaving arcs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Failure is always an option. Success is always an option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
The End of The World is not the end of the world . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

29 Bestiary 106
Animated Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Ape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Basilisk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Beast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Blob . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Catoblepas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Carnivorous Plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Crab, Giant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Crawler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Demon (Type I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Demon (Type II) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Dragon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Dryad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Fairy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Fire Elemental . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Gazebo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Ghoul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Giant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Golem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Goblin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Griffin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Harpy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Hippogriff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Hydra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Kobold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Manticore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Mermaid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Minotaur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Mummy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Nightmare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Ogre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Orc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Oread . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Pegasus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Phoenix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Sea Serpent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Shadows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Skeleton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Spider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Swamp Creature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Troll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Unicorn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Vampire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Werewolf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Wyvern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Zombie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Zombie Plague . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

IV Appendices 126

A How To Be A Good Player 127

4
 Contents

B Tables 129

C Converting from D&D 140

Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

D Prices 142

E Examples 148
The Barroom Brawl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
The Rooftop Chase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

N Recommended Reading 150

O Recommended Viewing 151

Index 152

5
List of Tables

12.1 Splitting Abilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

17.1 Information Gained . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

D.1 Armor Prices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

D.2 Board and Lodging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

D.3 Clothing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
D.4 Construction and Real Estate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
D.5 Household Furnishings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
D.6 Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
D.7 Legal Privileges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
D.8 Livestock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
D.9 Precious Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
D.10 Provisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
D.11 Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
D.12 Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
D.13 Vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
D.14 Wages and Income . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
D.15 Weapons (Melee) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
D.16 Weapons (Missile and Entangling) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

6
 Part I

Creating A Character

7
Chapter 1
Steps To Creating A Character for Zounds!
Before you begin the GM or entire group decides cer-
tain aspects of the campaign, such as Scope, basic
setting, Tone, and campaign goals before character
creation. For example, the campaign could be light-
hearted and consist mainly of kicking down doors,
killing monsters and taking their stuff, a serious high
fantasy campaign about a fellowship of adventur-
ers trying to save the world from a supernatural con-
queror, a campaign about establishing and running
a domain in a relatively realistic medieval setting, or
even some sort of “mash-up” campaign such a grim
post-fantasy apocalyptic setting where the charac-
ters are survivors of a devastating invasion by brain-
eating contagious zombies. This campaign informa-
tion affects character creation in informal ways, such
as deciding that a hard bitten bounty hunter or a
member of a semi-mystical knights is an appropriate
character concept. There are also two mechanical
ways the campaign’s design affects player character
creation. First, the Scope of the campaign will deter-
mine the personal power level of the characters, at
least at the beginning. Secondly, the GM will decide
on or create templates for standard creature types
available as player characters. For example, tem-
plates for particular non-human races means non-
humans PCs and NPCs will be relatively common, and
specifies what exactly is true of those non-humans in
the game.
Before You Begin: Scope and Tone
Before you actually start creating characters, you
need to make some decisions about the kind of
fantasy game you want to play. The GM and the
players should collectively decide on the Scope for
the adventures, and the Tone that the game will take.
Is the group going to be a rag-tag bunch of sur-
vivors of an apocalypse trying to hang on one more
day, a band of adventurers seeking fame and fortune
on the frontier of civilization, nobles and knights con-
cerned with court politics, war, and running their do-
mains, guardians of an entire kingdom fighting a war
against invaders, or something else? Will the players
be average Joes with some specialized training and
gear, elite warriors with enchanted gear, fantastic su-
permen and women with magical powers that grant
8
them godlike abilities? Is death and dying something
that rarely happens to PCs, and can usually be “fixed”
with appropriate magic, or will it be a minor triumph
if the PCs survive an adventure, or somewhere in be-
tween?
Adventure Scope and Personal Scope
Scope describes how large an area the characters’
typical adventures take place in and how powerful
they are individually. The Adventure Scope refers to
the size of the area they typically travel within and
is usually tied to their available means of transporta-
tion; the Personal Scope refers to how much ability
the individual characters have to affect the outcomes
of things within the area of the adventure. The two
are related, but not identical. For instance, it is com-
mon in fantasy to have adventures take the heroes
from one end of a continent to the other, while the
heroes themselves are little more than average Joes
and Janes who might find themselves mugged in a
back-alley of some city if they’re not careful; on the
flip side, you have stories like A. Lee Martinez’ In The
Company of Ogres where there are characters of
literally godlike power but almost the entire action
of the story is confined to a single obscure border
fortress. While campaigns may eventually transcend
the original Scopes, you should pick a Personal Scope
at the start that will be satisfactory to play for quite
some time. Most of the time in fantasy, characters
who “level up” and significantly change their Personal
Scope either do so at the start, and that’s what kicks
off their adventures, or gain great power at the end
and use it to resolve things...it’s relatively unusual to
have a sequels at the new level of power remain as
interesting. Groups that want to try different power
levels as a change of pace might consider creating
new characters in the same setting but at the desired
Scope, and returning to the lower-powered charac-
ters when they feel like more down-to-Earth adven-
tures, rather than ramping up the original characters
with newly discovered powers, magic artifacts, and
the like. On the other hand, Adventure Scopes reg-
ularly increase over the course of fantasy stories, as
the characters find themselves visiting far-flung places
and interacting with larger and larger areas of the

setting. Note that many famous fantasy characters,
even ones who regularly win their fights, would only
count as Scope 1 (Normals). If you can imagine the
character actually needing to surrender or flee when
confronted with a squad of four soldiers with cross-
bows leveled, that character is probably Scope 1.
Note also that characters may be in command of
ships or organizations well above their own in Scope.
The same grubby ranger that finds discretion is the
better part of valor when faced with four soldiers at
once may actually be the heir to the throne of one
of the great kingdoms and capable of leading entire
armies into battle.
Adventure Scopes
1. Household Handfuls of people. A character at
this Scope does not go on adventures unless
pressed.
2. Estate/Manor Dozens of people.
3. Village Hundreds of people. Events in days.
4. Town Thousands of people.
5. Barony/City Tens of thousands of people.
6. Duchy/Province Hundreds of thousands of peo-
ple.
7. Kingdom Millions of people.
8. Empire Tens of millions of people.
9. Continent Hundreds of millions of people.
10. World Billions of people.
11. Several Worlds Tens of billions of people.
Personal Scopes
1. Normal Realistic. A normal, if trained person.
Can emerge victorious from a brawl or take on
a trained combatant...sometimes. Will only take
on multiple trained foes reluctantly. Cugel, Harold
Shea, Judge Dee, Li Kao
2. Heroic Admirable. An elite combatant. Can take
on 10 men in a barroom brawl, or a group of
4 men-at-arms. Zorro, Robin Hood, Jirel of Joiry,
Vlad Taltos, Hua Mulan, Queen Gwendolen
3. Cinematic Thrilling. Capable of action movie
derring-do. Can take on 50 civilians, or a squad
of 8-12 men-at-arms. Gunnar, Conan, Red Sonja,
Boromir, Legolas, Eowyn
4. Romantic A paragon. Equal to the heroes of
chivalric romance, such as the Knights of the
Round Table. Heroes can take on 100 civilians, or
a platoon of around 25 men-at-arms. Galahad,
Gawain, Merlin, Roland, Bradamante, Marfisa; Ai-
jaruc, princess of the Tartars, stronger than any
man
9
Adventure Scope and Personal Scope
5. Homeric Supernaturally mighty. Can take on an
infantry company of 200 soldiers. Achilles, invul-
nerable to harm save for a single spot on his body;
Odysseus, the most cunning of men, capable of
drawing a bow no other man can bend; Hip-
polyta, queen of the Amazons, possessed of a
magic girdle; Cú Chulainn, who in his battle frenzy
attacks kills hundreds in a single battle.
6. Biblical Divinely blessed. Can take on a battalion
of 1000 soldiers. Samson, who slays a thousand
soldiers with the jawbone of an ass; Moses, who
can part the Red Sea; Solomon, the wisest of men
and greatest magician, who can command the
djinn; Tomoe Gozen, a warrior worth a thousand.
7. Legendary Iconic. Can take on a division of
10,000 soldiers; a party of legendary charac-
ters can contend with a god. Hercules, who
can change the course of mighty rivers, or hold
the whole world on his shoulders; Arjuna, who
can defeat 100,000 foes in a single day’s battle;
Camilla, who can run across water and chase
down horses.
8. Mythic Can contend with gods, Can take on
hordes, or armies of demons and monsters. Coy-
ote; Monkey, who defeated an army of 100,000
celestial warriors; Artemis
9. Titanic Can contend with multiple gods, or take
on hordes of demons and monsters. Prometheus,
Zeus, Atlas
10. Cosmic Can take on the whole world, or an entire
pantheon of gods.
The group should set the Personal Scope for the cam-
paign to best fit how tough they wish starting charac-
ters to be. This is mainly how many armed or trained
combatants they wish to be able to take on single-
handed. Over the course of an adventure a charac-
ter might slay dozens of opponents, but that doesn’t
necessarily mean that she can take them on all at
once and likely emerge victorious; if you think the
character would think twice about leaping into a fight
with that many at the same time, that indicates the
character might fit better at a lower Scope.
Personal Scopes are approximate, as are the exam-
ples given. If you imagine that Conan is able to take
on more than 12 armed men single-handed, or you
want to play a Conan-inspired character that can,
there’s no reason not to play at Scope 4 or higher. The
main purpose of the Scopes is to make it easy to scale
Abilities so their Power Levels fall between 2 and 12, to
keep the dice rolling easy: it’s entirely possible to be
playing at Scope 1 and have a character who’s ca-
pable of taking on 25 men-at-arms by himself, but that
character’s powers would likely be PL 14 and above
which would mean rolling d8+5, d8+5. It’s also en-
tirely possible to have characters who have specific
abilities that would fit comfortably one or two Scopes
1. S TEPS TO C REATING A C HARACTER FOR Z OUNDS !
higher, while still having their overall prowess fit best at
the lower Scope. E.g. Hercules was strong enough to
temporarily relieve Atlas of his burden of carrying the
Earth on his shoulders, but not strong enough to de-
feat Atlas; when Atlas didn’t want to fulfill his bargain
and resume carrying the Earth, Hercules had to resort
to trickery.
Personal Scopes can also change over time, as
the characters gain experience or acquire new pow-
ers or items; since they’re a matter of convenience,
when characters have advanced to where most of
their Abilities, or their most important ones, are greater
than PL 12 the GM can shift the Personal Scope of the
campaign and adjust all the Power Levels accordingly
(see Crossing Scopes).
Tone
Tone is probably the single most important decision
about your campaign. Tone is about the way the
game feels, the mood and the atmosphere of the
adventures. You can and should vary the tone some-
what from session to session, and within a session, but
there will be a prevailing mood to the game. Fantasy
adventure ranges from the Knights of the Round Table
to Conan to Oz, from Xena: Warrior Princess through
Army of Darkness to Game of Thrones. This tone will
actually influence game play. The lighter the tone,
the less plausible justifications for abilities have to be,
and the more fantastic the magic can be.
10
Fantasy can also touch on sensitive subjects: sex,
violence, religion, slavery. Fantasy settings are often
patterned after the ancient world, or set there out-
right, and historically many people were treated very
badly or had their roles in society highly circumscribed
on account of their sex, race, or religion. There’s no
right or wrong answer, but a clash of expectations
can lead to incoherence between the tone the GM
is trying to set and what actually happens, or play-
ers being out of sync with the others. It can even
lead to players finding the game unpleasant, disturb-
ing, or disgusting (or in the other direction, too silly,
angsty or sentimental to stomach). Make sure ev-
erybody playing is on basically the same page, and
give notice in advance if there will be possibly dis-
turbing elements. Disagreements over the tone of the
campaign can wreck it; when one player is aiming
for goofy Saturday-morning cartoon style with a post-
apocalyptic barbarian armed with a laser sword in
a world of savagery, super-science and sorcery, and
another wants to play an ordinary ordinary peasant
woman fleeing her home village after being accused
of witchcraft, something’s got to give. Even if the
players are nominally on the same page with the style
of character, the Primary Rule of having to make sure
that your actions sound like a fantasy story places em-
phasis on having at least rough agreement as to what
kind of story people have in mind. If one player is try-
ing to stick to real-world medieval life as much as pos-
sible while another takes his cue from the most over-
the-top Japanese anime the result won’t tend to feel
like either.
One useful way to approach this is to describe your
game as similar to a source that all the players are
familiar with, e.g., is it more like Camelot, Lord of the
Rings, The Bridge of Birds, or the movie Labyrinth? That
doesn’t have to mean it’s set in those settings, but it
does set the expectations for things like levels of vio-
lence, humor, plausibility of physical stunts, just how
cosmic or contrived are magic and supernatural abil-
ities, and so forth.
He could easily work a miracle or two...
Zounds! has no hard-and-fast rules for characters
meeting accidental deaths in combat. This shouldn’t
stop you from making the game as deadly as you
and the players want it to be. Given sufficient fantasy
hand-waving, characters can be healed or resur-
rected by magic, have their souls placed in golems,
become ghosts or vampires, or be replaced by a
doppelganger or Corsican twin. You should agree
before you begin playing what it takes to kill a Player
Character. The two most common options are PCs
only die permanently when the players want them to,
or PCs are dead if they get an Overkill result against
their Toughness. Lethality among minor characters is
a matter of tone. A simple Out result can be narrated
as dead for minions or bystanders, or you can have
even Overkilled NPCs make it out alive. Even if the

campaign forbids PCs dying except when the player
decides that it’s what they want, the PCs can still have
a lot at stake if that’s what the Tone of the campaign
calls for. The character Kane in Karl Edward Wagner’s
stories doesn’t die, indeed cannot die, but over the
course of the stories loses all that’s dear to him more
than once and is destined never to have a happy
ending.
The tone of the campaign might mean that bru-
tal things happen to player characters, but even in
games that are maximally edgy and morbid, players
should have long-term control over their characters
paths. The character might die, but the GM should
never force a player to run a character that is warped
beyond recognition from their original concept. If
they are not done having fun with the character, they
should be able to find a plot device to allow them to
revert back. Sometimes a PC will need to be retired
and run as an NPC, letting the player start afresh.
From time to time the rules will suggest options for
a “grittier” campaign, where life is cheap and death
lies around every corner. For further discussion of gritty
campaigns see Gritty Campaigns in Game Mastering.
Quick-and-dirty player character creation
Here’s the shortest way to make up an Zounds! char-
acter.
1. Think of what kind of character you’d want to play
that fits the tone and setting.
2. Pick the closest match to that character in the Ex-
ample Characters.
3. Keep all the numerical values of that sample
character. For each descriptive phrase on the
sample character sheet, replace it with a phrase
of the same general category that describes the
character you have in mind.
Outline
If no sample character is a close match, or you want
to have complete control over character generation,
you can follow these steps instead. This is an overview,
with details in subsequent sections. Steps:
1. Decide on a Concept. Pick a concept for your
character. Brawny barbarian out to carve a
place in history? Aged wizard studying arcane
lore? Charming rogue seeking a life of adventure
and intrigue? Devout priest saving the innocent
and spreading the word of God? This is the most
important step, and one where you might want
to consult the other players and the GM, so play-
ers are matching in tone and consistent with the
setting.
2. Fill in a Template. Templates in Zounds! reflect
the character’s role in the game, as well as their
11
Outline
abilities. So your concept should pretty much
determine which template to use: Adventurer
(few amazing combat powers, but extraordinarily
skillful and brave), Hero (trained combatant),
Wise One (researches new magic and has
knowledge of the setting’s arcane lore), Unique
(one-of-a-kind supernatural creature), or any of a
number of templates that the GM has designed
for standard fantasy creatures in her setting.
For example, PCs might be Erika Blood-axe
(Hero); Erika’s best friend and lover Arisia (Elf,
one of the standard fantasy creatures of the
setting); Carl the Halfway-Clever, a soldier of
fortune (Adventurer); Foucault, an apprentice
mage (Wise One); and Tira, a pixie (Unique).
Once you’ve found the right Template for your
concept, fill in the blanks in the Template with
descriptions of your character’s particular abilities
(and weaknesses). There are three kinds of things
needing descriptions at this point: Powers, Shticks,
and Restrictions. Each template has some slots
for Powers and Shticks, and some have places
for Restrictions. Powers are abilities that can be
used in or out of combat, Shticks are strictly non-
combat abilities, and Restrictions are limitations
on your character imposed by the character’s
magical nature, physical form, or membership in
an organization. The Template might have some
of these pre-defined, or give broad categories
they should fall into. Others will be completely up
to you to decide. Unless they are pre-defined by
the Template, you need to to define what they
are and how they work.
For example, the Adventurer template has a
“defensive power”, but you can define this as
a psychological ploy to “Keep ’em Talking”
until help arrives, “Don’t Attract Attention” where
creatures ignore your presence, Luck, Athleticism,
Danger sense, Invisibility, Magic Shield, or what-
ever ability of that general type best suits your
character concept. On the other hand, an Elf
template might gives all Elves the same Archery
and Glamour powers. These do not need to be
defined, the template already specifies what
they do.
Powers and Shticks descriptions are free-form;
there is no fixed list of possibilities. They have
numerical ratings that tell how effective they
are when used, but it’s up to you to determine
what they are, and how and when they can
be used. Restrictions are completely binding on
your character, so they are not given numerical
ratings. E.g., No matter how powerful an Elf is, iron
renders it helpless, period.
3. Spend your Boosts. You then have a certain num-
ber of “Boosts” to spend on your character, usu-
1. S TEPS TO C REATING A C HARACTER FOR Z OUNDS !

ally 3. These increase your character’s abilities.

Each Boost can be spent for one of the following:

a) Add one to one of the four Attributes: Tough-

ness, Stamina, Will, and Actions.
b) Increase one power by 1 level or give it a
small Advantage. 2 Boosts give it a big Ad-
vantage.
c) Increase two Shticks by 1 level each, or one
Shtick by 2 levels.
d) Add one new Power. The starting level is
given in your template.
e) Add two new Shticks at the starting level in
your template, or one Shtick at one higher
level.
f) Get a Major Asset (Companion, Quarters,
Mount, or Vehicle). You can then spend ad- using the Adventurer template have the option
ditional Boosts to improve these. of picking 4 minor complications instead.
g) Get three Minor Assets (Contacts, Equip- 7. Flesh out your character. Now add colorful details
ment, Favors, Perks, Rank,Wealth). that make your character more lifelike. There are
a few mechanical decisions to be made here,
4. Adjust Abilities (Powers and Shticks). You can ad-
but mostly this is you thinking through what your
just your Abilities further by reducing the effective-
character’s life is really like. For example, is your
ness of certain aspects of the Power or Shtick in
character affiliated with any organization or al-
order to increase its Level or take some Advan-
liance of similar characters even if it’s not a full-
tages on it. Every Small Disadvantage you put
fledged Initiation or Complication, e.g., as a vas-
on an Ability gives you one Boost to spend on
sal to a noble, or a pious member of a church? If
Advantages for that particular Ability or to raise
so, what is their role in the association? Give your
its Level; every Big Disadvantage gives you two
character some back-story, and think about her
Boosts. Similarly, for each Level you lower the Abil-
day-to-day life. What causes her to brave dan-
ity you get an additional Boost to spend on that
gers and the unknown, rather than holding down
Ability. You can’t trade Boosts from one Ability to
a safe unadventurous job? (Assuming such jobs
spend on another. Modifying an Ability this way
exist in the campaign setting; in a war-torn world
doesn’t affect how many total Boosts you have,
every day might be a struggle for survival no mat-
so doesn’t change how much XP you need for a
ter who you are.) Write down the basic motiva-
new Boost.
tion as a Drive. Think about your character’s ap-
5. Choose Initiations (optional). If a character is Ini- pearance. How does your character appear to
tiated into an organization, the character gets others? What image do they project? Write down
special abilities or assets bestowed by that initi- a short description. If you are artistic, you could
ation in return for certain Restrictions placed on even draw a picture of your character, or find a
the character. What organizations are available suitable image on the Internet.
for characters to be Initiates of, with what special
abilities and restrictions, are decided on by the
GM as part of the setting, though the players can
certainly make suggestions, as with any feature of
the setting. Common ones might be an Initiate of
a particular church, or member of a thieves guild.

6. Pick Complications. All protagonists have life is-

sues that complicate their attempts to achieve
their goals. If you’re a vassal of a local lord
and he sends you on missions, or if you suffer
from claustrophobia in human cities because you
were raised by Wood Elves, that’s a Complica-
tion. Choose Complications that will provide con-
flict for your character, or make the conflicts that
much more interesting. Most characters pick one
major and two minor complications; characters
12
Chapter 2
Concept
While there are no fixed rules for picking a character
concept, there are a few issues to think about when
considering a possible character. A good way to gen-
erate a character concept is to modify a fictional
character you enjoy. But not every character that’s
fun to see or read about is fun to play. Some issues to
think about are:
• Does the character fit the tone of the game?
Playing a pure comic relief character is a very
serious game, or a melodramatic character in a
light-hearted game, can grow old quickly.
• Does the character have a distinctive personal-
ity? Would the other players be able to tell the dif-
ference between you playing this character and
you playing other characters?
• Does the character play well with others? Usually,
you’ll be playing as part of a team. Depending
on the tone of the setting, characters often have
dark secrets, personality flaws, and secret agen-
das that conflict with other characters. Some-
times they’re just not very nice, to each other or to
the rest of the world. But you can be a nasty per-
son and still a team player. In Lord of the Rings,
characters like Legolas and Gimli are shown in
conflict with each other. But they still function
as valuable members of the group. As long as
tension creates interplay between the PCs, it is
good. It is only when it blocks interaction that
it’s a problem. On the other hand, goody-goody
characters that everyone likes might actually be
bad for interesting team play. Will your charac-
ter have interesting, distinctive relationships with
the other PCs, having both friends and rivals on
the team? A team player character contributes
to group goals, but doesn’t overwhelm everyone
else’s contribution. Think about typical scenes
featuring your character. Where would others
fit in? If your character is always alone in these
scenes, always the star, or always on the sidelines,
you might want to revise the character.
• How does the character contribute to different
kinds of group activities? Fantasy will tend to have
a different balance of activities than many other
13
genres such as Magic fiction or super-heroics.
Much time will tend to be spent dealing with the
hazards of traveling and exploring the unknown,
negotiation and interacting with NPCs, and com-
bat, and relatively less doing commerce, deal-
ing with large bureaucracies, or inventing new
technology. Characters may still spend a fair
amount of adventures investigating mysteries in
the broadest sense, without directly trying to solve
crimes. Try to make sure that your character has
a role to play in all of the these.
In fantasy you are often exploring the totally un-
known. Investigation and exploration is a large
part of the game, uncovering what hazards
and creatures are around, whether you must
fight them, bypass them, or even incorporate it
into your plans in order to achieve your goals.
Zounds! is very flexible, and you don’t have to
be a ranger, scholar, or have magical powers
like telepathy to help in investigations and explo-
ration. Maybe you know a lot of people. Maybe
you have good looks or unusual senses. Maybe
you just intimidate people into divulging the key
information.
Not every being you encounter will be a foe,
nor will every foe be defeatable. Negotiation is
about identifying and agreeing on common in-
terests with beings that are suspicious of you. This
is particularly important when dealing with repre-
sentatives of larger groups, such as organizations
like guilds, churches, noble houses, or members of
non-human races. Brute force might escalate un-
til the whole organization is up against your group.
Again, you don’t have to be a trained diplomat
to contribute to negotiations. Maybe you are po-
litically connected yourself, or maybe you can of-
fer your unique services as a bargaining chip.
Finally, combat is about kicking enemy butt.
Zounds!’s flexibility means that you can contribute
to your group’s combat success in a host of ways,
not just as an armored knight or with magical
powers. Your adventurer’s attitude might make
more of a difference than the hero’s big sword. If
you can think of ways to combine your abilities
with others’, you can supplement their combat
2. C ONCEPT

power. This can be as simple as distracting a foe

while they attack. You can also help by assisting
teammates to recover from attacks.
• How well can you portray this character? Some-
times a character that you love to watch isn’t a
character that you want to play. If it’s important
that your character is non-human, can you give it
non-human beliefs and desires, at least from time
to time so that it’s more than just a human with
pointy ears? Can you be as nasty as your PC, or
are you a softy at heart? Do you really want to
brood all the time, or do you burst if you can’t
crack wise?

14
Chapter 3
Filling In The Templates
The Templates
All Templates start with 3 Boosts to spend, plus any
Bonus Boosts. Bonus Boosts don’t count towards the
character’s starting Boosts when it comes to calculat-
ing XP necessary to earn a new Boost.
Adventurer
Adventurers need not have any magical abili-
ties or specialized combat training, just courage,
skill, and subtlety. They are often the main focus of
fantasy settings, bearing the one ring, exploring
new lands, and generally getting in trouble that it
takes their wits and luck to get out of.
Toughness: 2, Stamina: 2, Will: 2, Actions: 2
Defense Power: One defensive power @ 6. Ac-
tive or automatic (choose one). Examples: Keep
‘em Talking, Luck, Great Reflexes.
Combat Skill: One power @ 4
Shticks: 6 Shticks @ 5
New Powers begin @ 4 New Shticks begin @ 5
Hero
The Hero is a trained combatant, whether us-
ing arms and armor, magic, or some combina-
tion; the hero might be a great warrior, or have
a signature magical item such as a sword, or an
innate power such as being able to transform into
an animal, or training in magical spells that are
quick and reliable enough to use during the heat
of combat.
Toughness: 3, Stamina: 2, Will: 2, Actions: 2
Powers: Three powers @ 5. Typically, an of-
fensive skill or weapon, a defensive skill or de-
vice, and some other power such as a movement
power.
Shticks: 4 Shticks @ 4
Bonus Boost: You have one extra Boost to
spend. This does not add to your character’s num-
ber of Boosts for experience purposes.
New powers begin @ 5 New Shticks begin @ 4
15
Wise One
Wise ones are trained in the magic of the set-
ting, including the principles of developing new
spells that go beyond what is currently known.
While there is little they absolutely cannot do in
extending and applying the magic of the setting,
they are at your strongest when they combine
their magical abilities with specific knowledge of
the problems they are attempting to solve.
Toughness: 2, Stamina: 2, Will: 3, Actions: 2
Magic! Choose one of three possibilities:
• Magic! @ 5 (d6, d4), (A) Flexible, (A) Cus-
tomizable, (A) Power-up to: 7 (d8, d6);
• Magic! @ 6 (d6, d6), (A) Flexible, (AA) Power-
up to: 7 (d8, d6), and Customizable;
• Magic! @ 7 (d8, d6), (A) Power-up to: (A) Cus-
tomizable and (A) Flexible.
For all choices, you get the Power-up by Research-
ing a new or improved spell for 3 scenes. See Re-
search.
Magical defense: A magical defense power @
4. (A) Flexible. Choose whether Active or Auto-
matic.
Shticks: Choose 2 Shticks @ 4, plus Arcane Re-
search @ 5.
Restriction: Pick a Restriction that is tied in with
your brand of Magic! Do you need blood sam-
ples to cast spells on? Are you a necromancer,
with not even rudimentary knowledge of healing?
Must you do all your research in your own alchem-
ical lab with its specialized equipment or a library
full of arcane tomes? You should design your re-
striction so that it gives your approach to Magic
a unique flavor, and makes it seem less like wishes
where anything is possible. You should work out
the Restriction with the GM so it fits the setting and
tone; many settings will have additional Restric-
tions that apply to all magic, or only to certain
kinds.
New Powers begin @ 5 New Shticks begin @ 4
3. F ILLING I N T HE T EMPLATES
Unique
Rare, possibly one-of-a-kind, beings; they may
be non-human or non-living, or versions of a stan-
dard creature, but somehow made unique by a
freak event, such as a non-human raised by hu-
mans and with a thoroughly human outlook on life
despite looking vastly different or having bizarre
powers, or a golem who unlike others of its kind
has become self-willed.
Toughness: 2, Stamina: 2, Will: 2, Actions: 2
Powers: 2 powers @ 6 (d6,d6).
Shticks: 2 Shticks @ 3 (d4, d2).
Bonus Boosts: Add three bonus Boosts. These
do not add to starting Boosts for the purpose of
experience.
Restriction: Pick any restriction.
New Powers begin @ 6 New Shticks begin @ 3
Initiations
In addition to the Templates, which cover the basic
approaches to adventuring, Zounds! allows you to fur-
ther customize your character and emphasize its ties
to the setting with Initiations. A character who un-
dergoes Initiation joins a particular organization within
the setting or pledges herself to some power, in return
for which the character gains certain specific Abili-
ties or Assets and takes on certain Restrictions. These
amount to a “package deal”, you can’t pick and
choose among the Abilities or Restrictions. What Ini-
tiations there are in the setting, and what they grant
and require are up to the GM. Examples:
Guardsman Initiation
Powers: Guard Training @ whatever power level
new powers start in your Template.
Assets: Legal Authority Perk; can make legal ar-
rests, and call upon law enforcement for aid.
Restrictions: Subject to legal superiors, must ob-
serve legal niceties. (Temporal: violation causes
you to be stripped of your authority)
Paladin Initiation
Attributes: +1 Toughness, +1 Will
Powers: Blessed @ whatever power level new
power start in your Template. automatic defense
Restrictions: Must uphold the right. Must aid
those in distress. Must be pure. (Supernatural: vi-
olation causes the Blessed to cease, and a curse
such as madness or werewolfism to be placed on
you.)
16
The rules for creating new Initiations are in the in the
Game Mastering section. See New Initiations.
Non-humans in Zounds!
There are several different approaches you could
take to playing an non-human character in Zounds!
You could make your non-human race a Shtick or a
Power, use the Unique Template, or use an entirely
new Template specific to that non-human race in
the setting. Which approach you use depends on
how much your character concept focuses on be-
ing a representative member of that non-human race
vs. it being background flavor while other aspects of
your character such as chosen profession take cen-
ter stage. Two players might both be members of
the same kind of non-human and take different ap-
proaches to designing their characters depending on
what they want to emphasize. One might choose the
Hero Template and making the fact he is a Dwarf just
one of his four Shticks; the other might make his non-
human status central to his character concept by us-
ing the Dwarf Template devised by the GM and rel-
egating his status as captain of the guard to one of
that Template’s slots for Shticks.
Here’s an example non-human character tem-
plate. Other examples of templates for typical fantasy
creatures are found in Non-human templates. Before
using a non-human template ask your GM if that crea-
ture is allowed as a PC and whether the GM has al-
tered the template for her setting. The GM may also
have created new non-human templates for the set-
ting, so ask about other possibilities. (The rules for cre-
ating new templates are in Game Mastering.)
Non-human
Toughness: 2, Will: 2, Stamina: 2, Actions: 2
Powers: 3 Powers @ 6 (d6, d6) If suitable, you can
add Advantages and Disadvantages to each
power. Each small advantage decreases the level
1, big by 2, small Disadvantages increase it 1, big
Disadvantages increase by 2.
Shticks: 2 Shticks @ 3 (d4) or 4 (d4, d4) if they fit
the stereotype
New Powers: Start at 6 if they fit the stereotype,
4 otherwise. For example, Mind Meld be an op-
tional Space-Elf power. It won’t be part of the
starting template, but if the player adds it, it starts
at 6 rather than 4.
New Shticks: Start at 4 if they fit the stereotype,
3 otherwise
Restrictions: Any number of restrictions. Pool
similar or minor restrictions together.
Power Boosts: For each restriction, add one
power @ 6 to the template, increase one attribute
1, or increase one power by 1.

Describing Abilities
Once you’ve picked a Template, you fill out the Tem-
plate with specific Abilities (Powers and Shticks) ac-
cording to your concept. You give each ability slot
in the template a name, and a brief description. Al-
though they don’t change the mechanics of using
the abilities this free-form description really determines
what the ability is. Throughout the game you’ll be
able to use the ability precisely when the game situ-
ation matches what the description fits. While some
abilities might seem more limited than others, the
challenge is to provide creative justifications for the
ability being useful. So, for example, if your power
is Strength it cannot be used directly at a distance.
This doesn’t need to be spelled out or compensated
for; it’s implicit in the notion of physical strength. But
that doesn’t mean that you can never use the power
in a ranged attack, just that you need to use it indi-
rectly. You can say you are using your Strength to pick
up a large object and hurl it at your foe, or to cause
the awning they are under to collapse by knocking
away a support pole, or to intimidate them by a dis-
play of violence. In any of these ways you use your
17
Describing Abilities
Strength you resolve your degree of success using the
same mechanics and the same dice. Your free-form
descriptions tell you when and how you can use your
abilities. Then the mechanics indicate whether you
succeed and by how much.
Powers vs. Shticks
Abilities come in two forms: Powers and Shticks. Any-
thing that can be used to attack and defend in com-
bat is a Power, even if it may have other uses. Any-
thing that can’t typically be used to hurt somebody
or defend yourself against being hurt is a Shtick. The
same sort of Ability might be a Power for one charac-
ter and a Shtick for another, depending on how the
player sees themselves using the Ability in the game.
While the name Powers suggests superhuman abil-
ities, in Zounds! Powers are a generic term for any
kind of Ability that can be used to attack or defend
against attacks. So training with a sword is a Power,
as is the Ability to lie convincingly, since it can be
used to prevent an enemy from attacking you. On
the other hand, maybe your Ability to empathically
“discern lies” is a Shtick, rather than a Power, since
3. F ILLING I N T HE T EMPLATES
it would almost never be used to attack or defend
in combat. Even something like Occult Lore, which
would normally be a Shtick that takes minutes or hours
to use effectively could be a Power if you envision it
being fast and effective enough to, say, seize control
of golems as they’re attacking you and have them
fight on your side instead. Note that sometimes the
Primary Rule would imply that a Shtick could be used
to defend yourself. E.g. if a creature had a Power to
create illusions that it uses to lure people into danger,
an Ability to “Empathically Discern Lies” would be a
plausible defense, even if it had been characterized
as a Shtick.
Powers can also be used outside of combat. For
example, you could have “Keen Sense of Smell” as
a Power or a Shtick. Either way, you could use the
Ability to sniff out an assassin hiding in a room or track
someone through the woods, but you can only use
it directly to give you a defense against an invisible
attacker if it is a Power.
Customizing Abilities
You can customize your abilities with Advantages, Dis-
advantages and Restrictions, however the main thing
that makes your abilities unique is the free-form de-
scription, and you don’t need to spell out the con-
sequences in terms of any mechanics. If your Power is
Flame Blast, then it goes without saying that this power
doesn’t work in water or in a vacuum, and it might be
dangerous to use in a scriptorium full or manuscripts
and scrolls. On the other hand, it also goes without
saying that you can also use the Power to light up a
dark room or to provide warmth if the party is caught
in a blizzard.
If you described your Power as Psychic Flames in-
stead of physical flames, and specify that it cre-
ates an illusion in enemies minds that convinces them
they’re burning, then although it will usually work just
like a Flame Blast, there’s no reason it shouldn’t work
under water. You likely won’t be able to light things
on fire with it, or light up a room, but physical armor
would probably provide no defense. All of these ad-
vantages and disadvantages are implicit in the de-
scription, and do not need to be “bought.”
If a Power has an especially wide range of appli-
cations, particularly if you can use it not only as an
attack and defense, but also to move things around,
manipulate them, influence their actions and so forth
you should take the FlexibleAdvantage on the Power.
In addition there are two mechanical variations
on Powers that are neither Advantages or Disadvan-
tages: Movement Powers and Automatic Powers.
Movement powers
Movement Powers primarily let you move around.
They may also be used to attack or defend when that
makes sense, e.g., using fly to ram into a foe, or su-
per speed to dodge arrows. Movement Powers do
18
not take an Action to use if they are used for move-
ment; if you use them for anything else they take an
Action and only get to roll one die (the larger die). Like
any other regular Ability, you cannot use it more than
once a round, so you cannot use a Movement power
both to move and attack or defend. Without a Move-
ment power you can still move in combat, but it will
take an Action to move any significant distance, and
you’ll be at a disadvantage if you’re trying to move
while anything else is interfering with it, such as ani-
mated skeletons grabbing at your ankles or the heav-
ing of a ship’s deck making it difficult to walk.
Automatic powers
Automatic powers are used in response to a certain
kind of action. They can be used multiple times in
a round, and do not require an Action to use. On
the other hand, they cannot normally be used at
will, unless you can force the trigger condition to be
met. What those conditions are and what the Power
does (whether it’s an attack, a defense, or move-
ment) should be clear from the description. An Au-
tomatic Power must be either for Attack or Defense,
not both, and to have an attack be automatic is an
Advantage. For instance, Armor could be an au-
tomatic Defense that would be used whenever you
were physically attacked. Flame Body could be auto-
matic Attack that would be used whenever you were
grabbed. Automatic Defenses defend against every
appropriate incoming attack, automatic Offenses at-
tack everyone who meets the proper conditions. If
using a Power triggers an Automatic Power, the Au-
tomatic Power Combines with the first Power, giving
it a +1. For example, if you use your Super-Strength
to grab someone, your Flame Body automatic attack
would always combine with it. You roll the dice for
Super-Strength, but add 1 to the result for the Flame
Body. If you use Super-Strength to throw something at
someone, Flame Body wouldn’t apply, so you would
get no bonus. Automatic Defenses cannot be hin-
dered or disabled unless they have the Can Be Hin-
dered Disadvantage.
What Counts as a Power?
There are often several possible ways to divide your
abilities up into powers. If you can magically cause
people to sleep, find you persuasive, or become con-
fused, do you want these to be three separate pow-
ers or one power called Charm? If you have a suit of
magical armor that increases your strength, provides
you protection from blows, lets you fly, breathe under
water or turn invisible, you could have one (Flexible)
Power “Magic Armor” or five separate Powers your ar-
mor gives you. The difference is that with the first op-
tion you could use at most one of your armor’s powers
each round, but with the second you could poten-
tially use your armor in five different ways each round
(if you have enough Actions).
 Mechanics for Abilities

You do not need to purchase Powers that are for sensitive hearing, can be hurt by high pitched noises”
“color” rather than for combat advantage. Your char- then a Shtick such as Opera Singer could be used as
acter could light a pipe or a lantern with a glance an attack by describing how you sing an E above high
without a special power, if you choose. Only buy it C.
as a Power if you plan to be able to use it to distract
a foe in combat. Powers generally take a matter of
seconds to use. If you want an Ability that takes a Mechanics for Abilities
longer amount of time to use, particularly if it takes
Each power has a numerical rating, which determines
long enough that it would be difficult to accomplish
two dice to roll when using your Ability. Sometimes
it while in combat, it is probably better to buy it as a
there is also a fixed number to add in to one or both
Shtick instead. If the Power you have in mind isn’t ac-
dice. When you use your Ability, you roll both kinds
tually directly useful, it is probably better to treat it as
of dice, and add in the modifier if any. You take the
color and not list it as a power. For example, a were-
higher of the two as your result. If the Ability is oppos-
wolf can change into a wolf, but what makes that use-
ing another character’s Ability, they do the same, and
ful is that the wolf form has claws and fangs, a superior
the bigger value is the one who succeeds; the differ-
sense of smell, and regenerates. On the other hand,
ence determines how big the success was. If some-
you cannot go through life as a wolf, because it’s hard
one succeeds on an attack against you, you are usu-
to turn doorknobs. So you don’t have to list “Shift into
ally Hindered. That means that you only roll the larger
wolf form” as a power; instead, “Only usable in wolf
die when you use a power, until you or someone else
form” would be minor Disadvantages on some of your
takes an action to free you from the hindering effect.
powers, such as “Claws and Fangs”.
The table describes what dice correspond to what
It is assumed that given enough time and resources,
power levels.
without distractions or opposition, a magic user can
You only roll an uncontested Ability if it is not abso-
do pretty much anything the setting’s magic will al-
lutely clear that you could use the Ability for that pur-
low. If you are not a magic user, you may know one
pose, or if you have reason to care whether it takes
you can bribe, beguile, seduce, or intimidate. Thus
several tries or extra time and effort to succeed; if you
you can accomplish all kinds of stuff in downtime with-
have all the time in the world, just assume that you
out needing a separate power listed on your sheet. If
would get the maximum that you could roll on the
the setting’s magic allows you to regrow somebody’s
dice and go from there.
full body as long as you save the head, you don’t
Roll the two dice listed and take the higher result. In
have to list that as a Power, you just have to justify how
Zounds! you never add the dice together.
you manage to get access to the appropriate facili-
ties to resurrect your injured companions. Just make
sure that the GM and players agree whether the set- PL Dice PL Dice
ting includes such powerful magic, or if it comes with 2 1 point 13 d8+5, d12
a price, and that your descriptions of your downtime 3 single d4 14 d8+5, d8+5
activities are consistent with your character concept.
4 d4, d4 15 d10+5, d8+5
Your downtime activities will also be fodder for GM
5 d6, d4 16 d10+5, d10+5
plots, so abuse of this rule will often backfire on you.
6 d6, d6 17 d12+5, d10+5
7 d8, d6 18 d12+5, d12+5
What Counts as a Shtick? 8 d8, d8 19 d8+10, d12+5
9 d10, d8 20 d8+10, d8+10
Anything that cannot plausibly be used on its own for
10 d10, d10 21 d10+10, d8+10
attacking or defending is a Shtick. Many Shticks are
11 d12, d10 22 d10+10, d10+10
used to do research and gather information, to oper-
12 d12, d12 23 d12+10, d10+10
ate and repair equipment, to influence other charac-
ters in social situations, or to enhance Powers in com-
bat. Note that the Power Levels follow an easy to re-
Note that Shticks can be used in Combination with member pattern up to 12. At even levels you use two
Powers to attack or defend, as long as it makes sense dice of the same size, and that size matches the level
according to the Primary Rule, e.g. although your (Power Level 4 is d4, d4; Power Level 6 is d6, d6; Power
“Keen Sense of Smell” Shtick is not itself a defense Level 8 is d8, d8...). Odd levels have one die of the
against an invisible attacker, you can Combine it with next higher level and one of the next lower (Power
a Power such as “Catlike Reflexes” to give yourself a Level 5 is a d6 and a d4, Power Level 7 is a d8 and a
+1 against an invisible attacker. d6, Power Level 9 is a d10 and a d8...). It gets a tiny bit
Under unusual circumstances the Primary Rule may trickier once you get past d12: past d12 the dice go
dictate that a Shtick actually be used directly to at- d8+5, d10+5, d12+5, d8+10, d10+10, and so on. How-
tack or defend; usually this is the result of the tar- ever, since at any given Scope the Powers and Shticks
get having a Restriction or Complication that makes begin at around PL 4-6, it will be quite a while before
this possible. If a creature has the Restriction “Ultra- that becomes an issue.
19
3. F ILLING I N T HE T EMPLATES

Research fect, such as “Shrink giant insects” or “paralyze were-

creatures.” While you should be researching during
The Wise One’s Magic! Power is slightly special, in that this time, that doesn’t mean you can’t participate in
it starts off as a slightly weaker power and can be up- scenes. You can put down your tools and fight the
graded during the course of an adventure by doing creature attacking you in the lab, or go out to the
Research into the nature of whatever the PCs are fac- scene of the attacks and collect samples.
ing in order to tailor the power specifically to what’s
currently necessary. There are three variations:
• Starting with a low (PL 5) Flexible, Customizable
power that can be re-arranged to do most any-
thing and can Power Up through Research to a
higher level;
• Starting with medium (PL 6) Flexible power that
can Power Up to full power and Customizable.
• Starting with a high (PL 7) Power that has one spe-
cific use and can Power Up to Flexible and Cus-
tomizable;
In all three variations, the procedure for doing Re-
search remains the same: you must, over the course
of the adventure, engage in three separate scenes
that revolve around your character and your allies
doing the necessary Research into the magical item
or spell you’re trying to create, using your Research
Shtick. In most cases the Research Shtick should work
without a roll. If a roll is required because the player is
unsure whether their type of Magic really can accom-
plish what they’re aiming to do (say a wizard whose
powers operate on emotions is trying to research a
spell to deactivate a golem), the GM should assign a
difficulty based on the power level of the target; if the
roll fails, the Wise One can’t try again in that scene,
and will have to come up with some other approach
to moving the research forward or a different sort of
spell.
For instance, you might have a scene where you
and possibly your allies are using the wizard’s ancient
tomes to identify the creature attacking the dwarves;
a scene where you go to the mine where the dwarves
were attacked to recover creature’s ichor that the
potion requires; and a scene where you use the al-
chemist’s lab and that ichor to create a potion ca-
pable of paralyzing the creature. The exact nature of
the scenes should be determined during play, through
the players and GM deciding what’s plausible given
what’s been going on so far, rather than a cookie-
cutter approach: wizard’s library, ichor, alchemist’s
lab. It’s justifying what your character is doing as an
occasion to employ the Research Shtick; the require-
ment that there be three such scenes and that the
scenes be different is just to prevent every adventure
from turning into a wait while the Wise One character
hangs around in the alchemist’s lab until the potion is
ready.
When you perform three successful scenes in which
you are doing research (scenes where the focus is re-
search and you score a success with your Research
Shtick if necessary), your device is ready, and you an-
nounce what it does. It should be one very specific ef-
20
Chapter 4
Advantages, Disadvantages and Restrictions
Advantages are aspects that make a Ability more
useful, and Disadvantages are things that makes it less
useful. For instance if a Ability is exceptionally Flexible
so that multiple things can be justified according to
the Primary Rule, that’s an Advantage; if a Ability has
a more limited use than normal, for instance it can
only be used to defend against cold-based attacks,
that’s a Disadvantage. There are both Big and Small
Advantages and Disadvantages (labeled AA and A,
or DD and D), and their effects on a Ability are cumu-
lative. A Small Advantage on a Ability costs one Boost,
a Big Advantage costs 2, a Small Disadvantage gives
you an extra Boost to spend on that Ability, and a Big
Disadvantage gives you two extra Boosts on that Abil-
ity (you may not take a Disadvantage on a Ability in
order to get Boosts to spend on some other Ability or
Attribute).
Advantages:
Advantages represent some quality of the Ability that
makes it more useful. You should only give the Ability
an advantage if it represents a significant increase in
the Ability. Many little side effects that might be ad-
vantageous under some circumstances are already
covered by the description. For instance, if you have
a Poison Gas Ability it isn’t necessary to take Exotic
even though it’s implied that something like a Shield
or Tough Hide wouldn’t be useful as a defense. Other
fairly common Abilities like Life Support or Immunity
to Poison would clearly stop the Ability altogether,
while still others would depend on how they were de-
scribed as being used (e.g., using Reflexes to jump
out of the way, or Control Wind to blow it away) and
so would get to roll for defense. Exotic would be re-
quired for something like Magical Curse, or Time stop,
since it’s quite difficult to reason through whether it’s
at all plausible for Reflexes or an ordinary shield to in-
terfere. Note that this depends largely on how you
choose to define the Ability: if you define it so that
Magical Curse would have to roll against so simple a
thing as dodging with Reflexes or Acrobatics, or be
completely negated by Armor or Rocky Hide, then
you wouldn’t need to justify it with the Exotic Advan-
tage. (AA) indicates a Big Advantage; (A) a Small
Advantage.
21
Armor-Piercing (A) Armor is treated as 1 PL lower
when defending against this power (if the Armor
is Equipment rather than a Power, it goes down by
2 die-sizes).
Area Effect (AA) The Ability affects all targets (friend
or foe) in an area at full power, without needing
to split it. Number affected is still limited by the
Power Level.
Area Effect, lesser (A) The Ability affects one chosen
target at full power, and some additional nearby
targets (friend or foe) at reduced power (one
die each). Number affected is still limited by the
Power Level.
Bare Handed (A) The Ability doesn’t require any
equipment as part of its narration; it gets both
dice regardless. Without this advantage, any
Ability, even Boxing, Martial Arts or Magic, as-
sumes that you have to narrate your use of the
Ability with equipment or scenery at hand and
you are at a disadvantage if you have to fight
completely bare-handed.
Control (AA) an Out with this Power will allow you to
control the actions of the target until the Out is
broken, at the cost of 1 Action per Round. Merely
Hindering the target with a Control Power will let
you force the target to take a single Action in the
target’s Turn; this will use one of the target’s Ac-
tions and one of the target’s Abilities (if required)
before the target regains control; if the target is
Hindered by some previous attack, he or she will
not break free of the Hindrance first unless that’s
the command, instead the Action commanded
will be taken while still Hindered.
Customizable (A) you can change the description of
the Ability by spending a scene doing Research,
as appropriate to the Ability given the Primary
Rule.
Delayed (A) the effect of the Ability doesn’t occur
until either a specified event or a certain amount
of time has elapsed. You could use this Advan-
tage to create a bomb, or set a trip-wire, or use a
4. A DVANTAGES , D ISADVANTAGES AND R ESTRICTIONS
Power with the Control Advantage to give some-
body a post-hypnotic suggestion (though in the
latter case you would need the Subtle Advan-
tage as well or the target would know about it).
Exotic (AA) An Exotic attack can’t be defended
against by ordinary Abilities, so targets use the
Default Skill instead. E.g., A mystic curse or psy-
chic bolt can’t be usually be stopped by armor or
dodging. Exotic attacks must define a fairly broad
class of circumstances that automatically negate
them (e.g., any magical defense, any unusual
metabolism, Abilities being Based on technology,
being a non-magical creature, etc). In addition,
Defenses which are Flexible should get their nor-
mal roll unless there’s clearly no way they could
help. Things like poison gas or blinding flashes
of light are not Exotic, in and of themselves, be-
cause ordinary Powers or even Shticks (such as
having Life Support built into your suit, or Lightning
Reflexes to close your eyes) could justify a defense
roll if they don’t negate the Power completely.
You may have only one Exotic Power, unless all
your Exotic Powers are negated by the same cir-
cumstances.
Flexible (A) The Ability can justify a wide range of ef-
fects (e.g., magical powers). Whether a Ability
should be counted as Flexible or not is up to the
player; generally a Power that’s mostly used for at-
tacking or defending, with occasional use for ex-
tra things that directly follow from its nature (such
as a fireball igniting flammable material) doesn’t
need the Flexible Advantage even if it can take
many forms, such as a lightning bolt, a ball of
lightning, grabbing someone to shock them, and
so on; a Ability that’s intended to be used to do
many things beside simple attack and defense,
such as picking up objects, holding things, fenc-
ing them off, gathering or concealing information,
and the like should be given the Flexible Advan-
tage. You should pick as many distinct things that
the power can do as the Power Level.
Larger Scope (AA) The Ability operates one Scope
higher than normal; this doesn’t change the
Power Level, even when used versus targets at
the normal Scope, it merely changes the interpre-
tation of the Ability in terms of things like weight,
speed, area, range, etc.
Persistent (AA) The Ability will remain in effect as long
as you spend your entire turn maintaining it, and
no external force interferes.
Power-up (A) The power level can be increased, un-
der some circumstances, or at a cost or risk. Pick
a Big Disadvantage, and a way of spending two
Boosts on the Ability (e.g., +2 power level, one
Large Advantage, 2 Small Advantages, or +1 level
and a Small Advantage) The Ability can be used
22
at the higher level if the character takes the Dis-
advantage for that use. If the Disadvantage af-
fects future uses of the Ability, e..g, Burnout, it af-
fects the entire Ability, not just the power-up. It
must be a Disadvantage that makes sense for a
single use.
Subtle (A) It’s not obvious that the Ability is being
used, unless you have a Ability that grants you ap-
propriate senses. Telepathy or Mind Control are
typical Abilities that benefit from this Advantage,
but it could apply to something more prosaic, like
an invisible Sleep gas.
Disadvantages:
Disadvantages represent some Disadvantage that
makes the Ability less useful. Disadvantages shouldn’t
represent limitations an Ability would naturally have
given the Primary Rule. For instance, even though fire
requires oxygen and can only burn flammable mate-
rials, you wouldn’t take Circumstanced Limited to rep-
resent it not working without oxygen. Disadvantages
should be clearly distinct from the natural limitations
of the Ability.
(DD) indicates a Big Disadvantage; (D) is a Small Dis-
advantage.
Absorption (D) The Ability must be used as a defense
each time before it can be used for any other pur-
poses; in other words you must use it to absorb an
incoming attack in order to “Power it up.”
Automatic Can Be Hindered (DD) automatic de-
fenses are normally not affected by Hindering or
Disabling, but this Power is. Reduce it to one die
when you are Hindered.
Burn Out (DD) If you roll a Mishap the Ability works
this time but burns out and can’t be used again;
restoring the Ability can only be done by applica-
tion of some suitable other Ability or being out of
combat for a scene (e.g., by using Dwarven Smith
to fix Magical Armor, or by returning to your Quar-
ters to repair it).
Combination Difficult (D) Cannot be combined with
your own Abilities.
Combination Impossible (DD) Cannot be combined
with any other Abilities.
Delayed (D) The Ability goes off one turn after the Ac-
tion is spent.
Disabling Only (DD) The Power can only be used to
Disable other Powers (e.g., a Power that drained
magic powers).
Easily Disabled (D) The Ability is easy to disable; when
targeted, it defends itself with only one die. Cap-
tain Patriot’s shield is easier to take away or inter-
fere with than the Living Flame’s Fire Blasts, so he
takes it as Easily Disabled.

Equipment Required (D or DD) The Ability cannot op-
erate without equipment, e.g. Archery, assuming
you need a bow to shoot, or Blacksmith, which
requires a forge or at least a hammer. Any equip-
ment that can plausibly be used according to
the Primary Rule satisfies this Disadvantage; if you
need unique equipment (e.g. a weapon that’s
been magically attuned to you in a ceremony),
then it’s a Big Disadvantage (DD).
Automatic Can be Disabled (D) automatic defenses
normally are only reduced to a single die when
Disabled (how do you render somebody’s rocky
skin completely ineffective?), but this Power can
be interfered with as if it were a Regular Power in-
stead; e.g., if Captain Patriot took his Shield as a
automatic Defense (so he can use it to defend
without having to spend an Action), ordinarily at-
tackers couldn’t totally Disable it at all. Since that
doesn’t make complete sense (if they physically
take it away, how would he still defend with it?)
he takes as automatic Can be Disabled meaning
when somebody can Disable it as if it were a Reg-
ular Power. automatics that Can Be Disabled still
roll both dice to resist.
Erratic (D) The Ability does nothing when you roll a
Mishap.
Fragile (D) The Ability is hard to repair once disabled;
when an attempt is made to disable it, a Hinder
counts as Out, and Out means that the Ability
can’t be repaired without spending hours outside
of combat, possibly at a Quarters or lab with spe-
cial tools.
Ultra-Fragile (DD) The Ability is so hard to repair once
disabled that when an attempt is made to dis-
able it, a Hinder counts as the Ability being un-
able to be repaired without spending hours out-
side of combat, and Out means the Ability can’t
be repaired except by going on an adventure to
restore it, or spending 1 XP.
High Maintenance (D or DD) The Ability requires at
least one scene per session where you perform
maintenance, or it becomes in Disrepair (re-
duced by 1 die size, and has the Erratic Disad-
vantage). In a fantasy setting, maintenance can
mean care and feeding of animals, polishing and
repairing armor and weapons, religious or magi-
cal ceremonies, meditation and training, and not
just tinkering with tools. As a Big Disadvantage
either requires one scene per use, or is Disabled
rather than in Disrepair if left unmaintained.
Limited (D) The Ability can only be used when certain
conditions are met, which should occur about
half the time or when you can’t control the cir-
cumstances. E.g., a Ability that only works when
you have both hands free, or a automatic De-
fense that only works against impact attacks (be-
23
Disadvantages:
ing punched, hit with flying buildings, and so on,
but not lasers, fire, and the like).
Very Limited (DD) The Ability can only be used when
certain rare conditions are met, which should oc-
cur during the occasional adventure and not un-
der your control. E.g., Ability only works under wa-
ter in a campaign set on dry land, Ability only
works during a full moon, or a automatic Defense
that only works against cold-based attacks.
Requires Research (AA) using the Power requires 3 re-
search scenes; this is typically taken along with
Power Up, to produce the Wise One’s Magic!
Power.
Shots (D) The Ability has a fixed amount of “shots”
that gets expended; number of uses can be up
to about double the Power Level. The hero must
take active steps, such as returning to her Quar-
ters, in order to replenish it.
Side Effects (D or DD) Instead of doing nothing when
you roll a Mishap, something bad happens, such
as hitting an ally, or yourself. The GM decides the
exact effect when the roll occurs. The small ver-
sion does something strange, but probably not
dangerous.
Single-Action Defense (D) when used as an active
defense only defends against a single attack,
rather than throughout the round as normal.
Single Use (DD) The Ability can only be used once
per combat. Replenishes automatically between
combats (at least one scene doing something
else between combats).
Slow (D) The Ability takes 2 Actions to use.
Ultra-Slow (DD) The Ability takes 3 Actions to use.
Unpredictable (DD) The effect of the Ability is up to
the GM, not the player (though it still must be ben-
eficial).
A Note On Flexibility
Unlike some of the other Advantages, Flexible isn’t
very sharply defined. Having a Power that repre-
sented a variety of equivalent attacks that differ in
such minor things as whether they’re melee or ranged
or the exact flavor of damage, such as being armed
with a sword and a bow, or having a wand that can
blast fire, lightning, and a swarm of bees doesn’t re-
ally make the Power much more Flexible as long as
conceptually the powers do the same sorts of tasks,
such as damage targets.
It’s when the Ability can be either be altered on the
fly or has a number of completely distinct uses so that
it can take advantage of the Primary Rule to do a
wide variety of different tasks that it becomes an issue.
For instance, since a sword and a bow would in gen-
eral both be straightforward attacks there’s no need
4. A DVANTAGES , D ISADVANTAGES AND R ESTRICTIONS
to apply the Flexible Advantage to a Power that rep-
resents being able to wield both. On the other hand,
if your Power lets you switch between fighting with a
sword and lifting things via telekinesis or generating
illusions of scary monsters, that should be given the
Flexible Advantage to make up for being able to use
the Power in an especially wide set of circumstances.
Similarly if your Ability is a book of spells that con-
tains a bunch of different spells such as silence, heal-
ing, clairaudience, detect magic, and spirit light, that
would be represented by the Flexible Advantage.
The Flexible Advantage requires you to define what
it does in advance, and you should limit yourself to
no more than the Ability Level in different aspects at
once, so a spell book with five spells would require
PL 5. That doesn’t preclude using the Primary Rule
to come up with new clever uses for, say, spirit light,
such as trying to blind someone with it instead of il-
luminate the room, but it should preclude suddenly
inventing a new spell that’s just what you need for
the situation. Exactly how broad an aspect can be
should be negotiated between the GM and the play-
ers, but the intent is to have them be broad enough
that they don’t just follow from the Primary Rule (you
shouldn’t need to have a separate aspect to a fire-
based power to ignite paper or cast light), but nar-
row enough that having a Flexible power doesn’t ren-
der having other Powers moot. It should make perfect
sense for a sorceror to potentially want to have both
Necromancy and Elemental Magic as Flexible Powers,
or for a fighter to have both Brawling and Fencer.
If you take the Customizable Advantage you can
change what the power does by spending a scene in
Research, say by returning to your wizard’s library and
consulting your scrolls and grimoires; when you cus-
tomize your Ability in this manner you’re still limited in
the number of different aspects you have access to at
once. Your Primary Rule explanation of how customiz-
ing the Ability works should account for that, such as
by requiring special materials, equipment or prepara-
tion for each customized aspect.
Flexibility has no bearing on whether a Power goes
against Toughness, Stamina, or Will: that is deter-
mined by the Primary Rule description of how the
Power is being used. A Flame Bolt might be an at-
tack against Toughness if fired directly against a foe,
against Stamina if it were used to set a nearby pile
of hay on fire to create a choking cloud of smoke, or
even against Will if you were snapping off shots trying
to force the foes to keep under cover.
Whether to represent several different things that
you can do as a single Power with the Flexible Ad-
vantage or take several different Powers is a matter
of style. Since you can only use a Power once per
Round, if you envision using it two different ways in the
same Round, or it seems implausible to you that using
say, your magical armor’s protection from evil should
preclude you using it to deflect swords at the same
time, you should take the powers separately. Magic
users regardless of template may have more than one
24
flexible magic power to represent different types or
schools of magic that they know; each Flexible Power
gets its own list of aspects.
New Advantages and Disadvantages
The list of Advantages and Disadvantages is not ex-
haustive, and you can consult with the GM and other
players about new ones you’d like to add. Before
you do, though, you should consider whether it can
be handled by one of the existing ones, some of
which are quite broad, or by a Complication, or just
by applying the Primary Rule given how you imagine
the Power working. Zounds! discourages min-maxing
(tweaking characters to get the maximum effective-
ness for the minimum drawbacks), so before you add
a new Advantage or Disadvantage you should really
consider whether it’s necessary to capture the con-
cept of the Power and not just an excuse to be able
afford an extra Power or Advantage or to make the
Power useful out of all proportion to its Power Level.
One quick test is if you wouldn’t mind if the enemies
start employing the same Advantage or Disadvan-
tage on their Powers, it’s probably okay.
Mishaps
Some Disadvantages such as Erratic or Side-Effects
only trigger when the hero rolls a “Mishap” on an at-
tempt to use the power. Mishaps never occur outside
the context of these Disadvantages, so most of the
time you don’t have to consider it. Mishaps don’t oc-
cur if the use of the power doesn’t require a roll, unless
the Ability has the Frequent Mishaps Disadvantage.
If the power has such a Disadvantage then if a roll
on the power comes up doubles, that is a chance of
Mishap. Roll a d12 to see whether it’s a Mishap: if you
roll less than or equal to the die-size of the highest die,
then a Mishap has occurred and the Disadvantage
takes effect. E.g. a PL 5 (d6, d4) power has Burn-Out
as a Disadvantage: the player rolls 3, 3 which means
there’s a chance of a Mishap. She rolls a d12, and if
she gets a 6 or less the power burns out.
If a Power that can have a Mishap has been re-
duced to a single die, such as when you are Hindered,
a chance of Mishap occurs on a roll of 1.
Restrictions
Wise Ones and Uniques need to choose a Restriction;
Initiates will have Restrictions as part of their set-up. A
Wise One’s Restriction needs to tie into the Wise One’s
particular brand of magic: if the Wise One is addicted
to opium, say, it should be because opium is needed
to lower the barriers to the spirit realm and allow him
to perform magic, not that he happens to have be-
come addicted over the course of his travels and now
needs a regular fix or he can’t concentrate. A fixed
set of Restrictions will be part of the templates for most

non-human creatures. Restrictions should be severe
enough that they could be used to definite strate-
gic advantage by a foe that knows about you, while
not crippling your character for play. Below are sev-
eral kinds of restriction for inspiration; this is not meant
as a complete list, but suggests how severe restric-
tions ought to be. You can group minor restrictions
together, especially of the same kind, to make a more
serious restriction.
Addiction: You need a certain unusual substance or
activity to survive, or are compelled to seek it. If
you are deprived of this substance, you can be
distracted by its presence. This counts as being
hindered until you obtain it or it is removed from
your presence.
Alter Ego: Under some circumstances, your body is
taken over by a personality that doesn’t take your
wishes into account. For example, a human pos-
sessed by a ghost might generally be the domi-
25
Restrictions
nant personality but sometimes find the ghost in
control.
Aversion: You find a common substance unpleasant
to be around, e.g., an Elf that hates cold iron.
You will avoid it if at all possible, and if suddenly
presented with it, will cringe away. This usually
takes one Action. You cannot be affected mul-
tiple times in a Round.
Block: There is a common activity that you cannot
do. E.g., Dwarves might be unable to swim.
Compulsion: Under some circumstance, you must do
something whether you wish to or not. You lose
control of your actions until this is finished. For ex-
ample, a werewolf might be required to change
into a raging beast every full moon, while other-
wise being in control while in wolf form.
Ritual: You need to undertake a daily ritual to keep
your powers or stay healthy. If you don’t get the
4. A DVANTAGES , D ISADVANTAGES AND R ESTRICTIONS

chance to perform the ritual, your powers are

hindered or disabled until you can do it. For in-
stance, priests might need to pray for an hour
daily.
Susceptibility: A certain substance hurts you. You are
hindered while in its presence, and it may eventu-
ally be fatal. Example: a werewolf might find silver
poisonous, while a vampire can be harmed by
holy water, garlic, and crucifixes (each individu-
ally would be too rare to count as a Restriction, so
a vampire would need susceptibility to all three).
Taboo: You are not permitted to do something that
most people do. If you do it, major portions of
your power will be blocked until the situation is
remedied. E.g. A vampire might not be able to
operate at all while the sun was up, even if he
was safely indoors or underground.
Vulnerability: A certain substance or kind of attack
hurts you disproportionately. E.g. an non-human
with really sensitive hearing that is more easily hurt
by sonic attacks. Your defenses against this kind
of attack are Hindered, even automatic ones.

26
Chapter 5
Spending your Boosts
You have a certain number of Boosts to spend on your
character, usually 3. As you gain experience, you will
be able to purchase more Boosts. The number of XP
you need to get an additional Boost is equal to your
current number of Boosts.
Each Boost can be spent for one of the following:
• Add one to one of the four attributes: Toughness,
Stamina, Will, and Actions.
• Increase one Power by 1 level or give it a small
Advantage. 2 Boosts give it a big Advantage.
• Increase two Shticks by 1 level each, or one Shtick
by 2 levels.
• Add one new Power. The starting level is given in
your template.
• Add two new Shticks at the starting level in your
template, or one Shtick at one higher level.
• Get a Major Asset. Major Assets are things like
Companions, Quarters, Vehicles or Mounts. You
can then spend additional Boosts to improve
these.
• Get three Minor Assets. Minor Assets are things
like Contacts, Equipment, Favors, Perks, Wealth,
or Rank.
• You may increase the number of Boosts you have
to spend on a Power by giving that Power Disad-
vantages; a Small Disadvantage on a Power gives
you an extra Boost to spend on that same Power;
a Big Disadvantage on a Power gives you two ex-
tra Boosts on that Power. (The same applies to
Shticks, but Advantages and Disadvantages only
count for half; thus a Small Disadvantage on a
Shtick raises it by 1 level or lets you get a Small
Advantage on it, whereas a full Boost would raise
it by 2 or give it a Big Advantage.)
Attributes
Boosts can be spent on increasing your Attributes. At-
tributes in Zounds! are characteristics that everybody
has. Three of the Attributes are primarily defensive,
representing how much characters can resist various
27
types of Powers: Toughness, Will, and Stamina. The
remaining Attribute, Actions, is how many different
things you can do in a Round. An ordinary person
has a score of 1 in each, but player characters start
with at least 2 in each. Having 3 in an attribute would
make you one of the world’s toughest humans in that
respect, and a 5 or more is definitely superhuman.
Toughness
Toughness is how physically durable you are. The
higher your Toughness, the more likely you are to
avoid becoming Out (of the fight) due to most types
of attack.
Will
Will is how mentally prepared and determined you
are. The higher your Will, the harder you are to Control
or put Out with a mental attack. You also get a bigger
bonus when making a Supreme Effort.
Stamina
Stamina is your endurance. It represents your ability to
push beyond your normal limits, as well as your resis-
tance to certain unusual forms of attack such as en-
ergy drains, being strangled or drowned. The higher
your Stamina, the harder you are to put Out with at-
tacks that weaken you, such as Energy Drain or Poison
Gas. You can also exert yourself more often by using
Supreme Effort more frequently and are less likely to
be Tired by invoking Failure is Not an Option!, or by
travel or wearing heavy armor.
Actions
Actions is the number of distinct actions you can take
during a Round. Using an Active Power counts as an
Action even if you don’t end up rolling the dice, as
does manipulating objects such as opening a door,
reading a scroll, or sounding a horn. For instance, if
you use your Ice Mastery Power to create a slide to
catch a falling child you don’t need to roll for success,
but it does still take one of your Actions for the Round.
Think of an Action as a single panel in a comic book,
or a single shot in a movie.
5. S PENDING YOUR B OOSTS

One thing to keep in mind is that you can only use Not every friend or ally needs to be a Compan-
most Powers once per Round, and each use takes ion. What distinguishes a Companion from a friend
an Action; only Automatic Powers can be used mul- is that Companions will obey you almost unquestion-
tiple times in a Round, and don’t cost an Action to ingly, and are willing to place themselves in danger
use. When creating your character you usually want for you.
to balance your number of Powers with your Actions.
If you have many Powers but few Actions, you won’t
use most of your Powers in any one Round, although
it gives you a wide variety of Powers to pick from. If
you have many Actions but few regular Powers, many
of your Actions will be spent assisting teammates to
recover or performing tasks that don’t require Pow-
ers, such as closing doors, kicking away dropped
weapons, and so on.

Assets
Boosts can also be spent on Assets; Assets can be
Major or Minor. Assets are things owned by or avail-
able to your character, such as Companions, Mounts,
Quarters, Equipment, Reputation, Perks. Assets can
belong to a group rather than individual. If you are
the Captain of a sailing ship, the ship can belong to
all of you. If a group shares an Asset, they can divide
up the costs arbitrarily. Each can contribute a share of
XP, including the XP needed for the first Boost needed
to purchase the Asset.

Companions
Many characters in fantasy have assistants, servants,
pets, or trusted companions. Any type of creature
can be a Companion, from a raven familiar to a mind-
less invisible servant awaiting your instructions, to a
trusted friend. A Companion may actually represent
a group of creatures, such as a flock of birds, or a trio
of street urchins that do your bidding; the Attributes
and Abilities of such a group represent them all acting
in concert. If you ever have occasion to split them up
on different errands, they should be treated as negli-
gible. Mounts

Companion
Toughness: 1, Will: 1, Stamina: 1, Actions: 1
3 Powers @ 5
2 Shticks @ 4
Cost: 1 Boost.
Experience points spent on Companions don’t in-
crease your character’s Boosts (and hence, do not
increase the XP Cost to buy future Boosts for you), but
do increase what Boosts cost for the Companion. It
costs 1 XP to give your Companion 1 Boost. From then
on, it costs XP equal to the total number of Boosts your
Companion already has to give it an additional Boost.
So a second XP gives it a second Boost, then 2 more
XP are required to give it a third. If you want to give
your Companions extra Boosts to start, you can trade
one of your Boosts for 3 XP and spend that on your
Companion or other Assets.
28
Some characters have special mounts, such as
warhorses, flying carpets, or even dragons that allow
them to get to where they’re going, and fight while
mounted. Mounts are at the same Personal Scope
as the characters. Mounts can take the characters
from place to place within an adventure or can be
used in combat scenes. Mounts can sometimes carry
teammates and cargo as well as you, depending on
the size and strength of the Mount. You don’t need
a Mount as an Asset to be able to ride a horse or
drive a buggy. Only purchase a Mount if it has spe-
cial abilities of its own, or you actually use it in a fight.
An untrained horse is just something you can ride from
place to place, but will buck or run away if you try to
ride it into battle. That wouldn’t count as a Mount. But
a paladin’s Warhorse is almost a character in its own
right, and would certainly be bought as a Mount.

Mount
Toughness: 1, Will: 1, Stamina: 1, Actions: 1
Movement 4 (D) Power-up +2 if traveling out-of-
combat
Defense 4 automatic defense
Cost: 1 Boost.
You can describe your Mount as being able to carry
a number of people, but the larger it is, the more re-
stricted it will be in going off-road, landing, and be-
ing stabled. A roc that’s large enough to carry off an
elephant in its talons is much harder to stable than a
horse, and will you be able to afford the elephants?
You can give your Mount Boosts as you would a Com-
panion. The first Boost costs 1 XP, then the second 2,
and so on. This does not count towards increasing
your own Boosts. If you trade one of your initial Boosts
for 3 XP, you can thus use this to improve your starting
Mount by two Boosts.
As a Major Asset, a Mount is loyal to you, and ca-
pable of fighting and acting on your behalf (to the
extent it can understand what you would want). As a
Minor Asset (equipment), mounts have no particular
loyalty or desire to please.
Quarters
Characters often require a base of operations: a
place to live, store their loot, hang up their armor,
perform magical experiments, or lord it over the peas-
ants. One Boost gets you a structure of any descrip-
tion, suitable for occupation, at the current Adventure
Scope. It could be a a mountain fortress, a wizard’s
tower, or a neat little shop in the city. The structure will
have Toughness 4 and other Attributes 0. It will have
two Shticks at 4 usable by anyone inside, such as Re-
search Library or Armory. XP can be spent to improve
your Quarters, just like for Companions and Mounts.
You can give Quarters Attributes, Powers and Shticks.
Powers and Shticks are only usable inside the Quar-
ters, or at the perimeter, as appropriate. If you don’t
give it any Actions, someone inside needs to use an
Action to trigger any non-Automatic Power. If you give
29
Assets
it Actions, it will have a staff capable of operating the
Quarters’ Abilities, such as its defenses, and do not
require someone else to spend Actions. If you give
it a Will, there is a majordomo or other senior servant
who controls the Quarters’ powers, and can act inde-
pendently. If the Quarters has servants (Actions) but
no majordomo (Will), the servants will carry out your
instructions to the best of the Quarters’ abilities, but
won’t act on their own initiative; a majordomo will try
to anticipate what you would want done and pursue
your interests actively.
Quarters Advantages
These Advantages apply only to Powers that belong
to the Quarters, and apply to a specific Power of the
Quarters; you can’t, for instance, take the Advan-
tage Remote-Controlled as an advantage on the en-
tire Quarters and have it apply to all the Powers in the
Quarters “for free.” A Quarter’s Powers may also have
Advantages from the regular list, where appropriate.
Remote-Controlled (A) Remote-Controlled Powers
can be activated by a character from outside
the Quarters, as long as he’s still within the
Scope; the Power would still take effect within
the Quarters (though for some things, like look-
ing up records in the library, that’s not really a
Disadvantage).
Long-Ranged (AA) Long-Ranged Powers can be op-
erated from within the Quarters but targeted
at things outside of the Quarters, as long as
they’re still in-Scope. Powers would also need the
Remote-Controlled advantage to be operated
from outside of the Quarters to target something
outside of the Quarters, e.g., a magical gate that
a hero could use to travel to the Quarters.
Larger Scope (AA) Larger Scope Powers can operate
at a Scope above that of the Quarters; this ad-
vantage can be taken multiple times, each time
increasing the Power up by one level of Scope.
A City-Scope Quarters could thus have a scrying
pool that could monitor an entire Region, or a
magical gate capable of transporting you clear
across the kingdom.
Vehicles
In fantasy setting, Vehicles are usually things like sail-
ing ships, though they may sail through the ether be-
tween planes and not just over the ocean. In some
unusual settings, a Vehicle might be a gigantic suit of
magical armor, or an iridescent bubble that can waft
you to your destination.
Vehicle
Toughness 4
Movement 4 (D) Power-up +2 if traveling out-of-
combat
Defense 4 automatic defense
Cost: 1 Boost.
5. S PENDING YOUR B OOSTS
You can describe your Vehicle as fitting any num-
ber of passengers in line with the Primary Rule, but the
larger it is, the more restricted it will be in going off-
road, landing, or docking as appropriate. You can
give your Vehicle Boosts as you would a Companion.
The first Boost costs 1 XP, then the second 2, and so
on. This does not count towards increasing your own
Boosts. If you trade one of your initial Boosts for 3 XP,
you can thus use this to improve your starting Vehicle
by two Boosts.
Vehicles start with only Toughness as an Attribute,
but you can purchase Will and Actions. A Vehicle with
0 Actions can still use its Movement power to move,
since that costs 0 Actions. To use any other power, or
to use the Vehicles Movement to attack or defend,
you would need to use one of your own Actions. If
you buy your Vehicle at least one Action, it has a crew
that can perform independent actions. If it has zero
Will, your character must have instructed it explicitly
for these actions. If it has a Will of at least 1, the crew
have a leader who has sufficient initiative to react to
circumstances without explicit input from you.
As a Major Asset, a Vehicle is something that be-
longs to you and is crewed (if necessary) by people
loyal to you. It’s also possible to get vehicles as Minor
Assets (equipment).
Minor Assets
Some characters have special Equipment, or Perks
like having the king’s ear or being sheriff of a region,
some have contacts in the underworld or with the city
guards, some are owed a big favor by somebody with
unusual resources or power, and some are well-known
enough to influence people’s reactions to them for
good or ill. These aren’t exactly Abilities, but they are
capabilities that are similar in some ways. Minor Assets
come in several flavors: Contacts, Equipment, Favors,
Perks, Wealth and Rank. At creation a character can
spend one Boost on three Minor Assets appropriate to
their Adventure Scope. That is, if the Adventure Scope
is Scope 5 (City/Region), then their contact has City-
wide information/power/authority such as the Mayor,
Guildmaster of a local guild, Priest of the city’s cathe-
dral, while a Kingdom Scope Contact might be the
King, Archbishop of the national Church, Court Wiz-
ard, or Champion of the Realm.
Minor Assets can be adjusted up or down from
the character’s Adventure Scope two-for-one. So a
City/Barony Contact could be traded for two Town
contacts, or four Village-level contacts; in the other
direction two City Contacts could be traded for one
Dukedom Contact, and four could be traded for one
Kingdom Contact.
When rolling for the effect of a Minor Asset, that is
where it’s not obvious from the nature of the Minor
Asset and the Primary Rule whether it would apply or
be effective, roll the Asset’s PL vs. a Difficulty based
on the Scope. (See Difficulty for Other Tasks 12.) Minor
Assets begin at PL 4 unless otherwise stated.
30
When spending XP, you can choose to purchase
new Minor Assets, and XP spent on Minor Assets
doesn’t increase your hero’s Boosts. One point of XP
(not one Boost) purchases 1 Minor Asset at the current
Scope; increasing the Minor Asset’s PL by 1 costs 1 XP
for the first increase, 2 for the second, 3 for the third,
and so on.
Contacts
A Contact is somebody with access to information or
authority who can prove useful to the character. A
contact might be a snitch in the local underworld, the
secretary to a local lord, the head of a mercenary
company, and so on, depending on the Adventure
Scope. Contacts will cooperate with the character in
areas that are within their competency and authority,
but won’t risk their lives or their careers to help. Con-
tacts might also call upon the character to recipro-
cate. The effects and restrictions for having a Contact
are worked out through the Primary Rule, though the
GM might call for a roll of the Contact vs. the Diffi-
culty if there’s some doubt as to whether the contact
really has the information or authority needed. You
don’t need a separate roll to see if the Contact will
help; the roll of the Contact vs. the Difficulty covers
that: failure could indicate the Contact won’t help or
can’t help, depending on the Primary Rule.
A Contact that would readily risk life and career to
help the character should be taken as if it were a
Companion, even if the contact would almost never
accompany the character on an adventure.
Equipment
Characters can begin with equipment appropriate to
their Abilities for free. In Zounds! Abilities require some
sort of equipment as part of the Primary Rule narration
by default; without equipment, the Ability is treated as
Hindered (rolling only one die). The die size of the free
Equipment is equal to the lower die of the appropriate
Power or Shtick, which lets them use their full power
and can be helpful in narration; they may increase
this by spending XP. E.g. if the character has a power
Swordsman at PL 5, then a d4 Short Sword would be
free (since PL 5 rolls a d6 and a d4); if the PL had been
6, then the sword could be a d6 longsword or the like.
Spending 1 XP increases the die-size by one, 2 XP to
increase it again, and so on; thus for one Boost (3 XP),
that d4 dagger could become a d8 Great Sword. See
Equipmentfor a full discussion of Equipment.
Favors
A Favor is something big that somebody owes the
character–big enough that they might actually risk
their life or career to help. Favors need not be owed
to the character by Contacts or friends: the local
gang lord might owe the hero a debt of honor for sav-
ing the gang lord’s daughter’s life, for instance. Fa-
vors can only be called in once, and then are gone.
 Assets

You don’t usually need to roll to see if the person who
owes you the favor will cooperate, but the GM might
roll as with Contacts above if there’s some doubt
whether the favor being asked for is actually within
the debtor’s power to grant; if there’s some reason
that the person isn’t actually in the position to grant
the favor, the favor isn’t used up.
Perks
A Perk is a special dispensation or benefit that comes
from the role the character plays in the community
or with an organization. For instance, a character
might be deputized by the local sheriff, allowing him
to make legally sanctioned arrests, but requiring him
to follow the same rules for enforcing the law the sher-
iff does. Another character might have a license from
the crown to trade with the Elves, or be ordained
in the church and allowed to perform religious cere-
monies such as marriage. The effects and restrictions
for having a Perk are worked out through the Primary
Rule, though the GM might call for a roll of the Perk’s
Power Level against the Difficulty if there’s some doubt
as to whether the requested use is truly sanctioned by
the Perk.
the barony, where a d4 might be a landless knight, a
d6 a sherrif, on up to d12 being the mayor of the city or
the baron. If the characters were instead adventuring
at the Kingdom Scope, d4 might be a landed knight,
while d12 would be the king. The rankings need not
be exact, but they should make rough sense. A char-
acter with a d4 in Rank should probably not have the
title Archbishop unless the Adventure Scope is very
high indeed.
If calling upon your Rank, roll the PL in Rank vs.
the Difficulty set by the GM to determine whether
your rank grants you sufficient authority. If you roll a
Mishap while pulling rank, there should be repercus-
sions, though the order may still be carried out if the
roll was a success.
Rank may be combined with Shticks or Powers as
appropriate. For instance, if you were trying to influ-
ence somebody using your PL 4 Social Graces Shtick
and you had PL 6 in Rank, you could use your Rank
to get a d6, d6 +1 (for the Social Graces) roll on your
attempt to influence them.

Wealth
All Characters can start with Wealth as a Minor As-
set, even if they don’t spend XP on it. Wealth starts
at 2 you don’t spend XP, or 4 for 1 XP; it can be in-
creased thereafter like any Minor Asset (1 XP for the
first increase, 2 for the second, etc.) but unlike most
Minor Assets is likely to increase or decrease during
play, and not just as a result of spending XP. If Wealth
decreases during play, characters don’t get any XP
they spent back. See Wealth for a full discussion of
how Wealth is used.
If you’re not using the Wealth rules, or even if you
are, characters can be wealthy as part of their back-
ground or as a Shtick, but that doesn’t translate di-
rectly into buying and selling things; instead it’s han-
dled narratively as part of the Primary Rule. I.e. a
character might justify trying to bribe her way to see
the Emperor with her Wealthy Shtick, but shouldn’t just
buy everybody on her ship d10 Enchanted Armor by
appealing to her Shtick instead of spending XP for it
under the Equipment rules.

Rank
A character may have a rank within a particular or-
ganization; rank acts much like a Contact, but it’s the
character’s own authority that’s being exercised. The
rank should be commensurate with the character’s
Adventure Scope, rather than Personal Scope. You
can be a general without being able to fight like an
army. For example, if the characters are Adventur-
ing at the Barony/City Scope, meaning that most of
their adventuring takes place within a single barony
or city, the ranks should be in terms of authority within
31
Chapter 6

Complications

Every good character has things that complicate life
and add drama. It might be that you are an outlaw,
forced off your lands by the evil Baron, or maybe your
family wants you to stay home and be a farmer in-
stead of risking your life adventuring. Perhaps you are
a changeling, left in a human family by Elves and be-
longing to neither culture. You should choose Com-
plications to highlight themes you want to be deal-
ing with in the game. Complications are invitations to
the GM to focus on a particular aspect of your char-
acter or kind of adventure you’d like to have. Every
Zounds! character has roughly the same number and
severity of Complications. You are perfectly free to
change your character’s Complications between ad-
ventures; if you want to stop focusing on your prob-
lems as a changeling for a while you can tell the GM
that and substitute a new Complication...perhaps you
become the target of a local crime lord, who wants to
recruit you as a thief. Removing being a changeling
as a Complication doesn’t mean that your ancestry
has changed, only that the problems it causes should
stop cropping up so frequently in adventures.
Most characters take one Big Complication and
two Small Complications. A Big Complication is some-
thing that will crop up almost all the time, and will form
one of the main themes of the character. Not every
adventure will incorporate it, but it will come as no
great surprise if one does. A Small Complication is one
that only has an occasional impact, though it might
be a big deal when it does, or if it crops up frequently
it does so in a minor way. Complications can be cho-
sen to be Big or Small depending on your preference.
As a Small Complication, being Wanted by the Law
might mean that you can’t go to the police to ask for
information or assistance, and you leave your neatly-
wrapped foes for them to find, bugging out before
they can arrest you too. As a Big Complication, the
police might actually try to arrest you in the middle of
a battle, or even aid your foe thinking that he must be
one of the good guys because he’s fighting you!
Note On Complications
Try to avoid thinking of Complications as part of a
price you have to pay to the GM in order to play
a cool non-human creature or kick-ass warrior; that
can lead to picking a Complication that will annoy
you when it crops up...but you’re not playing the
game in order to be annoyed, and it’s not the GM’s
job to keep you from having too much fun. Ideally
you should be looking forward to your Complications
coming up in an adventure, because it throws the
spotlight on your hero and gives you a chance to ei-
ther have some drama or be clever and engage in
lateral thinking. Kryptonite wasn’t introduced into Su-
perman’s mythos in order to make it more fair, it was
created to make it more interesting. Having to res-
cue somebody from an area strewn with Kryptonite
presented a challenge that couldn’t be solved by a
straight application of his awesome powers. When
you choose Complications you should be thinking in
terms of what sort of problems would you like to be
presented with during play and whether those will ac-
tually be fun for you to deal with. Don’t over-think it,
though; remember, in Zounds! when you get tired of a
Complication you can simply set it aside and replace
it with a new one. Ultimately the goal of Complica-
tions is to help the GM drive the game in directions
that you find interesting.

Since Complications are a way to focus the atten-

tion on your character, you don’t want to take Com-
plications that everyone in your group will have, such
as Hates Evil or Takes Risks.
32
Chapter 7

Fleshing out Your Character

Drive Your appearance could reflect your true nature (a

Hero who looks every bit a Hero), it could be adopted
Drive is a description of your character’s primary mo- deliberately to hide your true nature (a Hero who
tivation, what makes her go off and do dangerous looks like Casper Milquetoast because being under-
things in remote places. It could be curiosity, duty, estimated is useful), or it could be an ironic contrast
vengeance, the desire for personal power, protecting to or statement about your true nature (the big scary-
the innocent, or the quest for personal enlightenment. looking non-human who’s poetic and sensitive).
Your Drive will help you role-play your character, and In addition, a picture or description can help you
help the GM come up with adventures that are inter- resolve issues when it comes to applying the Primary
esting to you. Rule. There will often come times when you need
to know whether your hero wears a closed helmet,
say, or gloves, or has any accessible gadgets hang-
Back-story ing from her belt; in these situations a picture can be
worth a thousand words. Working out such details in
What happened before your character decided to advance, incidental to designing your hero’s appear-
adventure? Did you attend an school of wizardry that ance, can speed play and free you from worrying
trained you? Were you kidnapped from your home about whether you’re being fair.
village? Did you stow away on a ship, seeking adven- If you are more of a visual person, you might even
ture or just an escape from the dockside slums where want to draw or use a computer sketch program to
you were born? Or is it just a job to you, not an adven- create an image of your character.
ture at all? Who are your family and friends? What do
you do for a living? Describe the character’s back
story in as much or as little detail as you like. This is
your opportunity to flesh out who your character is
and what she can do other than fight. You can add
details about the character’s life, profession and hob-
bies, friends and family, skills and training, notable past
adventures, and whatever else you think is relevant.
Your back story need not be completely deter-
mined at the start of play. Serial fiction is full of rev-
elations of previously unmentioned background de-
tails, from members of your family having been killed
decades before by this episode’s villain, to the big
bad actually being your father and your love inter-
est your sister. Players should feel free to Retcon their
character’s pasts, though they should probably clear
it with the GM before they do the kind that actually
contradicts prior versions of the story, just in case the
GM had built it into the campaign in a way that would
be hard to fix.

Appearance
Think about what image your character projects. How
will others see her or him? Usually, your appearance
is related to your true nature in one of three ways.
33
Chapter 8

Example Characters

Ailie the Cat
Template: Adventurer
Toughness: 2, Stamina: 2, Will: 2, Actions: 3
Powers
Rough and Tumble Fighter 4
Catlike Reflexes 6 automatic defense; (A) No equip-
ment needed; (D) Can be Hindered
Catlike Grace 4 movement
Sneaky as Hell 4
Shticks
Nimble Fingers 6 Ailie can pick locks, pockets, any-
thing except winning horses.
Knows the Streets 5 Ailie knows the streets like the
back of her hand, who’s who and what’s what.
Good Fences Make Good Neighbors 5 Ailie can find
a place to buy or sell anything illegal
Games of Chance 5 Ailie knows everything there is
to know about games of chance, how to play, how to
win, and how to cheat. Except horses, which is prob-
ably why she can’t keep away.
Cat’s Meow 5 Ailie can speak the language of cats.
She won’t tell anybody where and how she learned it.
’ to touch him without getting singed (no damage, just
New Powers begin @ 4 New Shticks begin @ 5
Complications
Major: Plays the ponies
minor: Soft touch. Money flows through her fingers
like water when it comes to friends or anybody with a
sob story.
minor: Picks up strays. Cats and humans.
Hannah the Barbarian
Template: Hero
Toughness: 4, Stamina: 2, Will: 2, Actions: 2
Powers
Warrior Princess 7
Tough as Nails 5 automatic defense
Mighty Thews 5 (A) Bare-handed. Hannah can
bend steel with her bare hands
Shticks
Live off the Land 4 Hannah can survive nearly any-
where
I’ve Been There, and Lived to Tell of it 4 Hannah has
survived nearly anywhere
34
Mind like a Steel Trap 4 Hannah never forgets any-
thing she’s heard, or anyone that has done her wrong
Untamed Beauty 4 Hannah can wrap most of those
attracted to her sex around her little finger, figuratively
as well as literally.
New Powers begin @ 5 New Shticks begin @ 4
Complications
Major: Hannah regards civilized people as weak
and silly, this can get her into trouble.
minor: Hannah’s beauty sometimes attracts un-
wanted attention
minor: Hannah can hold a grudge until it chokes
and dies
Fiero the Fire Mage
Template: Hero
Toughness: 3, Stamina: 2, Will: 3, Actions: 2
Powers
Fire Magic 6 (A) Flexible, spells: bolt of fire (attack),
fireproof (defense), pyromancy (visions by staring into
flames), create fire (creation), extinguish (destruction)
Body of Flames 5 automatic defense. Makes it hard
painful), animals will shy away
Fire Portal 5 movement. Can step into one flame
and out of another, as long as the flame is large
enough for his body to fit through
Warrior Training 5 As a gentleman, Fiero was trained
in the arts of war, and knows how to fight with sword
and shield.
Shticks
Wilderness Survival 4 Fiero knows how to live off the
land
Well Bred 4 Fiero knows how to behave in polite
company
Occult Lore 4 Fiero is well up on the history and the-
ory of occult knowledge, even though he lacks the
patience to do research
Horsemanship 4 Fiero’s upbringing included riding
and caring for horses.
New Powers begin @ 5 New Shticks begin @ 4
Complications
Major: Proud and haughty, particularly when it
comes to the superiority of his brand of magic
minor: Impetuous
 Anariel, Elf

minor: Semi-friendly rivalry with Barro the Earth Anariel, Elf

Mage can lead to him biting off more than he can
chew. Template: Elf
Drive: Understand the powers of the cosmos
Restrictions
Toughness: 2, Stamina: 3, Will: 2, Actions: 2
Magic in the sample campaign is disrupted by iron; Powers
Fiero can’t cast spells if wearing or wielding any, and Elven Warrior 6 Elves are trained in sword and bow,
even the presence of iron on or near the targets can riding, and can cast spells even when wearing armor.
cause it to fizzle. Magic! 6 specializes in illusion
Elven Stock 6 automatic defense. Faster and more
resilient than humans, resistant to spells of sleep and
illusion. See Elf template for details.
Markov the Magus Shticks
Magical Research 4 specialty: illusion
Template: Wise One Forestry 6 Knows everything about nature and sur-
Toughness: 2, Stamina: 2, Will: 3, Actions: 2 vival in the wilderness.
Bardic Lore 4 Knows all the elven poems and songs,
Powers
and can sing them for days unless you stop him
Magic! 7 (A) Power-up to Flexible and Customizable Carousing 3 Unusually for an Elf, Anariel likes drinking
with 3 Research scenes and human company
Ring of Protection 4 automatic defense. (A) Flexible New Powers begin @ 6 if they fit the stereotype, 4
Shticks otherwise New Shticks begin @ 4 if they fit, 3 otherwise
Complications
Magical Research 5
Major: Doesn’t understand human society.
Boundless Enthusiasm 4 can carry otherwise sensible Minor: Secretly addicted to beer
people along with his crazy schemes Minor: Semi-friendly rivalry with D’Rok the Dwarf
New Powers begin @ 5 New Shticks begin @ 4 Restriction: Doesn’t do “battle magic”, such as fire-
Complications balls or lightning bolts; can’t cast spells that directly
harm others, though he can trick them into harm’s
Major: His curiosity will get him killed one day.
way with illusions.
minor: Absent-minded
minor: Can let his enthusiasm cloud his better judg- Dorin, son of Darin, Dwarf
ment when it comes to researching spells on the be-
half of would-be conquerors Template: Dwarf
Drive: Riches
Toughness: 2, Stamina: 2, Will: 3, Actions: 2
Powers
Demetrios Dwarven Warrior 6
Hard as Nails 4 automatic defense
Template: Adventurer Shticks
Toughness: 2, Will: 2, Stamina: 2, Actions: 2 Mining 5
Dwarven Culture 4 knows everything there is to
Powers
know about Dwarven history and Lore
Swashbuckler 5 New Powers begin @ 6 if they fit the stereotype, 4
Slippery Customer 4 automatic defense otherwise New Shticks begin @ 4 if they fit, 3 otherwise
Shticks Complications
Major: Greedy for gold and gems.
Charm Your Pant Off 6 Minor: Poor social skills.
Master Sailor 6 Minor: For someone who professes to be driven by
World Traveler 5 wealth, he’s generous at inconvenient times
Handsome Devil 5
Cunning Linguist 5
Survivor 5
New Powers begin @ 4 New Shticks begin @ 5
Complications
Major: Cocky
minor: Superstitious
minor: Spendthrift
35
Chapter 9
Non-human templates
Here are some non-humans suitable for PCs reminis-
cent of various fantasy tales. Most campaigns would
replace these or at least add new ones to flesh out the
setting. Non-humans should be designed to be able
to work along side of humans (possibly using magic) or
whatever the baseline creature of the setting is, e.g.
no non-humans that can only survive in the heart of
a volcano unless the whole campaign takes place
there or needing to be protected by magic gear at
all times is part of the challenge of playing that non-
human.
Elf Template
Elves are a race of supernatural beings, usually
beautiful, often mischievous, sometimes malign.
They often live in hills and boulders, and are ca-
pable of powerful magic.
Toughness: 2 Will: 3 Stamina: 2 Actions: 2
Powers
Elven Warrior 6 Elves are trained in sword and
bow, riding, and can cast spells even when wear-
ing armor.
Magic! 6 choose a specialty
Elven Stock 6 automatic defense. Faster and
more resilient than humans, resistant to spells of
sleep and illusion.
New Powers: The following will start at 6 if
chosen: Glamour, Invisibility, Elf-Shot (an arrow
that causes pain, madness, or paralysis), Shrinking
(small enough to ride a wasp or dandelion seed),
Fear, Healing, Understand the Speech of Animals,
Cause Disease. Other powers unique to that par-
ticular Elf may be taken at 4.
Shticks
2 Shticks @ 3 (d4) or 4 (d4, d4) if they fit the
stereotype
Restrictions: Elven magic can never directly
harm others (no fireball, lightning or the like),
though they can use illusions to trick foes to
their doom, or cause events like flash floods or
avalanches that can harm foes who are caught
within them.
36
Dwarf Template
In Norse legends, the dwarves, sometimes
known as dark elves, were master craftsmen who
lived underground. They fashioned wonderful
items for the gods, but could also be greedy and
viewed all earthy treasures as theirs by right.
Toughness: 3, Stamina: 2, Will: 2, Actions: 2
Powers
Dwarven Fighter 6
Dwarven Toughness 6 automatic defense
Shticks
2 Shticks @ 3 (d4) or 4 (d4, d4) if they fit the
stereotype
New Powers: The following will start at 6 if cho-
sen: Earth sense (Senses rock, earth, and metal.
Can use underground to find way in total dark-
ness); Pass through earth (movement). Others
start at 4
New Shticks: Start at 4 if they fit the stereotype,
3 otherwise. Crafts, metal-working, magical de-
vices, wealth, geography, geology.
Restrictions: none
Centaur Template
Half man, half horse. Some were famously
learned, while others were barbaric brutes. Re-
puted to be fabulous archers, even at a full gal-
lop.
Toughness: 4, Stamina: 2, Will: 2, Actions: 2
Powers
Horse Body (Movement) 6
Big and Strong 6
Shticks
2 Shticks @ 3 (d4) or 4 (d4, d4) if they fit the
stereotype
New Powers: The following will start at 6 if cho-
sen: Master Archer. Others start at 4.
New Shticks: Start at 4 if they fit the stereotype,
3 otherwise. Scholar, Teacher, Equestrian.
Restrictions: Mean and lustful drunk.
 Part II

Playing Zounds!

37
Chapter 10
Quick Summary
Here’s a quick summary of the mechanical options in
Zounds! Any option you take must be justified by de-
scribing what you’re doing according to the Primary
Rule. Further details on each are supplied in the fol-
lowing chapters, but this is the essence of the game.
• Attack Spend an Action. Roll 2 dice, take higher.
Compare to the better of the defender’s two
dice.
• Use Ability spend an Action. Roll vs. GM-assigned
Difficulty to succeed.
• Defend Defend with an Automatic or spend an
Action to defend with a regular Power. If At-
tacker’s roll beats yours, you are Hindered; if it
beats it by more than your Attribute, you are Out
(vs. Toughness)/Tired (vs. Stamina)/Influenced
(vs. Will).
• Disable Power vs. Ability to temporarily disable
the target Ability; Hinder means it’s unusable until
the owner spends an Action; Out is unusable until
the owner spends a Turn fixing it; Overkill needs
out-of-combat repair. Automatic Defenses are
immune, unless the attacking Power has the Dis-
abling Only Advantage.
• Counter Spend Action to roll Ability against Ability
to prevent it succeeding; Countered character
can choose not to contest the roll but abort in-
stead (reuse the action and Ability for something
else), or can spend an extra Action to use a dif-
ferent Ability to contest the Counter roll.
• Combine Each participant spends one Action per
Ability they are contributing. Roll dice based on
which Ability’s Advantages you want to use, +1
per Ability involved (Max bonus = number of play-
ers, no more than +1 from any one character).
• Splitting Powers Split roll into single die at two dif-
ferent targets, -1 die size for each doubling of
number of targets after that. (4 targets is -1, 8 is
-2, etc.)
• Finishing Blow/Revive Spend all your Actions in a
Round to prevent an enemy from recovering from
Out, or bring a still living Ally back from being Out.
38
• Chase Spend an Action to change range; may
be Countered by a Move vs. Move/Search vs.
Hide contest. Ranges are Combat Range, Pursuit
Range, Lost Contact.
Tropes
Tropes are variations on the basic rules that provide a
better fit for specific things typical of the genre.
• Aid Spend an Action to completely Unhinder an
ally.
• All for One, and One for All! create a new Power
on the fly by combining Abilities (choose one as
base, +1 PL for each other contributing Ability),
the contributed Abilities are Burned Out for the
rest of the Scene; if that’s not appropriate the
contributor becomes Tired instead.
• Battle Cry. Shout your battle cry once per session,
get the highest roll possible on a combat action.
Must be done before rolling.
• Berserk. Narrate your Drive kicking in, and go
Berserk. You become immune to being Tired
(including from Supreme Effort) for a number of
Rounds equal to your Stamina.
• Careful Aim Take half the largest die instead of
rolling; no Collateral Damage. Not while Hin-
dered.
– Pull Your Punch No Overkill
• Carouse volunteer to be “hit with the plot ham-
mer” to move the adventure along; gain 1 XP.
• Failure is Not an Option! Can opt to become Hin-
dered to change a non-combat roll to highest
possible (if this would require a larger adjustment
than your Stamina, become Tired).
• Intimidate spend an Action to Attack vs.
Best Power and Will to cow foe, (Hinder =
hesitates/considers cooperating, Out = surren-
ders/flees); each die reduced by a die-size if vs.
multiple foes at once.
 Tropes

• Riposte Split the roll into a single die to attack and

a single die to defend.
• Second Wind Spend 1 Stamina, recover from be-
ing Tired. Stamina can be recovered by 3 rest
scenes.
• Supreme Effort Add Will to die roll. May try
Supreme Effort after roll is made if you spend an
extra Action. Become Tired.
• Sheer Determination Spend 1 Will to become
completely Unhindered. Will can be recovered
by 3 rest scenes.
• Take the Hit You take the brunt of the Power
against your Default Skill, but the action is auto-
matically Countered.
• This Ends Now! Both sides agree to resolve entire
confrontation in straight up roll; higher side wins
decisively, losers are captured or otherwise out of
the picture.
• Wild Swing Swap 2 matched dice for 1 die next
size higher (or drop low die for +1 on high if mis-
matched).

39
Chapter 11
Defining Abilities
In Zounds!, most of what a character can do is rep-
resented by Abilities; Abilities are divided into Powers
and Shticks. Powers are Abilities potentially useful in
combat, Shticks are all other Abilities. For instance
if a character is extremely strong, the character has
the Power “Great Strength” or perhaps “Iron Thews”
depending on the flavor the player wants to convey.
Strength at ordinary levels, even for a gifted athlete,
isn’t recorded and only rarely has any effect on the
mechanics of the game. Characters are assumed to
be relatively normal in every aspect that isn’t specif-
ically identified as being so exceptionally good as to
amount to a Power or Shtick, or so bad as to be a
Complication or Restriction. You are completely free
to choose what your Powers and Shticks are, their
names, and descriptions of how they work. How many
you get and how they interact with other Abilities are
governed by the game mechanics.
The most important aspect of Abilities is concep-
tual: what does it do? Two Abilities might be me-
chanically identical, but if one is Great Strength, and
the other is a Lightning Bolt, how they are used and
what they can accomplish are different. In Zounds!,
it is never sufficient to simply invoke the Ability and roll
the dice for the mechanical effect. The Primary Rule
of “Does this sound like an fantasy story?” must be
obeyed. If the goal is to free a peasant trapped be-
neath an overturned carriage, the player could use
Great Strength to lift the carriage off, or a Wickedly
Sharp Sword to cut the peasant free, but if the player
can’t come up with a plausible way for the Ability to
accomplish the task (for instance trying to free some-
body trapped beneath a carriage with an Ability such
as Fireball, or Illusions) then the action isn’t permitted.
Note that it only needs to be plausible in terms of
fantasy stories; it’s not recommended that you really
try to justify the physics in real-world terms. Worrying
about whether, even given Great Strength, the char-
acter can actually find enough leverage and the car-
riage has sufficient structural integrity to be lifted from
particular hand-holds is not something that any but
the most grittily realistic fantasy stories do. On the
other hand, you don’t want to have the game de-
generate into farce when the character uses Great
Strength to just reach in and lift the water out of a
pond, at least without magically freezing it first.
40
The decision of whether a particular use of a Power
or Shtick is sufficiently fantasy-plausible in Zounds!
should be left up to the players instead of delegated
to the GM. Players continuously asking whether a par-
ticular action is permissible will slow things down and
interrupt the flow. As long as all the players bear in
mind that they should be limiting themselves to the
kind of actions that they would like to read in a book
or see in a movie, and avoid the sorts of things that
would make them roll their eyes or snicker if they were
the audience, minor disagreements over plausibility
should be overlooked to keep the action flowing. Re-
member as well that there’s often more than one way
to accomplish something with an Ability; reaching
into a pond and lifting the water out with your Great
Strength is silly, but stomping the ground so hard the
ground cracks and the water drains out makes per-
fect genre sense.
The corollary to the Primary Rule is that in Zounds!
the description is the ability. If something sounds like
a fantasy story, it should be valid, even if there are no
specific game mechanics permitting it. The mechan-
ics, and in particular what dice you throw, are there
as an aid to figuring out what happens when one
Power or Shtick is pitted against another, or against
the circumstances, but the determining factor should
be what the description of the Ability implies it ought
to be able to do. How do you know if the Flame
Blast can overcome the Ice Shield thrown up as a
defense? You roll the dice. How do you know if the
Flame Blast can set a bunch of papers on fire? It just
can, because that’s what makes sense. Actions that
are squarely within the concept of the Ability don’t
require justification or rolls. Actions that are clearly
outside of the scope of the Ability shouldn’t be at-
tempted, no matter how high a Power Level you have.
Can an Ice Shield protect you against Telepathic as-
sault? Seems unlikely, so don’t roll for it: use a differ-
ent defense or the default. Again, if it seems border-
line whether it should be allowed or not, go with the
player’s interpretation. That puts a lot of power in the
hands of the player, but remember: with great power
comes great responsibility!

Ability Examples
Here are some examples:
Example 1: You’ve given your hero a Power called
Doppelganger, which allows him to make duplicates
of himself. When you try to use this Power in combat
to create a squad of yourself and all tackle the foe,
you roll the dice based on the Power Level of your
Power and compare that to the foe’s defenses, just
as if you had used a Power such as Fire Blast. Bear
in mind that according to the Primary Rule you might
require further justification or explanation depending
on the circumstance: if the enemy is flying hundreds
of feet up, just tackling him outright is implausible; you
would have to further justify the action by doing some-
thing like combining it with Flight, or being thrown by a
companion with Great Strength and then duplicating
yourself in mid-air once you’d hit the enemy.
If you want to use your Doppelganger Power to cre-
ate a duplicate who will go converse with the guards
to distract them while the other you sneaks into the
warehouse, you don’t need to roll anything; the de-
scription of the Power clearly implies that you ought
to be able to do that, and that’s all it takes.
Example 2: Your hero has the Power Weather Con-
trol, and is trying to prevent the enemy knight from kid-
napping the prince. Since the knight’s magical armor
has so far been too tough for your direct attacks using
Weather Control to create lightning, you decide to try
to conceal the prince’s location by whipping up a fog
bank. Assuming the knight has no Power granting him
senses that would let him penetrate the fog, he’ll have
to beat your roll on Weather Control with his Default
Skill in order to locate the prince. The effect will last
until the knight uses an appropriate Power to blow the
fog away, or it disperses naturally. If the knight decides
to attack you or flee, the fog around the prince won’t
stop him.
If you had chosen to try to blind the knight directly
with your fog, you would roll against the knight’s ap-
propriate defense (again the Default Skill unless he
had an appropriate heightened sense), and if suc-
cessful would result in him being Hindered; it would last
until he spent an Action to do something that would
clear it or move himself out from under. In this case,
if you had rolled well enough to score an Out, the
Out result would be interpreted as the knight stum-
bling around blindly, unable to take effective action,
or even that the knight had knocked himself out run-
ning into a wall while blinded.
Example 3: The enemy is attempting to use his
Telekinesis to lift your character into the air. Your
character’s Automatic Defense is Invulnerability; while
that would protect you from a telekinetic blow, there
doesn’t seem to be any logical reason that would pre-
vent it from lifting you, so you wouldn’t get to use it
to defend. If your Movement Power were, say, Flight,
then it is conceivable that you could attempt to re-
sist the Telekinesis by Flying in the opposite direction,
but you would have to spend an Action to use it (un-
41
Disagreements
like the Automatic Defense); also, since it’s a Move-
ment Power it would only defend with a single die.
Because anything that makes sense according to the
Primary Rule would be allowed, you could also use
something like Great Strength to resist by grabbing on
to a nearby object or even digging your fingers into
the ground; again that would take an Action and be
your one use of that Power in the Round.
Disagreements
Disagreements or uncertainty over whether the use of
an Ability follows from the description should be re-
solved in favor of the player; the GM should feel free
to point out considerations that the player might have
overlooked, such as the enemy being hundreds of
feet in the air, and encourage the player to consider
whether the use of the Ability is in keeping with the
Primary Rule and to modify or abandon it if it’s not.
It’s also legitimate for the GM to reveal information
that the player might not have known that has bear-
ing on the proposed use of the Ability, or even render it
moot. For instance: Markov the Mage attempts to use
his Freeze wand to form an ice slide to catch a toddler
plummeting from a castle parapet towards her doom.
Ordinarily that would be a perfectly valid use of the
Power, but if the GM knows that it’s actually an illusion
of a child rather than a real child, when the player
announces “I use my Freeze wand to create an ice-
slide and catch her” before the player continues with
describing what Markov will do once he’s caught the
child, the GM should inform her that the child passes
right through the slide without stopping or slowing. It’s
possible that in some of these cases the GM should
rule that the Ability just doesn’t work as proposed with-
out revealing exactly why, if there is something going
on that the character can’t be aware of, but the GM
should make every effort to at least describe to the
players what does happen or appears to happen in-
stead rather than flatly declaring “That didn’t work.”
Power Level
All Powers and Shticks are rated as to their Power
Level. Power Level determines the number of dice
rolled when pitting that Ability against another Abil-
ity or to try and perform some task while under stress,
as well as how much the Ability can do in real-world
terms: how fast, how heavy, how big? Each level in
Power Level substantially increases the effect, ranging
from a 50% increase per level at Normal Scope to 64
times as much per level at Cosmic Scope.
Power Levels are assigned dice equivalent and
when rolling for the effect of an Ability, you roll the two
dice listed and take the higher result. In Zounds! you
never add the dice together.
11. D EFINING A BILITIES
PL Dice PL Dice
2 single d2 10 d10, d10
3 single d4 11 d12, d10
4 d4, d4 12 d12, d12
5 d6, d4 13 d8+5, d12
6 d6, d6 14 d12, d8+5
7 d8, d6 15 d8+5, d8+5
8 d8, d8 16 d8+5, d10+5
9 d8, d10 17 d10+5, d10+5
Note that the Power Levels follow an easy-to-
remember pattern: at even levels you use two dice
of the same size, and that size matches the level; odd
levels have one die of the next higher level and one of
the next lower. Power Levels beyond 12 are not com-
mon, generally only appearing when characters of
different Scopes face one another.
Regular Powers
Regular Powers can be used to attack or defend, as
well as whatever else the description of the Power im-
plies; just because Powers can be used in combat to
attack or defend doesn’t mean they can’t be used
for other purposes. On the other hand Shticks cannot
be used to attack or defend: if it seems plausible that
you could use an ability to hinder or harm somebody,
or to protect yourself, you should make it a Power.
If you use a Power to defend during a Round it will
defend against all the subsequent attacks during the
Round as long as there’s a reasonable Primary Rule
explanation of how it applies. E.g., suppose you have
a Ring of Protection that has charms against poison,
fire, cold, and glamour; once you’ve chosen to de-
fend yourself that Round versus an attack with toxic
gas by invoking its protection against poison, you will
continue to be able to defend against new attacks
that same Round with your Ring of Protection even if
it requires a different Primary Rule explanation of how
the ring ought to apply, such as the charm against fire.
Even defending with a Power that requires more ac-
tivity than that, say using Acrobatics to jump around
and dodge, would apply to all the attacks during the
Round for which Acrobatics makes sense as a de-
fense.
Movement Powers
Movement Powers primarily let you move around,
whether getting to the scene of the adventure, chas-
ing a foe or in combat. They may also be used to
attack or defend, where that makes sense according
to the Primary Rule (e.g., using fly to ram into a foe,
or Run Like the Wind to dodge arrows), and may be
combined with other Powers.
Movement Powers take an Action if you want to
change Range categories or use them for attack or
defense; when used to attack or defend, Movement
Powers use only one of their dice. Movement with a
42
Movement Power within a Range category doesn’t
take an Action, it’s just part of the narration of your
turn; if you don’t have a Movement Power, you are
presumed to be using your Default Skill when moving
around during your turn, and that will take an Action.
Your Movement Power can open or close Range
with a foe by one Range category per Round (Com-
bat Range » Pursuit Range » Lost Contact). The ap-
proximate distance a range increment represents will
vary by Scope. Combats will either begin at Com-
bat Range, or at Pursuit Range if the characters first
catch sight of the enemies (or vice-verse) at a dis-
tance. Range doesn’t change unless the combat-
ants are deliberately trying to manipulate the range
to their advantage.
You cannot use a Movement Power to change
Range categories and to attack or defend in the
same Round.
Shticks
Shticks are Abilities that can only be used for things
other than attack and defense, for instance to heal
an ally, or search an area. They can be used during
combat, as long as they aren’t used as an attack or
defense. For example, it’s perfectly legitimate to use
your Thievery Shtick to attempt to pick a lock while
a fight rages around you; it’s not allowed to use your
Thievery Shtick to defend yourself from somebody try-
ing to shoot you by hiding in shadows or blocking with
your lock-picks–if you want to be able to do that sort
of thing buy it as a Power instead.
Shticks start at the level indicated in your Template
(e.g. 4 for Heroes, 5 for Adventurers). Shticks may take
more than one Round to use where that would be
logical, e.g. combing a library for clues is likely to take
longer than a fraction of one Round. If you start to
use a Shtick for something that will take several Rounds
and decide you would rather do something else, you
can stop at any time, though you won’t regain any
already spent Actions. Whether you can resume your
partially completed task later or your effort so far will
be lost will depend on what would be logical given
what you were doing. A partially-finished suit of armor
will likely wait, a partially-delivered speech to rally the
troops, not so much.
Shticks are what Zounds! has instead of such things
as skills or talents that are common in other systems.
If you are an extraordinarily good thief, scholar, or ar-
morer, good enough that you would regularly rely on
that ability in your adventures, that would be a Shtick;
if being a scholar or armorer was merely a day job
that might crop up once in a while depending on the
situation, that would just be part of your Background.
Having it as part of your Background doesn’t mean
you are mediocre at it–you might still be world-class,
but it does mean that the adventures you have don’t
typically call on your skills in that regard. If a roll is re-
quired to employ a skill implied by your Background,
roll the Default Skill (a single d4); if you have nothing in

your Background that might be applicable you roll a
single d2 (e.g. flip a coin, or roll a d6 and count 1-3 as
1 and 4-6 as 2).
Of course, Shticks also represent genuine supernat-
ural abilities such as oracular visions, magical healing,
a portal to an alternate dimension, and so on. Abil-
ities that you don’t intend to use all the time should
generally be in this category unless it’s important that
they be useful to attack or defend.
Shticks that can be used for movement are pre-
sumed not to be usable in combat. E.g., you could
have an ordinary horse, or even an extraordinary
fairy-ring teleportation circle, as a Shtick to get you
from adventure to adventure provided it was slow or
cumbersome enough that you couldn’t use it to flit
around while fighting. If you wanted to be able to
fight while using it, you would take it as Movement
Power or a Mount instead.
To use a Shtick that gives you some kind of connec-
tion or “in” with an authority roll your Shtick against the
Adventure Scope of the intended connection as the
Power Level, e.g. a Famous Bard or Guildmaster trying
to impress the mayor of a City would roll against PL 5
(d6, d4) since Cities are Adventure Scope 5.
The amount you beat the difficulty by is your degree
of success:
0. Your connection has a neutral attitude to-
wards you
1. Somewhat Co-operative,
2. Full co-operation,
3. Friendly attitude,
4. Warm attitude.
For Shticks that give information use the following in-
terpretation:
0. Single yes/no question will be answered,
1. One-word answer,
2. Short sentence, quantity, or direction,
3. Diagram or paragraph description,
4. Sketch or series of questions,
5. Clear image or a conversation with the GM.
This also holds for Powers, but Shticks are more likely
to be used to gain information. Shticks can be com-
bined with Powers using the Combining Powers rule,
but not to attack or defend. In combat, Shticks take
at least an Action to use. Out of combat they take a
variable amount of time, as is appropriate to the sit-
uation. A medical knowledge Shtick might take only
a glance to identify that a corpse has a missing liver,
or days of study to investigate the medicinal uses of a
rare compound found in an alchemist’s laboratory.
43
Active vs. Automatic
Active vs. Automatic
All Powers are either Active or Automatic, depending
on when and whether they require an Action to use.
Shticks are neither; whether a Shtick requires you to
spend an Action depends on what you’re doing with
it. E.g. picking a lock with your Thief Shtick would re-
quire an Action, while recognizing whether a stolen
item might be something the local fence could han-
dle would not.
Active Powers
Any Power that requires an Action to use is Active. Ac-
tive Powers never trigger unless you spend an Action
to activate them. Each Active Power may only be
used once per Round, no matter how many Actions
you have, though you may use as many different Ac-
tive Powers as you have Actions. Once you spend an
Action on an Active Power in order to defend, it will
continue to defend you against new attacks until the
beginning of your next Turn (when you would have to
spend another Action to renew it).
Automatic Powers
Automatic Powers are used automatically whenever
certain conditions are met, and don’t cost an Ac-
tion to use. What those conditions are and what the
Power does are described when you take the Power.
An Automatic Power may be used either for attack
or defense, not both. For instance, Armor might be
an Automatic Defense that would be used whenever
you were physically attacked. Flaming Body could be
Automatic Attack that would be used whenever you
were grabbed. Automatic Defenses defend against
every appropriate incoming attack, Automatic At-
tacks attack everyone, friend or foe, who meets the
proper conditions. Powers that don’t directly attack
or defend may be chosen as Automatic, and will ac-
tivate whenever is appropriate; a common example
might be an Automatic sense, which would be active
whenever something perceptible was within range.
Automatic Powers can combine with other Powers
if the conditions for triggering the Automatic Power
occur at the same time as another Power. That is, if
you had Flaming Body as an Automatic Attack, and
Great Strength, and you grabbed somebody with
your Great Strength and squeezed them, the condi-
tions for the Flaming Body would apply and you could
choose to attack by Combining your Great Strength
and Flaming Body. However, whenever you Combine
an Automatic Power with another, the base power
is the weaker of the two powers. E.g. if your Great
Strength was PL 10 and your Flaming Body was PL 6,
the Combination would be an attack at PL6+1, not
PL10+1. You would have to spend an Action for your
Great Strength, but not for your Automatic Flaming
Body.
Automatic Movement moves you whenever the
proper condition occurs, e.g., a enemy might have
11. D EFINING A BILITIES

an Automatic Teleport that emergency teleports him

back to his lair when he is Out; Automatic Movement
Powers can take effect even if you’ve already moved
that round, or even if you’re Out as in the example,
but they can never be used to attack or defend, nor
activated except by meeting the proper conditions.

Senses as Powers or Shticks

Senses should generally be bought as a Powers, unless
there’s a good reason they can’t be used to defend
you by alerting you to danger or let you attack some-
thing that you couldn’t otherwise sense. E.g. a Mind
Meld where you have to touch the target and con-
centrate deeply could be a Shtick. Whether senses
are Automatic or not depends on whether you have
to concentrate to use them, e.g. Infra-Vision or a re-
flexive Danger Sense vs. Clairvoyance that you have
to deliberately turn on. A sense that’s defined as an
Automatic Defense could still be used as part of a
Primary Rule justification for attacking something that
would otherwise be invisible, but you’d still need some
other Power to make the attack.

44
Chapter 12
Using Abilities
The Primary Rule
The Primary Rule of Zounds! is that actions have to
make sense as if they were happening in fantasy fic-
tion. In order to justify using an Ability, you have to de-
scribe using the Ability in a way that makes sense...at
least according to the genre conventions. Decisions
as to whether that particular use of a Ability ought
to be allowed rest with the player, though the GM or
other players are permitted to point out if they think
the player is pushing it; the GM is also encouraged
to point out circumstances that the player ought to
take into account when deciding how to use the Abil-
ity (such as the enemy currently hovering 300 feet in
the air, or holding a hostage in front of him), and it’s
ultimately up to the GM to decide on and describe
the effect of using the Ability on the environment or
the foes, as long as he does so in a way that doesn’t
countermand the player’s description of the attempt.
The player should stop short of describing the reac-
tion, although saying what she’s trying to do is fine:
“I pick up a chair and hurl it at the monster” or “I
try to lasso the flying harpy and pull it out of the
air” are good, while “I pick up a chair and hurl it at
the flying harpy, knocking her out of the air and pin-
ning her beneath it” isn’t as good because it assumes
the chair hits the harpy hard enough to cause her
to crash. When describing your attempts you should
leave room for either the dice or circumstances un-
known to you to intervene.
Another example: if the player wishes to hit the en-
emy using his Great Strength, even though the enemy
is 300 feet in the air, he can announce that he grabs a
nearby tree and hurls it at the enemy. The GM can re-
mind the player that they are currently in the desert,
so maybe it should be a rock, and the GM can rule
that the tree/rock passes through the enemy harm-
lessly (because unbeknown to the player at the mo-
ment, it’s just an illusion), but the GM shouldn’t over-
ride the player to say there are no trees, rocks, or any-
thing else suitable to throw or that the throw falls short
without giving the player a chance to roll to see if the
Great Strength Power succeeds in overcoming the en-
emy’s defense.
The goal of the system it to make everything simple,
fast, and exciting; negotiation every round between
45
the players and the GM as to what’s permissible and
what objects are in the environment and whether any
die-rolls are needed to see if the character can use
them just slow things down and break the flow. In
fantasy adventures there’s always an object of the
right size around to pick up and chuck if that’s what
the character wants to do. Similarly as long as the
fight is taking place in an area where there are such
things as tapestries, chandeliers or barrels of ale, then
they are assumed to be within reach and ready to be
deployed with the appropriate Abilities. The players
are entitled to make up such features of the environ-
ment as seem plausible as they go about describing
their actions.
The Default Skill
If you need to make a roll and you don’t have an ap-
propriate Ability according to the Primary Rule, you
roll your Default Skill instead. This happens most often
when your Defenses aren’t applicable. In Zounds! you
never resist an attack with your bare Attribute, you
always have some chance of mitigating the attack
somehow. The Default Skill also represents using a skill
implied by your Background that isn’t one of your Pow-
ers, as well as using one of your Minor Powers. When
using your Default Skill this way, roll PL 3 (a single d4)
if there’s any way of justifying it by your Background,
and PL2 (a single d2) if you can’t. Normal people will
roll PL 3 (d4) in the areas that they’re trained in, and a
PL 2 (d2) for anything else.
Uncontested Abilities
When trying to perform an uncontested feat roll the
Ability and then compare the roll to the Difficulty set
by the GM.
When you roll for the result of an uncontested Ability,
the result is always interpreted relative to the Scope
of the character; even if two characters have Great
Strength at PL 6, if one is Normal Scope and the other
is Biblical Scope the latter is able to lift much greater
weights.
12. U SING A BILITIES

When To Roll Uncontested Abilities 9 on his d6, d6. You would need use some com-
bination of Wild Swing, Supreme Effort, and possibly
Remember, if it’s obvious that the Ability ought to suc-
Combining Powers or getting help from another char-
ceed by the Primary Rule, rolling isn’t necessary. Much
acter to achieve that. Supposing, though, that your
of the time Zounds! assumes that feats such as picking
Strength was at PL 10 (d10, d10), you would be able
up crates, flying on a magic carpet, or jumping from
to do it without any special effort if you roll well. If you
the balcony onto the back of your steed are inciden-
don’t, you can change the roll to a success by pay-
tal to the action. Picking up a nearby boulder and
ing a penalty (See Failure is Not an Option!) Remem-
hurling it at the enemy with your Great Strength isn’t
ber, though, that if it’s not important you shouldn’t be
two actions, one of attempting to pick up the boulder
rolling.
and another of hitting the enemy with it; it’s a single
attack that happens to be narrated as using a con-
venient piece of scenery in accordance with the Pri- Difficulty for Other Tasks
mary Rule of sounding like an fantasy story. Chances
When in doubt about the Difficulty for a task, and it’s
are that the player taking the action invented the
not something that the character clearly ought to be
boulder being there for that purpose; it would make
able to do just through invoking the Primary Rule, use
no mechanical difference if it had been a tree, ox-
the following table a rule of thumb:
cart, or just the character’s fists, so there is no rea-
son to interrupt and say “Wait, can your character lift
a boulder? Roll for it.” The only reason to make an Task Could be Done By Difficulty
uncontested check is when there is both a reason to
care about the outcome, and genuine doubt about Normal 2
whether the character is up to the task. For instance, Man-at-Arms 3
if the enemy hurls a carriage and the character wants
Hero/Adventurer 4
to try to catch it so that the passengers aren’t injured
it would be reasonable to check, and roll if it would Squad of Men-at-Arms 6
be past the limit of what the Ability is normally capa- Party of Adventurers 8
ble of, such as using a PL 6 Ability at Cinematic Scope
to catch a medium-sized carriage. Party using Research 10
All For One and One for All! 12
Difficulty
This assumes that the task is not something that’s
The Difficulty for exerting your Abilities to accomplish
routine for the kind of person listed, but rather it’s to-
specific effects appropriate to the Ability (such as us-
ward the outer edge of their abilities. For instance,
ing Great Strength to lift an object) is based off of the
a normal would have a PL 2 (d2), in her profession,
Power Levels for the Scope. The maximum die roll rep-
a trained normal would have PL 3 (d4) and a Man-
resents the maximum the Ability is capable of without
at-Arms perhaps PL 4 (d4, d4), so the difficulties are
Supreme Effort, Wild Swing, or combining with another
set so they may well fail. Tasks that should be easier
Ability.
than that for them ought not to require a roll in the first
Chart 11.1 on the next page summarizes Difficulty 6
place.
for each Scope (that is, what it would take a roll of 6 to
do) to give you a quick idea, but you should see Ap-
pendix for a list of the effects for each Power Level and Contested Abilities
the real-world equivalents in weight and speed. Not
every Ability or every use of a Ability will directly trans- When rolling a Ability contested by another Ability,
late into weight or speed, and many characters will such as an attack vs. a defense, both Abilities roll and
have at least some Abilities above the base but the the higher number wins. The amount the higher num-
charts give you a general feel for the order of magni- ber exceeds the lower is the Damage. Zero Damage
tude that Abilities of a given level might represent. is still a success for Player Characters, but a failure for
NPCs.
E.g., Difficulty 6 at Romantic Scope is equivalent
in weight to a medium carriage (2 metric tons), so
Ties
a character at that Scope with Ability like Great
Strength or Telekinesis would roll her Ability against Dif- Ties go to the player, or if two NPCs are making op-
ficulty 6 to lift the carriage. Obviously, if the charac- posed rolls, to the attacker. Your attacks merely have
ter’s Ability was PL 8 (d8, d8) this would be easier to to match the enemy’s defense to have some effect,
do than if they were using a PL 6 (d6, d6) Ability. though you still need to beat their Attribute to score
Say your character at the Heroic Scope wants to an Out. The enemies need to beat your defenses be-
lift a medium carriage, weight 2 tons: that’s a 9 re- fore you’re affected. At higher Power Levels ties are
ferring to the chart in the Appendix. If you have En- relatively rare, but at low levels this edge is what sep-
hanced Strength PL 6 that will require hitting Difficulty arates player characters from mooks.
46
 Damage

Difficulty 6
Scope Weight example Speed +1
1: Normal 250kg komodo 32 kph sprinting x1
dragon,
gorilla
2: Heroic 500kg horse 64 kph racehorse x4/3
3: Cinematic 1 ton small 128 kph cheetah x32/6
carriage,
grizzly bear
4: Romantic 2 tons medium 250 kph fast train x2
carriage
5: Homeric 16 tons empty bus 1000 kph jet airplane x8
6: Biblical 125 tons blue whale, 2000 kph Concorde x8
galley
7: Legendary 1 kiloton kraken 4000 kph speed of x8
dawn
8: Mythic 8 kt Godzilla 16000 kph ICBM x8
re-entry
9: Titanic 512 kt largest 128k kph around the x8
modern world in 20
ship minutes
10: Cosmic 32 megatons Big modern 1 mkph to the x8
dam Moon in 15
minutes

Figure 12.1: Difficulty 6 by Scope

Defending Zounds! has no mechanical provisions for death by

default; depending on the tone you’re going for you
When you attack other characters, the defenders get
can include death of PCs and NPCs as a potential
to announce what they are doing to Defend them-
result of Overkill, or as one of the results of applying
selves, which can include spending Actions on Ac-
the Primary Rule, or something that happens once in
tive Powers to aid in their defense. The defenders
a while but only as a result of the plot (as when the
need to remember how many Actions they use and
characters don’t arrive in time to disarm a bomb), or
which Active Powers they employ, so that when their
as an additional action taken against a Out foe. For
Turns come around they don’t re-use them. Remem-
a particularly grim tone along the lines of a series like
ber, you can only use an Active Power once per turn,
Game of Thrones, you could actually make Out equal
and it costs an Action to use any Active Power to de-
to dead as long as you were prepared to keep creat-
fend yourself. If the defender’s Turn was earlier in the
ing new characters.
Round, she can only use Active Powers to defend her-
self if she has both Actions and unused Powers remain-
ing.

Damage
Optional Rule: Overkill is Dead
Most of the time, opposed rolls take place when one
character is trying to damage another. If the attack
Treat Overkill as as dead. This makes combat a lot
is a success, subtract the defense roll from the attack
more dangerous at all Scopes, although depending
roll: the result is the Damage. You then compare the
on the Tone of the campaign resurrection, reincarna-
Damage to the defender’s appropriate score. For
tion, being brought back as a ghost or undead might
most attacks, that will be their Toughness; if you have
be distinct possibilities. If this results in too much death,
an appropriate Advantage it might be compared to
you can mitigate it somewhat by allowing the possibil-
Will or Stamina instead. The possible results are the
ity of survival if aid such as Healing is applied promptly.
opponent are Hindered, Tired, Out, or Overkill.
A reasonable Difficulty for such a task would be the
Damage is amount that the Damage exceeded the character’s
Attribute
<= Attr > Attr > Attr + 3 toughness by (which will be at least 3, or it wouldn’t
Toughness Out Overkill have been Overkill in the first place). Characters re-
Stamina Hindered Tired Out vived from the brink of death should be treated as
Will Influenced Out having sustained an Injury (see Optional Rule: Injury).
47
12. U SING A BILITIES

Collateral Damage E.g., You’re Hindered: your PL 8 Ability would roll a

single d8 instead of d8,d8, but your PL 7 Automatic
Let the fools who stand in our way be destroyed Defense is unchanged, still rolling d8,d6. If you’re Hin-
by the power you and I possess... Dragon Slave! dered again on the same turn your Powers aren’t re-
Fantasy battles, particularly with fireball-flinging duced further, but now you will need to spend two
mages, are famous for the amount of destruction they Actions to “clear” the status. It might be helpful to
wreak on the surroundings, and sometimes on the give the player a token, such as a poker-chip, each
mage’s companions! At the GM’s discretion attacks time the character is Hindered to help keep track.
made can be checked to see if they cause Collat-
eral Damage, using the lower die roll as damage to
nearby people and objects. If you hit a foe with your
Being Hindered represents some specific thing that
fist, you probably won’t cause Collateral Damage un-
happened to the character as a result of the suc-
less you knock him flying into something; if you hit a
cessful attack that was insufficient to put the char-
foe with a fireball it’s pretty likely you hit various peo-
acter Out. It could be becoming trapped beneath
ple and nearby objects unless your target dwarfs the
the thrown bus, having your hands webbed together,
fireball in size.
being groggy from sleep gas, or just generically
GM’s shouldn’t slow the game down with checks
“stunned” by the force of the attack if no more spe-
for Collateral Damage after every single attack; save
cific thing suggests itself. The GM will generally de-
it for when it would make a difference, such as when
scribe what it is that’s Hindering you, following from
the enemy is holding a hostage, or the battle is tak-
how the attack was described; go with it. If it’s re-
ing place on top of something important that could
ally impossible that your character be Hindered in the
explode or collapse. Trivial damage, such as tables
way described (the GM forgot that your character
getting knocked over, awnings being busted or glass
doesn’t need to breath, so gasping from smoke won’t
being broken can simply be narrated as a result of the
do) then suggest something that does seem plausible
Primary Rule. Save actual checks for Collateral Dam-
to you. One way or another if the attack was justi-
age for times when somebody will care.
fied under the Primary Rule and the result was high
Use the result of the lower die from the roll as an at-
enough to Hinder you, you should be Hindered.
tack against whatever near-by targets seem appro-
priate according to the Primary Rule; those targets
then roll their appropriate defense or the Default Skill
if they have none. If you’re rolling only one die, such
as when you are Hindered or taking a Wild Swing, if
the GM calls for checking Collateral Damage at that
point roll the second die and use the result even if it’s
higher than the original roll.
The GM should assign Toughness to objects based
on how reasonable it is for a character at that Scope
to break the object; a rule-of-thumb is Toughness
equal to the Scope that the object would usually ap-
pear. So a sausage-inna-bun stand would be Street
Level (3), an ox-cart would be Neighborhood level (4),
and so on. An Out result from a Power at or lower than
the object’s Scope will break the object and render it
unusable until repaired; it requires Out from a Power at
least one Scope higher in order to destroy the object,
three higher if the the object is a building or collection
of buildings.
You can avoid the possibility of Collateral Damage
by taking Careful Aim.

Hindered
When you are Hindered all your Abilities except Au-
tomatic Powers are reduced to a single (better) die.
Hindered conditions accumulate if you keep getting
attacked successfully, and while your abilities aren’t
further reduced it requires a separate Action to clear
each instance of Hindered. Automatic Powers aren’t
affected by being Hindered unless they have the Can
Be Hindered Disadvantage.
48

Becoming Unhindered
In order to become Unhindered, you should describe
what you’re doing according to the Primary Rule in
order to get free of the Hindered effect (this could
just be shaking your head to clear the grogginess if
the conditions was as generic as just being “stunned”,
melting your way out of webs, teleporting from be-
neath the rubble, and so on); it is this that costs an
Action. Players should be more generous than usual
in interpreting what is an appropriate description for
freeing yourself from being Hindered. Basically, be-
ing Hindered costs you an Action, it’s not intended
to cost you the rest of your Turn after you become
Unhindered or debilitate the character for the rest of
the fight; the presumption should be that somehow
or other you can free yourself as long as you have
Actions remaining. Using a Ability in your description
of how you free yourself from being Hindered doesn’t
count as its single use for the Round. No matter how
many Hindered tokens you have stacked on you, you
can always clear them all by sacrificing your Turn (all
your Actions) for the Round, or by sacrificing one point
of Will (see Sheer Determination).
Some Examples Of Ways To Describe Being Hin-
dered
• Knocked down, or thrown backwards a dis-
tance
• Buried in Rubble
• Covered in some sticky or slippery substance
• Eyes stinging and watering from smoke or
chemicals
• Gasping and choking from water or smoke
• Dazed by a hard hit
• Distracted by danger to a bystander
• Partially blinded by a bright flash
• Muscles cramping from electrical shock
• Shivering from cold
Helping The Hindered
You can use your Actions to help a hindered ally.
If you spend a single Action you remove all of the
Ally’s accumulated Hindered conditions, provided
that you have a Primary Rule explanation of how ex-
actly you’re helping (e.g., burning them out of the
webbing, lifting the concrete off of them, or slapping
their face and shouting “Pull yourself together!”). This
makes no real difference if your Ally is only Hindered
once (you spend the Action instead of them doing it),
but is substantially better if they have a lot of accumu-
lated Hindered conditions such as when the enemies
have attacked them over and over; as an ally you
49
Damage
can clear off all the pesky agents with a single Action,
while the character herself would have to either do
it one by one, by sacrificing a Turn, or through Sheer
Determination.
Out
Damage in excess of the defender’s Toughness puts
the defender Out. (For attacks vs. Stamina the de-
fender is Tired, vs. Will the defender is Influenced.)
Merely tying the Attribute does nothing extra, even
against NPCs. Out does not have to literally mean un-
conscious, merely incapable of further combat until
aided by another or given sufficient time to recover or
work free. A character who is tangled and helpless
in a web, fast asleep from gas, buried in cement, or
locked in a force-bubble, too tired or scared to act
counts as Out for game purposes; if you are aiming
for a grittier tone, Out can be a heavy wound that in-
capacitates the character until somebody (perhaps
the character herself) provides medical aid. A Out
character is out of the fight until any of:
1. Another character spends a full Round (all Ac-
tions) reviving the character or otherwise revers-
ing the effect of the Out in accordance with the
Primary Rule
2. Another character spends an Action using a
Shtick that by the Primary Rule is intended for sit-
uations such as this (e.g., Healer Shtick, a Cure
Spell)
3. Three of your Turns have elapsed (during which
you can either be presumed to be unconscious,
or conscious but too busy tending to your wounds
to even take time to communicate with your al-
lies).
Example: Your ally was put Out by being teleported
out of the battle. To bring him back before three
turns are up you would have to not only spend a full
Round, but come up with an explanation of how you
were using your Powers such using as your Movement
Power (Super Speed, Teleport) to retrieve him. If you
had a Shtick that was specifically designed for bring-
ing him back into the fight, such as Teleport Ally Shtick
of your own, then you could do it with a single Action;
note that it has to be a Shtick, rather than a regular
Power. (This serves as a bonus for taking such special-
ized Shticks. A Power would still be able to restore the
Out character as the Primary Rule explanation, but it
would take a full round rather than a single Action.)
Out characters may be further Restrained or put
Down for the Count, in which case they will not come
back into action until those conditions have been
eliminated, even if one or more of the above are met.
12. U SING A BILITIES

Some Examples Of Ways To Describe Being Out entangled you or put you to sleep, roll the unskilled
Default PL 2 (d2). On a roll of a 1, you are both Tired
• Knocked clear into the next block, or even and Injured. Injured means you gain a new Com-
County plication to reflect the ongoing injury. For instance,
• Buried under rubble, or underground you might decide that your left hand is useless and
in a sling. During the combat, the Complication is
• Trapped in a force bubble Major; after spending a scene treating the Injury it
is reduced to Minor. Like normal Complications you
• Unconscious may substitute a new Complication for this one when
• Turned to stone you choose to, say by replacing the mangled hand
with a prosthetic, or the wound with a scar or a limp,
• Fast asleep but recovering from an Injury should always require at
least one scene and a Primary Rule justification. To re-
• Lost in the maze of your own mind move the Complication completely you must spend
• Struggling in a web a Boost.

• Battling phantoms Equipment such as Armor and certain Powers allow

you to mitigate the chance of injury; you may sub-
• Writhing in agony stitute the Armor roll for your untrained Default if you
were wearing armor that could have mitigated the
• Bleeding heavily
damage. For instance if you were Out from a shot by
Exactly how you are Out and what others would a crossbow, then wearing chain-mail armor would let
have to do to revive you from being Out will depend you roll a d6 instead of a d2, and only if you rolled
on the description of the attack that put you Out and a 1 on the d6 would you suffer injury. On the other
the Primary Rule. For your part, there is nothing you hand if you were Out from a Psionic attack, the same
can do to hurry the process of reviving, but it is as- chain-mail armor wouldn’t be any use. If you have a
sumed that after three of your Turns even if nobody Power or Shtick that’s directly on point, such as Regen-
has aided you as long as the battle hasn’t ended you eration, then you may roll that, checking for a Mishap
will have found a way out of it, through sheer force instead.
of will if nothing else. It’s not at all unusual to be Out,
perhaps more than once, during the course of a bat-
tle. Getting Out does not mean that you lose, unless
you are the last character standing, and perhaps not
even then depending on whether the enemy has the
time and foresight to put you Down for the Count; if
the enemy is otherwise occupied looting and pillag-
ing, kidnapping the prince, or chasing off the Royal
Guards then you will be back in action in three Turns.
fantasy battles are full of reversals and comebacks
from near-certain defeat.
Regardless of the Primary Rule justification, Out must
be reversible; you are not allowed to define powers
such that Out with the power is permanent. Even if the
Out character is magically turned to stone, the result
must be temporary. (Optionally in a gritty campaign,
you may agree that Overkill can make Out perma-
nent, barring some extraordinary plot event.)

Optional Rule: Injury

Depending on the Tone for the campaign, serious, or
at least long-lasting injury may be more or less com-
mon. In some settings, wounds never last past an
episode, in others, characters may find themselves
having to deal with long-term effects of injury or even
lose an eye or a hand...perhaps to replace it at a later
date with a hook or magical prosthetic.
Upon returning from Out, whether you were helped
or not, there is a chance that you suffered a more seri-
ous injury. If the Primary Rule reason you were out was
such that it could have wounded you, rather than just
50

Restraining
You can automatically Counter an Out character re-
covering from being Out by Restraining him. Restrain-
ing requires spending an Action with an appropriate
Primary Rule justification, such as tying the Out char-
acter up, burying him under some rubble, etc.
A character that’s being Restrained can’t return to
the battle without outside help: another character will
have to Hinder or put the character who’s Restraining
him Out.
As long as someone continues to spend an Action
every Round to Restrain the character, nobody can
bring him back from Out status, nor does the three
Turn limit apply. If you stop Restraining him, whether
voluntarily, or because somebody has put you Out or
Hindered you, he is still Out until one of the conditions
for reviving him is met. The three Turn count runs con-
currently with being Restrained, so if three of his Turns
or more have passed while he was Restrained, he is
no longer Out and may act.
Whether minions and bystanders, individually or
taken together as a Mob, are capable of restraining a
character who’s been Out depends on the character
and the Primary Rule justification they’re using.
51
Damage
Finishing Blow
You can choose to spend an entire turn, all of your
Actions and no Movement allowed, doing a Finishing
Blow on an Out character. If you are attacked dur-
ing the turn, even if the attack fails, you do not com-
plete the Finishing Blow and have to try again. You still
need a Primary Rule justification for the Finishing Blow,
which need not actually be a blow. Such things as
tying him up, removing his helmet and coshing him,
or transforming him into a toad would count as well.
Characters that have had a Finishing Blow adminis-
tered are out of action until the end of combat, no
matter how many Rounds that takes, unless they are
revived.
As with Restraining, you can’t do a Finishing Blow to
a creature that you couldn’t at least Hinder in the first
place: if the Power you’re trying to as a Finishing Blow
on the Out character is incapable of at least match-
ing the character’s Toughness plus its applicable de-
fense, then you need to use a Power with a higher
Power Level or Combine Powers with other charac-
ters.
In a gritty campaign, a Finishing Blow will leave the
character dead or permanently transformed if the fin-
isher wishes, though even in a gritty campaign some-
body might elect to merely knock the character un-
conscious to save for ransom or as a hostage or sacri-
fice.
Finishing Blow is reversible, assuming the character is
not dead (and in some campaigns, even if the char-
acter is dead); bringing a character back from a Fin-
ishing Blow requires the same effort (all Actions) as a
Finishing Blow, as well as a Primary Rule justification,
which might be harder to come by than normal.
Out Is Not Defeated
Note that being Out is not the same thing as being
defeated. The battle isn’t over until you are dead,
subject to a Finishing Blow, or the enemy has got-
ten away or otherwise accomplished his goal. Be-
ing Out is a normal part of battles in fantasy adven-
tures, which thrive on dramatic reversals and come-
from-behind victories, and Zounds! tries to allow for
this. During a typical battle, several characters on ei-
ther side may get Out and come back before the final
resolution.
Tired
Damage in excess of the target’s Stamina make the
target Tired, as do Tropes like Supreme Effort and Fail-
ure Is Not An Option!, and suffering an Injury (see Op-
tional Rule: Injury). Like Hindered, while you are Tired
you only roll one die for your Abilities. Unlike Hindered,
being Tired doesn’t accumulate: you are either Tired
or you are not. Tiredness does not stack with being
Hindered, though you don’t get your full dice back
until both conditions are cleared. You cease to be
Tired when:
12. U SING A BILITIES
1. In combat: you spend three Rounds resting (not
attacking, defending or doing anything athletic).
Out of Combat: you spend a scene recovering
(declaring that you’re resting, and not doing any-
thing involving exertion during the scene).
2. You or another character spend an Action using
a Shtick that by the Primary Rule is intended for sit-
uations such as this (e.g., Healing, or Leadership).
3. You go Berserk. E.g., if your Drive is to protect the
innocent, then when an innocent is threatened,
you can go Berserk to recover from being Tired.
4. You get a Second Wind by spending one
Stamina.
Influenced
When you beat a target’s Will, the Target is temporar-
ily Influenced; that doesn’t literally mean the target is
obeying your orders (though it might if you’re using a
Power withe the Control Advantage) but it means the
target is temporarily bent to your will. If you were fir-
ing your weapon at them trying to get them to take
cover, they take cover. If you were trying to Intimidate
them into running, they run. If you were trying to fast
talk your way past the guards, they let you through.
52
They can still rally later, under much the same circum-
stances as somebody recovering from being Out from
an attack on Toughness, e.g. Aid from an Ally with an
appropriate Ability, or after 3 turns.
Overkill
When you do more than 3 points over a foe’s Tough-
ness, that’s Overkill. The exact result of Overkill will de-
pend on the tone of the campaign. The default as-
sumption is that whether it occurs or not is entirely the
GM’s option, and it might result in the foe being out
for the remainder of combat, a serious injury, or even
death. Whether Overkill can ever result in death is
something that should be agreed upon by the group
before the rule is ever invoked to inflict it. You should
always make sure the players know if Overkill can re-
sult in death before they experience it.
In gritty campaigns, you can agree that Overkill
can mean automatic death, or automatically being
Out and Injured with no roll for your armor. See Op-
tional Rule: Injury.
Countering
When a character announces an Action they plan to
do, other characters may decide to Counter the Ac-
tion. For example, if the evil wizard is about to stab
the sacrificial virgin to complete the Ritual of Endless
Night, your character may want to tackle him before
he can do so. Or you may want to stop an mon-
ster from biting your friend by attracting its attention
to yourself.
When a character announces an Action that you
wish to Counter, you can spend one of your Actions
and specify a Power, Shtick or the Default Skill to use to
try to prevent them from taking that Action. Whatever
they’re attempting to do must now beat you in an Op-
posed Task first. (Naturally you have to have Actions
remaining and be using a Power that you haven’t al-
ready used this Round.) Combined Abilities and other
rules apply to this Opposed Task as normal. If he wins,
he goes ahead with his Action as planned and this
contest doesn’t count as his one use of that Power for
the turn; if he loses then he’s out the Power and the
Action and his attempt failed.
If the character being Countered wishes, he can
concede the contest and re-use his Power and Ac-
tion to do something completely different instead;
the Counterer will still have spent the Action and the
Power. E.g. you try to Counter the beast’s attack
on your friend by distracting him with your Acrobat-
ics, leaping and dancing about; the beast concedes
the contest, but turns and uses his Action and his Bite
power to try to chomp you instead; you’ve still spent
your Action and used your Power, so you’ll need to
defend with something else.
The character being Countered also has the option
of trying to bring a different power to bear to over-
come your Countering; this will cost him another Ac-

tion and use another Power in addition to whatever
he was using for the attempt itself. Most of the time
this will be because he was using his Default Skill in the
attempt, rather than a Power. E.g. the wizard was go-
ing to stab the virgin, which would be an ordinary task
with his Default Skill since he has no particular Power
related to knife fighting. If you attempt to Counter him
using your Mighty Thews, you’ll almost certainly suc-
ceed; to prevent that he employs his Mesmeric Gaze
spell to try to divert your strength. This costs him an ex-
tra Action and uses his Power, but the Opposed Task
is now between his Mesmeric Gaze and your Mighty
Thews, which he at least has a chance of winning. If
he wins, he proceeds; if he loses, he’s out both Abili-
ties and Actions.
An ally may attempt to oppose the counter for you.
E.g. instead of the wizard using his Mesmeric Gaze
to counter your Mighty Thews, his familiar might try to
claw your face to make you let go. That would be
treated as a contest of Mighty Thews vs. Claws...if you
succeed, the wizard is prevented from completing
the sacrifice; if the familiar succeeds, he goes ahead
with his Action.
Note that even if you use an attack power like
Wrestling to Counter an Action and succeed, the
Countered character isn’t Hindered or damaged in
any way. Your Wrestling hold lasted long enough that
they couldn’t press the red button this turn, but does
not continue to disrupt their activities.
Combining Actions
You may Combine Actions to attack or defend, move,
or accomplish other tasks given appropriate descrip-
tions according to the Primary Rule. A Combined Ac-
tion might be a super-strong character throwing an-
other character who attacks with his fists or blades
(“Fastball Special”) or two rogues coordinating their
attacks (“You go high, I’ll go low”) or one character
grabbing a enemy to hold him long enough for an-
other to hit. A squad of archers might combine all
their shots into a single attack. When Combining Abil-
ities the combo becomes a single attack, and the
Combined Power Level is equal to the Power Level
of one of the Combined Abilities of the attacker’s
choice, plus 1 Point for each character Combining,
to a maximum plus equal to the number of players
53
Combining Actions
in the fight. Thus, each player at the table involved
in the fight can contribute, if they choose, but you
can never get a bigger plus than that. Enemies face
the same limit: the number of players, not the num-
ber of enemies. (Limiting the maximum to the num-
ber of players actually involved in the fight means that
characters aren’t penalized for having a big group of
players who are off doing something else while the
enemies ambush them.)
For example, Sir Guy combines his PL 8 Knight with
Miles the Archer’s PL 6 Archery and Esmerelda’s PL
5 Prayer, explaining that he will keep the Ogre of
Grimely Keep distracted while Esmerelda prays for a
blessing on Mile’s arrow before Miles tries to sink his
shot in the Ogre’s single eye. They roll d8, d8 (using
Guy’s Power as the base) and adding 2 to the result
(for Miles’ and Esmerelda’s contribution).
The Advantages of the Combined Action will be
those of the Ability that’s chosen as the base for the
Action; you cannot mix and match the Advantages
of the different Abilities. Disadvantages are applied
separately. Using a Ability as part of Combining Abili-
ties costs an Action, even if it’s an Automatic Power.
Combining Your Own Abilities
Characters may also combine two of their own Abili-
ties, for a +1 as per the standard rule, as long as they
have a reasonable Primary Rule justification, such as
using flight to swoop down a enemy while swinging a
12. U SING A BILITIES

mace to add the speed of the dive to the impact of Table 12.1: Splitting Abilities
the mace. Each Ability contributing takes one Action.
You can’t combine more than two of your own Abili- # Targets per die 1 2 4 8
ties, or Combine more than two of your own Abilities Die-size -0 -1 -2 -3
and somebody else’s Abilities.

And the rest...

Splitting Abilities
When you’re using Impromptu Area Effect, after
you’ve split the dice to cover as many specific targets
The opposite of Combining Abilities is Splitting Abilities:
as you wish, you may choose to target everybody left
you can choose to attack multiple targets at once by
over in the area with a single d4. Roll 1d4 for all of
dividing up your Power into two dice, one at each
them, not each individual.
target, or attempt two tasks at once by dividing up
your Shtick. You can’t Split Abilities that have been re-
duced to one die, such as when Hindered or Tired. As Quick Roll
usual, you need to follow the Primary Rule by having a
plausible explanation for what you’re doing, whether When rolling for a bunch of identical Abilities, such
it’s firing one gun with either hand at different targets, as when NPCs are defending against an Area Effect
or kicking one guy while punching another. Even if Power, or Power that’s been split among them with Im-
your explanation of how you’re splitting your power in- promptu Area Effect, instead of rolling for each indi-
volves multiple shots, it still only counts as one Action. vidual roll the defensive Power and treat the high die
Similarly, you need a good explanation of how you’re as applying to half the group, and the low die as ap-
using your Shtick in multiple ways at once, such as try- plying to the other half.
ing to use your Thief Shtick to remain hidden in shad-
ows while picking the lock: one die would go towards Speeding Combat Vs. Minions
the hiding in shadows, the other towards picking the
lock. Against a bunch of identical foes, you can treat them
as a Mob. To treat them as a Mob just redefine them
as a single entity, increasing their Power Levels appro-
priately. See Mobs 15.
Optional Rule: Impromptu Area Effect E.g., The Ogre of Grimely Keep throws a boulder at
16 men-at-arms. You can roll once for the Ogre at
If you want to allow crazier stunts, such as loading (say) PL 10 and then once for the entire mob of men-
a bundle of arrows into a ballista and shooting it at at-arms at (say) PL 6.
an entire squad, or using your Magic Darts spell on a Generally, it makes more sense to treat opponents
dozen guys at once, you can use the Impromptu Area as a Mob if they would be no threat to the charac-
Effect Rule to break up the dice to cover even more ter except en masse, or there are too many to make
targets. Attacking two targets uses one die each. Af- it worth even counting how many individuals are Hin-
ter that each time you lower the die-size by one, you dered or Out. Treat them as individuals if for some rea-
double the number of targets that die effects (e.g., son it matters which are injured and which are not.
d8, d8 becomes 1d8 on each, then 1d6 on 2 targets
and 1d6 on another 2, then 1d4 on 4 targets and an-
other 1d4 on a different 4 targets, etc.). You can never
split a Power below d4, and you can never “double
up” by having the two groups overlap by a single tar-
get; if that means that you cover less than the maxi-
mum (say there are 4 in one group and only 3 left over
for the second group), them’s the breaks.
Generally, Impromptu Area Effect is intended for
when somebody is spreading their Power around,
such as using your Sleep spell on an entire crowd, or
when the gigantic lizard sweeps its tail through the en-
tire party. If you’re doing something like rolling a keg
down a flight of stairs to bowl over the guardsmen
charging up at you, or tossing a tapestry down on a
group of barroom brawlers, it’s quicker and easier for
the GM to treat that as creating a Peril or Obstacle
instead. (See Perils and Obstacles.)
You can use the following table as a “cheat-sheet.”
54

A Note on Tactics
If you are fighting a group of identical foes, such
as guards, and you don’t really care which one you
put Out, it is always advantageous to at least split
your Power into two attacks. E.g., if you have a d10,
d10 attack, make it d10 against each of two foes.
If the resulting roll is too low to affect the guards on
both dice, rolling both against a single guard wouldn’t
have helped; if one of the dice is high enough and
the other isn’t, you still put an guard Out just as if you’d
rolled against a single one; if both of the dice roll high
enough, you manage to get two guards.
Contrariwise, if you are fighting a single foe, or
you have reason to care exactly which foe you’re
putting down (such as the one who is closest to the
lever to lower the portcullis), it’s better to use both
dice against that single foe, and even better if you
can Combine Actions to use larger dice. Wild Swing
(merging two dice into a single larger die) is a toss-up:
it’s more random, so your average roll will be lower,
but the maximum roll will be higher. If you think the
average is good enough to prevail you should stick to
rolling two dice; if you think that you’ll only win if you
roll close to the max then you should go wild.
55
Disabling Abilities
Disabling Abilities
Besides attacking to put a foe Out, you can attack
to Disable one of the opponent’s Abilities. The at-
tacker rolls normally, following the Primary Rule, and
the defender rolls the Ability instead of whatever de-
fense would normally be applicable (so it’s easier to
Disable weaker Abilities). A Hinder result means the
Ability is Disabled and cannot be used again until an
Action is spent restoring it; an Out result means the
Ability is Disabled and can’t be used again until con-
ditions similar to recovering from a Out are met:
1. The character or another spends a full turn repair-
ing or restoring the Ability using another Ability in
accordance with the Primary Rule
2. The character spends an Action using a Shtick
that by the Primary Rule is intended specifically for
situations such as this (e.g., Engineering, Regener-
ation)
3. The character voluntarily leaves combat for 3 full
Rounds to repair or restore the Ability
12. U SING A BILITIES

Disabling Automatic Defenses

When Automatic Defenses are Disabled, they don’t
completely go away: instead they are reduced to a
single die, unless they have the Can be Disabled Dis-
advantage or you use a Power that has the Disabling
Only Advantage. Players should take particular care
that the Primary Rule justification for Disabling a Au-
tomatic Defense makes good genre sense. E.g. if
somebody is made of stone, it ought to be pretty hard
to justify reducing that Power or taking it away, even
temporarily.

Duration Of Abilities
The duration of the effects of various Abilities should
be determined by the Primary Rule. If you make a
patch of ice, it will last until somebody uses an Ability
to get rid of it, or it melts. If you make a wall of stone,
it will last until indefinitely, or until it’s destroyed. Many
effects should be presumed to last only until they’re
overcome; if you Hinder a foe by trying to encase him
in ice, the icy coating only lasts until he spends an Ac-
tion to free himself.

56
Chapter 13
Tropes
Tropes are special rules that help provide a better fit
for things that are typical of the genre. Tropes are al-
most always invoked by the players, or the GM on be-
half of the NPCs, so they can be used as much or as lit-
tle as the players see fit; they are not situational modi-
fiers, so you don’t need to be constantly checking the
list to see if a particular Trope applies, nor is there any
chance that you played it “wrong” if you later realize
that there was a Trope that you might have used but
didn’t.
Aid
Spend an Action to completely Unhinder an ally, no
matter how many Hindered conditions are stacked.
You should still describe how you’re aiding the ally ac-
cording to the Primary Rule.
All for One, And One For All
When their backs are against the wall, fantasy heroes
will often be able to dig deep and surpass their pre-
viously displayed level of power, overcome their limi-
tations and combine together to temporarily manifest
new Powers. Presumably they can only be spurred to
their utmost efforts by the struggle itself. To simulate
this dynamic, Zounds! has All for One, and One For All.
If you’ve gone for three Rounds against the same
foes without scoring an Out against any of them, your
side can do All for One, and One for All; you may
continue trying this until one side or the other pre-
vails, even if you subsequently do manage to score
an Out. During All for One, your characters are tem-
porarily more powerful: you may add a new tempo-
rary Power by choosing one of the contributor’s pow-
ers as base (plus any Advantages and Disadvantages
that balance out), plus 1 Power Level for each char-
acter contributing. Generally in order to add a new
Power you have to employ one of your existing Pow-
ers as part of the justification, although a sufficiently
clever justification might avoid that.
When doing All for One, it’s very important to have
a good Primary Rule justification. For instance, you
might justify adding a new Power with the Exotic Ad-
vantage and Single Use Disadvantage by saying you
57
use your Mighty Thews to grab the huge chain hold-
ing the monster from jumping out of the gladiatorial
arena, and rip it free, tossing it to your companion
who has used his Swashbuckling Acrobatics to leap
on the thing’s head, wrapping it around the beast’s
neck and dropping it to your other companions who
will pull on it with all their might to strangle it. When
adding new Powers, justifications might be jury-rigging
some temporary crazy device, or trying a dangerous
stunt with something in the environment, or even just
unleashing a Power you never knew you had (gener-
ally this happens with “mysterious” Powers like psi or
mystic Powers).
Once the scene is over, the Powers that were con-
tributed to All for One are Burned Out (as in the Dis-
advantage); if that doesn’t make Primary Rule sense,
the contributor is Tired instead.
Battle Cry
Once per session, you can shout your battle cry and
get the highest possible on the dice on the next roll.
Berserk
Narrate your Drive kicking in, and go Berserk. This
doesn’t have to literally mean Berserk, but it does
mean you are giving it everything you’ve got, without
holding anything back or trying to avoid overexertion
or injury. You become immune to being Tired (includ-
ing from Supreme Effort) for a number of Rounds equal
to your Stamina; if you were Tired, you clear that as
well. When Berserk ends, you become Tired. Charac-
ters without a Drive defined can’t use Berserk.
Careful Aim And Pulling Your Punch
There are times when the character may want to be
more cautious about using attacks, either to be surer
that you hit, or to avoid doing Collateral Damage or
Overkill. If you take Careful Aim then instead of rolling
the dice you take half the die size of the larger die.
E.g., on d6, d6 you take 3, on d10, d8 you take 5. You
won’t have the chance of rolling really well, but you
13. T ROPES
won’t roll really poorly either. You cannot use this op-
tion while you are Hindered or Tired.
If you use Careful Aim, then you can choose not
to do any Collateral Damage if you wish. An excep-
tion is when you are attacking a bunch of targets at
once, either via a Power with the Area Effect advan-
tage or by Splitting the Dice; in that case, whether
you can avoid Collateral Damage through Careful
Aim depends on the Primary Rule justification you’re
using to explain how you manage to hit all the tar-
gets. For instance, a character using Super Speed
could say that he’s just running up to each target and
punching them individually in the nose, so avoiding
Collateral Damage makes perfect sense; a character
using Ogre Strength who’s justifying Splitting the Dice
among a number of goblins who are standing within
a crowd of bystanders by hurling a boulder at them
can take Careful Aim to make sure that he hits them
(doing half the die-size), but can’t reasonably aim so
as to hit only the goblins and not the people they’re
standing among; a character with a Rain of Fire Power
that has the Area Effect advantage is similarly unable
to avoid Collateral Damage simply by choosing to use
Careful Aim.
If you wish, you may also declare that you’re Pulling
Your Punch and then you won’t cause Overkill even if
the result would normally be sufficient to Overkill; you
cannot Pull your Punch unless you are taking Care-
ful Aim. Again, Pulling Your Punch may require extra
justification, particularly if you’re using an Area Effect
attack.
Careful Aim and Pulling Punches cannot be com-
bined with Wild Swing or Supreme Effort, since the na-
ture of those is giving it everything you’ve got instead
of taking a safer, more controlled shot.
Carouse
Sometimes the game can seem to grind to a halt,
with nothing obvious the PCs can or want to do to
advance their agendas and nothing pressing them to
respond, or the PCs can get separated with no obvi-
ous way for them to get back together or sometimes
even learn what the rest of the party is up to. If you
wish to address this in game, and don’t mind a bit
of “meta” gaming, you can choose to go Carousing.
Essentially, you volunteer to be “hit with the plot ham-
mer” to move the adventure along; in return you gain
1 XP. The GM is free to do something unfair such as
have you kidnapped or magically spirited away, or
to have you “just happen” across something interest-
ing like a kidnapping or jail break, in the interests of
getting things moving again or reuniting the disparate
strands of the PCs activities. Carousing doesn’t literally
have to mean going and getting drunk, but it should
mean letting your guard down, or going off and ex-
posing yourself to risk without taking particular pre-
cautions, or poking your nose into things you might
not normally.
58
One way to think of Carousing is as an explicit invi-
tation to the GM to trigger a Complication or inflict a
new temporary Complication on a character. While
the GM can naturally do that in the course of play
(that’s part of what being the GM is), Carousing is say-
ing “it would be nice if some coincidence or surprising
turn of events happened right now!”
Failure Is Not An Option!
If you are trying an Uncontested action and you roll
poorly, you can adjust the roll into the maximum roll by
spending another Action and invoking Failure Is Not
An Option! You should accompany this with some ex-
planation of how you managed to pull it off. If you
were in combat, you become Hindered; this repre-
sents some extra time or effort you needed to put in
to change the failure to a success. If the adjustment
is more than your Stamina, you’re Tired in addition.
If you’re out of Actions, you may still invoke Failure Is
Not An Option but you automatically become tired,
no matter how small the adjustment was.
E.g., you are attempting to catch your friend who’s
falling into a pit trap, at Difficulty 6 for your Scope; if
you roll less than a 6, you can choose to still catch him
if you wish, but you narrate that he almost slipped out
of your grip (the bad roll), so you had to lunge for him,
so as a result you’re Hindered.
For extended tasks outside of combat where it
doesn’t make much sense that you are temporarily
Hindered, you may adjust still the roll to the maximum,
but if the adjustment is more than your Stamina you
become Tired; this represents working really hard at
the task, such as might be represented in a movie or
comic book by a montage: exhaustive searches at
the library, late nights at the lab, pounding the streets
talking to contacts, and so on, until you succeeded.
You may never do this with Contested rolls; instead
you would use Supreme Effort. (see 13)
Failure Is Not An Option may be combined with
other ways of getting bonuses to the roll, such as
Combining Abilities and Supreme Effort, with suitable
Primary Rule explanation.
Intimidation
One staple of fantasy stories is the characters are of-
ten able to Intimidate others through a display of their
Abilities, particularly much weaker foes such as nor-
mal people or low-level thugs. Attempts to Intimidate
are treated as attacks vs. Will, but instead of being a
contested roll against the Power that would normally
be used to defend against such an attack, the con-
test is vs. the defender’s strongest Power. This is the
“You call that a knife? Now this is a knife!” principle.
Attempts to Intimidate don’t literally require an attack
on the defender, merely a demonstration of what the
Power is capable of, such as against a nearby inani-
mate object. Creative use of the Primary Rule can jus-
 Take the Hit

tify using Powers such as movement or defenses in In-

timidation, e.g. by using flight or telekinesis to dangle
somebody high above the ground, or to demonstrate
that the target’s best weapons bounce harmlessly off
your magical armor.

Riposte
You can split your Power into one die on the attack,
and one die on the defense. Can be combined with
automatic defense in the usual way (treat as +1 to the
smaller power).

Second Wind
If you are Tired, you can expend 1 point of Stamina
to recover from being Tired. You can only recover
Stamina by spending a scene resting, at one point per
scene. A rest scene really should involve a restful ac-
tivity, like spending a night in a good bed, or bathing
in a hot spring, not just taking a brief pause in running
from the wolves to pant by the side of the road. In fic-
tion, these are the scenes where the protagonists let
their hair, and their guards, down.
Supreme Effort
If the Power isn’t sufficiently strong, but is close, you
may attempt a Supreme Effort to accomplish the task
anyway. You add your Will Attribute to the roll. E.g., d6,
d6 Power plus Will 3 rolls 5, 2, which is a 5, then + 3 for
the Supreme Effort = 8 total. If the roll is Uncontested
you may combine this with Failure is Not an Option
(becoming Hindered as well, to change your roll to
the highest possible).
When you make a Supreme Effort, your Stamina
goes down by one temporarily (until the end of the
adventure or you use Berserk), and you become Tired.
Once you become Tired, you may not attempt further
Supreme Effort until you recover from being Tired.
You may apply Supreme Effort after you see what
the die roll is by spending an additional Action. This
simulates the comic book trope of realizing that you’re
about to fail and redoubling your effort, even when
that effort is something like firing eye-beams. If in-
stead you choose to apply Supreme Effort before the
role it doesn’t take an extra Action, but might well be
wasted (if the roll is so bad that Supreme Effort can’t
possibly help, or so good that it was not needed).
Sheer Determination
As a last resort, you can always free yourself from be-
ing Hindered without spending any Actions by using
Sheer Determination: regardless of how many times
Hindered has been stacked on you by previous at-
tacks, or what Abilities you have, you can clear them
all by expending 1 point of Will. This does not take an
Action, but once you reach 0 Will you can take one
59
more Action and then are Out. Will can only be re-
covered by a scene of Rest and Relaxation, with no
stress or worries, one point per scene.
Take the Hit
When attempting to Counter an attack, the you can
elect to “Take the Hit”: you take the brunt of the
Power against your Default Skill, but the action is au-
tomatically Countered; the opponent doesn’t get to
abort or attempt to use a different power to avoid be-
ing Countered. Normal folks will sometimes do this to
take an attack meant for another. If the action be-
ing Countered wasn’t using a Power, say attempting
to push a button or close a door, the character who
was trying to do the action can abort the Action to
attack the character Taking the Hit (as long as he has
a Power he hasn’t used yet that Round).
E.g. the villain is trying to pull the lever to drop the
portcullis, trapping the heroes. One of the heroes
flings herself at the villain, saying she’s going to Take
the Hit to make sure the villain can’t pull the lever.
Since she’s agreed to Take the Hit, the villain can’t try
to use a different Power to force the lever down, or
abort and run away, but he can hit her with his mace.
That won’t change the fact she’s blocked him from
pulling the lever, but it does make her action a mean-
ingful sacrifice.
This Ends Now!
Sometimes battles drag on forever, with neither side
gaining a clear advantage. To address this, either the
players or the GM may suggest at any point that the
remainder of the battle be resolved via This Ends Now!
If you agree to resolve it via This Ends Now! Both sides
13. T ROPES

describe a single assault, which can use any of the

rules for Combination, Wild Swing, Supreme Effort, and
All for One and the highest roll wins the battle deci-
sively. The losers are at the mercy of the winners, re-
gardless of how the interplay of the Abilities would nor-
mally be worked out according to the Primary Rule.
(E.g., even if your Automatic Defense would usually
make you immune to the particular Power the ene-
mies are employing, if you choose to use This Ends
Now!, if you lose, you lose and are Out/captured with
the rest.) Ties, as always, go to the players.

Wild Swing
Any time you use a Power, you can take a “Wild
Swing”: you merge the two dice into a single higher
die. The result is generally a slightly more erratic roll,
but one with a chance of scoring larger hit (maximum
value increases). Wild Swing does not in itself require a
special Primary Rule justification, it just represents try-
ing a harder, riskier shot.
Two identical dice merge into a single die one size
larger: d8, d8 becomes a single d10; d10, d10 be-
comes d12, etc.
If dice don’t match, roll just the larger die and add
1 to the result. E.g., Power Level 7 is d8, d6. Using Wild
Swing you change that to d8+1.

Wild Swing And Combining Actions

Wild Swing may be done with Combined Actions as
well. Just apply the Combining Actions rule normally,
and then merge the dice of the base Ability.
Example: A squad of 4 goons, each with a PL 4 (d4,
d4) attack can Combine their Powers into a single (d4,
d4)+4 attack; they have the option of Wild Swing as
well, transforming the attack into a d6+4 attack.
Example: A single character combines her own PL
8 Flight and PL 10 Lightning Mace attack and takes a
Wild Swing. That’s +1 PL to one of the Abilities for the
Combination, likely the Mace since it’s higher. That
makes it (d10, d10)+1. Wild Swing would merge the
d10, d10 into a single d12, then +1 for Combining. Had
her Mace been PL 11, and Wild Swing would merge
the d12, d10 into a single d12+1 and +1 for the Com-
bination would have her rolling d12+2.

60
Chapter 14

Rounds And Turns

The players and the NPCs take Turns, going around multiple Actions to attack the same foe, you can treat
the table, alternating between the GM and each them as a sequence of separate attacks or as a Com-
player. Once around the table is called a Round. bined Action, depending on how you describe them.
Your character’s Actions attribute determines the
maximum number of Actions you can take in a Round, Not Your Turn
and all Abilities except defenses may only be used
once per Round. This may not be strictly realistic when As long as you have Actions left:
one character is a pooka capable of girdling the
• If it’s somebody else’s Turn, you can defend your-
world in forty minutes, and another is merely human
self or others, Combine your Abilities with others to
with a big sword, but fantasy stories don’t feature 5
help them, or attempt to Counter an Action.
chapters of scenes with the pooka for every 10 sec-
onds of the swordsman dueling. • In between Turns you can take any Action that
The GM begins each Round by describing the lo- doesn’t involve attacking.
cale as it currently stands, and particularly any con-
ditions that have changed as a result of previous Cutting in Line
Rounds, such as aqua regia spreading across the
floor from the alchemical vat that was just ruptured, a If you have some reason you want to take your Turn
coach-and-six now careening out of control, fire ad- in the order before one of other players goes that
vancing towards the heretic tied to the stake, and so Round, you can just ask them to take your turn first.
on. Play should then alternate between a player tak- Your position at the table isn’t meant to be destiny;
ing a Turn and then the GM taking the Turn of one or it’s just an easy way to keep track of who hasn’t had
more NPCs, until every PC and NPC has taken a Turn. a chance yet. If you want to cut before an NPC, you
The GM should try to space out the Turns of the NPCs can spend an extra Action to move your Turn up.
so they go in between each player’s Turn, instead of
all the NPCs at once. Interrupting
You can only Interrupt somebody else’s Turn once
On Your Turn they’ve announced it if you are trying to Counter
On your Turn, you can do as many different things them, otherwise you should wait until their Turn is re-
as your Actions, as long as you don’t use any non- solved.
automatic Ability more than once. Sequences of Ac- Don’t spend too much time thinking about the best
tions have to make sense as happening rapidly ac- order to carry out Actions or take Turns–the object is
cording to the Primary Rule; you shouldn’t try to in- to keep the action flowing, cutting back and forth be-
scribe a scroll, wrestle an alligator, and seduce the tween the characters and the enemies as in a movie,
enemy all at the same time, even if each of those rather than to gain any kind of tactical advantage.
makes sense individually and you have enough Ac-
tions to cover it.
If your Turn comes around and you don’t want to
do anything yet, you can postpone your Turn for later;
play then moves on to the next player. You may
take your Turn later, but you may not interrupt another
character’s Turn except to try to Counter them.
You may invite other Players to join you in Combined
Actions (or they may suggest it); if they join you, you
are considered to be taking your Turns simultaneously
and they do not get a separate Turn later. If you use
61
Chapter 15
Special Situations
The variety of Abilities and situations that science fic-
tion characters confront, and all the ways they can
combine, is vast. Most of the time, dealing with this
in Zounds! is straightforward: you apply the Primary
Rule to see what sounds sensible in an fantasy story
and then either it simply happens (if it’s unopposed
and well within the Ability’s capabilities), you roll and
compare to a Difficulty (if it’s unopposed but possibly
beyond the limits of the Ability), or you roll against the
opposing Ability.
Nevertheless, some special situations crop up fre-
quently enough that it’s worth treating them slightly
differently, both for greater fidelity to the genre and
more consistency when they crop up. They are largely
elaborations on the basic procedure, rather than re-
placements for it, and the GM should feel free to ig-
nore them in any situations where they would make
less sense than the basic procedure.
Mobs
Fantasy characters frequently confront mobs, even
armies, of lesser foes. While the ordinary rules for com-
bining Abilities (when it comes to the mob attacking)
and splitting Abilities (when the characters attack the
mob) are sufficient for small groups, it can become
tedious if the mob is very large or is interacting with
multiple characters at once. In these situations, it’s
convenient to handle the mob as a single entity, or
perhaps one entity per character. Simply stat the mob
out as if it were a enemy, with Abilities and Attributes
representing the combined values of the individual
members; there is no need to calculate this accord-
ing to the rules for Combining Abilities, just do it di-
62
rectly based on the Scope. E.g., a mob of ordinary
citizens sufficient to take on a Cinematic-level char-
acter can just be given a Main Power (spears and im-
provised weapons) at Level 6 (d6, d6), a Automatic
Defense (multiple bodies) at Level 8 (d8, d8), Tough-
ness 3, Will, Stamina and Actions 2, and then fight as
a single entity. Out can represent the mob being dis-
persed, rather than each individual being incapaci-
tated (though it could represent that, too, depend-
ing on the Primary Rule). When fighting a mob as a
single entity, there is no need for characters to split
their Abilities or use Area Effect Abilities to cover the
entire mob, whether making an ordinary attack or In-
timidation; the presumption is that the coordination or
tight packing that allows the mob to be treated as a
single entity for purposes of overwhelming the char-
acters render it vulnerable to disruption or scattering
without special effort on the part of the characters so
long as the basics of the Primary Rule are followed.
Mobs are treated the same as single characters
when it comes to rules like Wild Swing, Supreme Ef-
fort, and the like, whether the mob is fighting a single
character or another mob. Mobs may Combine Ac-
tions with characters, provided they are operating at
the same Scope. That is, a single minion shouldn’t be
able to combine with the enemy leader to give him
a bonus, but a mob of minions large enough to be a
threat to the character should.
Crossing Scopes
Adventurers sometimes face opponents of different
Scopes from their own, whether it’s lower-level crit-
ters or menaces from a higher Scope. Since within a
Scope Power levels always have the same range from
PL 2 to PL 12 (roughly), when encountering something
from another Scope you have to translate its Scope
to your own. You should almost always translate them
into your Scope, so you don’t have to do the math on
all the players’ Abilities.
Higher Scope Crossing to Lower
For each Scope Level the opponent is higher, add 1
to its Power Level for PLs less than 6, add 2 to its PL for
PLs greater than or equal to 6.
 Crossing Scopes

Lower Scope Crossing to Higher

For each Scope Level the opponent is lower, subtract
2 from its Power Level for PLs greater than or equal to
6, subtract 1 from its Power Level for PLs less than 6.

Examples
Higher to Lower
Facing a foe 3 Scope Levels higher (such as Romantic
Level when you are Normal) who has a PL 7 Power:
Romantic 7 = Cinematic 9 = Heroic 11 = Normal 13.
Each downward jump adds 2 levels. His PL 7 Power at
your Scope will be treated as PL 13 (d8+5, d12).
Facing a foe 3 Scope Levels higher who has a PL 4
Power: Romantic 4 = Cinematic 5 = Heroic 6 = Street
8. The first two downward jumps add only 1, since the
PL is less than 6, then the last adds 2. His Power at your
Scope is PL 8.

Lower to Higher
Facing a foe 2 Scope Levels lower (such as Normal
Scope when you are Cinematic) who has a PL 7
Power : Normal Level 7 = Heroic Level 5 = Cinematic
Level 4. The first jump in Scope subtracts 2, the second
only 1, since at that point it’s already at less than 6. His
Power will be treated as PL 4 when facing you.

63
Chapter 16

Range

Range and positioning in Zounds! are highly abstract, a cable holding a cargo net to make it fall on him. In
and are scaled according to the Personal Scope of any case, by the Primary Rule if you can’t come up
the Campaign. Rather than giving a range as a con- with a plausible justification given the circumstances,
crete number such as 300 meters, and then calculat- you should refrain from using the power until it is justi-
ing that based on a movement rate of 100 meters per fied.
Round it will take three Rounds to cover the distance, Each Round you can try to reduce or increase the
in Zounds! you would say that since the Scope is e.g., Range by one category; if the other side tries to pre-
Heroic, the enemy being on the next street over puts vent that from happening (by fleeing or pursuing)
him at Pursuit Range, and it will take one round us- make a Contested roll of Movement and sensory Abil-
ing your Movement Power to reduce that to Combat ities vs. Movement and stealth Abilities, depending on
Range. Almost all combat takes place at Combat whether the quarry is trying to outdistance pursuit or
Range for the Scope, except perhaps at the begin- hide; this takes an Action.
ning when the sides are just catching sight of each Ranges are symmetric: no character can attack
other, or if one side is trying to elude the other. another from a range too great for the target to
Range divides into Combat Range, Pursuit Range, counter-attack. It may be that the description of cer-
and Lost Contact with the distances depending on tain Abilities implies a limitation on the range of that
the Scope. Combat Ranges for each Scope are listed Power, e.g., a Sword implies that you generally have
below; Pursuit Range is one Scope level higher, and to be within arm’s length of the target. Even so, if
Lost Contact is two Scope levels higher. So a charac- the character chooses to throw the sword, or move
ter operating at Romantic Scope would treat every- to close with the foe and smack him one, the range
thing in a single block of buildings as within Combat to the foe is no different from any other Power.
Range, up to a couple blocks away in any direction The Combat Range also determines the Difficulty of
as being Pursuit Range, anything farther away would spotting a target with a sensory power, e.g. some-
be Lost Contact. Note that Pursuit Range doesn’t lit- thing that would require special senses to spot would
erally mean they are directly visible at all times, or ordinarily be Difficulty 6 , but for a Cinematic Scope
that you have noticed them, merely that the Scope character to spot it several blocks away would be +2
of your senses and movement Abilities are sufficient Scope levels, therefor Difficulty 8. (see Difficulty for
that you can attempt to locate them; depending on Other Tasks12.)
the Primary Rule that may mean you are criss-crossing
the area at Super Speed rather than searching for
them with clairvoyance, but in any case they must win
one more Contested Movement roll before they’ve
eluded you completely.
At Combat Range all Abilities work normally; at Pur-
suit Range, the you can only roll a Contest of either
movement vs. movement or sensory Abilities versus
hiding or evasion; if you’ve Lost Contact, you can’t
even try to locate the target any more—you have no
idea which direction they’ve gone or how far. What
constitutes Combat Range does not depend on the
Power in question: claws and lightning bolt have the
exact same Combat Range for a given Scope, they
simply require different descriptions of how the power
is used to justify them, with claws more likely to require
extra justification by including a description of how
the character runs and leaps on the foe, or slashes
64

Combat Range by Scope
1. Normal Normal large room, such as dining
room or conference room
2. Heroic Floor of a building, or a large room
such as a club or warehouse
3. Cinematic Large building such as an office
or warehouse, street and storefronts on ei-
ther side
4. Romantic Block of buildings
5. Homeric Several blocks of buildings
6. Biblical Neighborhood of a city, e.g. SoHo
or Chinatown
7. Legendary Region/several states
8. Mythic Country
9. Titanic World
10. Cosmic Solar System
Add 1 to Scope for Pursuit Range and 2 for Lost
Contact. E.g. A Biblical Scope character would
regard a section of a city such as the Foreign
Quarter or the Acropolis as being within Com-
bat Range, with the entire City as being Pur-
suit Range. A Mythic being would regard an
entire country as being within Combat Range,
something at the far end of the world as Pursuit
Range, and anything beyond that as Lost Con-
tact.
Movement And Range
Most Adventurers, except at the very lowest Personal
Scopes, are capable of traveling much faster than
would ever be necessary to get about in combat
or reach any place within Combat Range within a
relatively short amount of time. You can use the
Power Level chart to figure out how fast your char-
acter can go, but most of the time the character is
going to be more constrained by the need to jus-
tify the movement by the Primary Rule than the ac-
tual speed. Characters in Zounds! are presumed to
be within reach of each others’ Abilities as long as
they’re at Combat Range or less, as long as they de-
scribe what they’re doing adequately. Movement
is only separate action when you’re attempting to
change the Range or overcome an Obstacle, other-
wise it takes place as part of the description of the
other actions the character is taking.
For instance, if your Movement Power is Super
Speed, and the enemy is flying, how do you get up to
him if that’s what you want to do? Can you run so fast
that you can run straight up a near-by building? Or
spin so fast with your arms outstretched that you he-
licopter into the air? Or do you need to find or build
65
Senses And Range
a ramp at super-speed and launch yourself off it? In
real-world physics there is no speed that makes any of
those except the last possible, but in fantasy physics
any could be an explanation if that’s how you say
your Power works, pretty much regardless of the ex-
act level of the Power and where it falls on the speed
chart.
Once in a while the situation might make it hard
to justify using the Power: if the enemy is standing at
the other side of a lava-filled crevasse and the char-
acter’s Movement power is running the player might
feel it’s implausible that the character could jump the
crevasse to stab the enemy with her sword; according
to the Primary Rule she should simply do something
else, or combine her attack with another character
who can supply the needed justification by carrying
her over to attack with his Flying Carpet power. In
general, though, given the flexibility of Abilities and
the leeway given to the players to invent plausible
details of the environment such as vines to swing on,
dragons from the attacking air-cavalry to hitch a tem-
porary ride from, rubble that’s formed a convenient
ramp to pole-vault from, and so on, players should
rarely find themselves at a loss for justifying closing any
distance within Combat Range even if the Power’s
description requires they actually touch their oppo-
nent.
Senses And Range
Difficulty for spotting something with your senses is rel-
ative to how hard it would be to spot, adjusted by dis-
tance according to the area that the particular Com-
bat Range covers. By the Primary Rule, though, you
should only have to roll if what you’re trying to spot
might easily be missed, such as when it’s concealed
or you’re distracted. If it’s actively trying to hide, that
would be an Opposed check vs. whatever Ability it
was using to conceal itself.
E.g., Something that an ordinary human could spot
would be Difficulty 4, something only perceptible to
super-senses or equivalent instruments would be diffi-
culty 6, and so on. (See Difficulty for Other Tasks 12).
If an ordinary human could spot it when within the
same large room (Scope 2), then spotting it from the
next block over (Scope 5) would be +3 to the diffi-
culty, or Difficulty 7. On the other hand, spotting it from
within the area covered by small room would be -1 to
the difficulty, for a Difficulty of 3.
The amount that you make the roll by can be used
to indicate how much information your senses reveal.
Succeeding by 0 means you can perceive what’s cur-
rently happening, which is usually sufficient, but many
unusual senses that Adventurers might possess could
plausibly be able to reconstruct past events or per-
ceive minute or subtle details. See Investigation Re-
sults.
Chapter 17
Investigation
Frequently in fantasy, the characters will be facing the
unknown. It could be as prosaic as trying to solve
a crime, or as exotic as trying to determine why the
gods themselves seem to be vanishing, but investiga-
tion will form a large part of most fantasy adventures,
and the players will want to play out obtaining new
information. Most of the time in Zounds!, the informa-
tion is there for the asking, while the interpretation is
left up to the players. If they search a body, or a li-
brary, or perform a magical experiment, they will find
everything that the GM thinks is a relevant clue, and
perhaps some red herrings besides.
In other cases, the players will want their characters
to perform investigations and detective work in order
to outsmart or get the jump on the enemies, for in-
stance to figure out their enemy’s likely next move or
sniff out the security precautions he’s placed in his lair,
in which case the character should roll the appropri-
ate Ability (usually a Shtick) or the Default Skill if using
something from the character’s Background against
the Difficulty of the task (see Difficulty for Other Tasks
12), and comparing the result to the following table:
The number of you beat the Difficulty by determines
the amount of information obtained:
Success Answer
0 yes/no
1 one-word answer
2 short sentence, quantity, or direction
3 diagram or paragraph description
4 sketch or series of questions
5 clear image or a conversation with the GM
Table 17.1: Information Gained
You can Combine Actions for Abilities that give in-
formation, with yourself and others, and that usually is
an excellent strategy since each additional success
more than doubles the amount of information you
get. (One roll at +1 is better than two characters mak-
ing rolls.)
Note that how much information you get is deter-
mined by the roll, but which information you get is de-
66
termined by how you narrate your actions and phrase
questions to the GM.
The result is approximately how much information
the GM should divulge. For instance if the detec-
tive is trying to deduce what the criminal’s target is
as they are attacking a cathedral, that’s something
that an ordinary person could do (Difficulty 4), so the
detective rolls her appropriate Ability vs. Difficulty 4.
Suppose she gets a 6; she beat it by 2 and the GM
should provide about one sentence worth of informa-
tion: “The most likely target is the casket of the saint’s
remains in the crypt.” If she had beat it by 5, then
the result would be a picture; not necessarily a literal
picture, but the information equivalent to looking at a
photo of what they intend to steal, which means that
she could ask questions if she wanted such as what
kind of display case it’s in, whether there are guards
around and so forth and the GM should try to answer
if it would be evident from looking at such a photo.
When the GM is conveying the results of the Investi-
gation roll, it’s best if at all possible to give the actual
clues that the detective spotted that lead to the con-
clusion couched in terms that make sense according
to exactly what Ability or skill the detective is employ-
ing rather than the bare bones of the information. If
a mystic character is using her Psychic Sensitivity to try
to identify a suspect, then the description should be in
terms of psychic impressions, and perhaps lean more
heavily towards the feelings and psychology of the
target; a character using Detective should be given
more concrete physical description along the lines of
“From the angle of the blow it would have to be some-
body taller than the victim, and quite strong, either a
man or strong woman; the attacker was left-handed,
and some from some thread that were caught on one
of the victim’s buttons was wearing a very expensive
cashmere jacket.” The goal, as always with Zounds!, is
to make the descriptions flow satisfyingly from the Pri-
mary Rule being applied to the specific Ability used.
A Note On Investigation
Don’t overuse Investigation; in particular don’t turn it
into the skill system that Zounds! doesn’t have. Noth-
ing of value is added to the game by substituting In-
vestigation rolls for the Spot and Notice checks that
 A Note On Investigation

some other games have. If it’s something that the

character should notice or know because of their
Abilities or Background, the GM should just divulge the
information. Characters in fantasy fiction don’t usu-
ally completely miss clues, even really obscure ones,
and the flow of the game isn’t helped by the players
having to play twenty questions to see if they notice
something relevant. Fantasy characters often have
abilities far beyond those of mortal men, and even
senses that nobody has or can accurately describe.
Just go ahead and tell them all the information they
can glean, using whatever senses and abilities they
have, and let them get on with the far more interest-
ing part of interpreting and using that information. Re-
serve Investigation for when it’s an activity that will be
interesting enough to devote play time to, preferably
when the players instigate it, for instance by announc-
ing they’re going to use their crystal ball to try to an-
alyze the ectoplasm left at the attack on the guard
and identify the supernatural creature that likely pro-
duced it.
It can take some work for GMs used to other sys-
tems to shake the habit of asking the players to roll to
see if anybody knows a certain piece of information
or notices the impending ambush, but it will make for
a faster-paced game and help the characters really
shine. A good rule of thumb is never use an Inves-
tigation roll for something that the character would
passively notice or could see at a glance, and if the
player announces the character is going to perform
a specific activity to try to gather information such as
visit the dives around the waterfront to shake down
punks for information, or research at the university li-
brary, consider whether the Primary Rule implies they
should just be given the information they’re seeking (if
it’s indeed a plausible way to turn it up) without re-
quiring a roll. Reserve rolling for situations where it’s
truly unclear whether and how much information they
should turn up.

67
Chapter 18
Negotiations
Negotiations are a catch-all for all inter-personal in-
teraction that is not overtly hostile. Usually, you want
something from someone else, and are trying to con-
vince them to give it to you, whether you want a pos-
session, information, or simply for them not to help your
enemies.
Negotiations are broken down into three types of
sub-goals:
• Charm/Appease: you are trying to make
them like you more or hate you less.
• Convince: you are trying to make them
believe a matter of fact (which could be
known to be true, a lie, a conjecture, or a
wild speculation).
• Entice/Caution: you are trying to make a
certain course of action more appealing or
more frightening.
When using a Shtick in negotiations, set the difficulty
level to be the Scope of the person or group you are
negotiating with (for a person that’s usually the size
of the area they command, e.g. the Mayor of a city
would be 5, since a city is at Adventure Scope 5).
The GM will determine the most likely attitude at
the start of the Scene based on your common his-
tory, alignment of interests, characters, and the role-
played interaction. You can make a roll to Charm or
Appease. Success improves their attitude by one level
just during the scene; success by more than their Will
makes the attitude one level higher permanently, or
at least until you do something further that alters it for
the worse; if you succeed by 3 more than their Will,
their attitude becomes two levels higher. If you fail by
more than 3, their attitude becomes one level worse.
You may not attempt to Charm/Appease them more
than once per Scene, nor have different characters
try one after another, although you may all Combine
your abilities; once you’ve determined their basic at-
titude towards you for the scene and done your best
to modify it, play out the rest of the scene and any
attempts to Convince or Entice/Caution them based
on the resulting attitude.
The numbers for each attitude are modifiers to
your rolls to Convince or Entice/Caution them, once
you’ve determined their attitude.
68
Attitude
1. Hatred (-3) Harming you is one of their most
important goals. They will harm you if at
all possible, although they may hesitate if it
is likely to cause their deaths or loss of an-
other long-term goal. Hatred occasionally
has beneficial aspects, such as when your
sworn enemies prevent another from killing
you so as to savor your death themselves.
2. Hostility (-2): They would like to harm you,
but it is not a major goal. They won’t make
plans to harm you at great expense or dan-
ger, but will harm you if there is a good op-
portunity.
3. Unfriendliness (-1) They would enjoy seeing
you harmed, but it is not an active goal of
theirs.
4. Neutrality (0) They do not care whether you
are harmed or helped, if it doesn’t affect
them in some other way.
5. Friendliness (1) They wish you well, and will
help you if it has little cost or danger.
6. Warmth (2) Your well-being is important to
them, but not enough that they would take
great risks or expenses on your behalf.
7. Devotion (3) You are central to their exis-
tence, and they would take great risks and
bear great expenses for you, although it is
not completely without limits. Devotion can
sometimes backfire, in that their obsession
with you may become a nuisance or dan-
ger. They may become jealous of other al-
lies, or sycophantic to the point of not giving
you honest answers.
Similarly, the GM will rate their receptiveness to an
idea, based on their nature and the role-played en-
counter. Using an Ability to Convince them can in-
crease this one level with a success, or two levels if
you succeed by more than their Will; failure by more
than 3 makes this one level worse.
 1. Denial,
2. Disbelief,
3. Skepticism,
4. Neutrality,
5. Openness,
6. Belief,
7. Conviction.
To Entice or Caution make the same sort of roll, using
the following scale:

1. Repugnance,
2. Reluctance,
3. Disinterest,
4. Neutrality,
5. Interest,
6. Eagerness,
7. Zealousness.

What an Ally will give you

It is generally cheap for a party to give you informa-
tion they have, so any favorable attitude might give
you information. Secondly, the other group may give
you assistance. This will often be in the form of as-
signing an underling to help you, or a temporary Abil-
ity. They could also take charge of some aspect of a
group plan, such as keeping the regent’s troops busy
while you corner the General. Finally, if they are really
committed to helping you, they could devote their
entire resources to your joint endeavor. Usually, they
would take charge of the major aspects and risks, and
delegate some smaller role to you.

69
Chapter 19
Arcane Research
Mastering magic, unlocking cosmic secrets and com-
ing up with new spells is a major part of many
fantasy stories, so it’s not surprising that many pro-
tagonists are witches and wizards and are constantly
doing research or puttering around in their labs.
In Zounds! characters with the Wise One Template
can do Research Scenes to revise and expand their
Magic! Power to the needs of the adventure, but
that’s just one way that research into new magic, ar-
tifacts, and arcane knowledge can come into play.
Characters may also perform Research to gain new
Assets and improve upon their existing ones.
Once each session, characters may perform an
Arcane Research scene using any appropriate Abil-
ity (the Wise One’s Magical Research Shtick, or any
magic or alchemy Shtick that characters using other
Templates may have). The characters choose an As-
set (see Assets) that they want to improve upon with
research and tinkering, or a new Asset they want to
70
create. The Difficulty for the Arcane Research is the
PL of the Asset. Scoring a success grants 1 XP for im-
proving that Asset, or towards its purchase for a new
one; if the 1 XP from success isn’t enough to buy the
improvement or new Asset immediately, “bank” it as
belonging to that particular Asset. When making a
Research roll, always check for a Mishap even if the
Power doesn’t have a Disadvantage that would call
for a check.
If a Mishap occurs, the GM should invent something
interesting that went wrong, such as:
1. Puff of colorful smoke, some piece of hard-to-
replace lab equipment is broken.
2. Small explosion; treat as a single attack on the re-
searcher(s) at the PL of the Asset.
3. Line of Arcane Research is set back, if any XP was
accumulated on this Research lose 1 XP.
4. Experiment sets off an adventure. Perhaps the re-
searcher is split into a good version and a bad
version, or it attracts a mischievous or hostile en-
tity from another realm, or the researcher (and
nearby friends) are magically whisked to different
part of the setting, or into the realm of Fairy or
another plane of existence, or the researcher is
granted a vision of some other place or time and
learns something of note such as the location of
a lost city or forgotten artifact.
5. Sudden insight. You can abandon this Arcane
Research and put any XP already banked into a
new line of Research, aiming at a new Asset.
6. Serendipity! You’ve accidentally discovered
something else entirely. GM grants you a Major
Asset of her design.
“Interesting” in this context means that it has some ef-
fect on the game besides just the description of col-
ored lights and things blowing up, although that effect
need not have mechanics attached.
A new Minor Asset costs 1 XP; Major Assets that be-
long to the players jointly cost 3 XP; Major Assets that
belong to a particular character cost as many XP as
that character has Boosts. Improving Assets costs as
many XP as the Asset has in Boosts. The GM should
determine what the Attributes and Abilities of a new
Major Asset are, following the description by the play-
ers of what they’re trying to Research.
When playing out an Arcane Research Scene, play-
ers are strongly encouraged to describe what they’re
doing in some detail, even if it’s just pseudo-mystical
babble, and try their to fit the magical lore into the
setting and tone, whether that’s “I’m calling upon the
guardians of the four directions using their respective
elements to ward the area within the standing stones
while I invoke the moon goddess Diana to breach the
walls between the worlds, creating a gate into Fairy-
land until the moon sets” or “I’m binding a minor fire
elemental to my blade to create a flaming sword.”
Players can combine their Abilities, and should add
to the description: “I’ll be guiding the invocation of
the four guardians using my Astrology, to warn if the
influences are becoming unbalanced by inauspicious
astrological elements.”
If the campaign is using Wealth, you can substitute
WP for any expenditure of research XP; you can even
use Research to generate WP by inventing new pro-
cesses or magical items that you can sell. The difficulty
of getting a Wealth Point via Research is your current
Wealth PL, with the usual results for Research Mishaps.

71
Chapter 20
Equipment
In most fantasy fiction, equipment plays a big part in
the story, whether it’s the barbarian’s trusty axe or the
knight’s shining armor. In Zounds! you should assume
that Powers and Shticks that you use require equip-
ment and the equipment you’re using should be part
of your narration of what you’re doing. You are re-
duced to one die (as if you were Hindered) in that
Ability if you don’t have appropriate equipment (e.g.
spears or Swords for a Power like Soldier, herbs and
poultices for a Shtick such as Healer). Abilities that
have taken the Advantage Bare-handed aren’t sub-
ject to this; a typical such Power might be Martial
Arts, or Oratory. Abilities that have the Disadvantage
Equipment Required don’t even get a single die; they
just can’t be used; as typical Power might be Siege En-
gineer. Naturally, the Primary Rule applies: if you’re us-
ing your Ability to justify knowledge of something, such
as your Swordsmanship Power as a reason you might
recognize the masked fighter by his style, you don’t
have to describe waving your sword around even if it
has the Equipment Required Disadvantage.
Most of the time, players can assume they have
whatever equipment they need to hand...or just pick
up some improvised equipment. Somebody with a
Power such as Knight caught without a sword while
in a roadside inn when some bandits attack can nar-
rate grabbing a handy broom and breaking off the
head to use as a staff until she can knock a bandit
out and take his sword. The point is to encourage such
narration for flavor, not to enforce bookkeeping of ev-
erything the character is carrying at every moment.
There should, however, be times when in all fairness
it is unreasonable to assume that there is adequate
equipment handy, and the character should endure
the handicap until some can be procured.
Equipment Dice
Specific pieces of Equipment in Zounds! are rated in
terms of a single die; characters using the equipment
can use that die in place of one of their own if it would
improve the dice rolled. For instance, a sword might
be rated at d6. An untrained person who would ordi-
nary roll a d2 for his attack would instead roll a d6. A
trained man-at-arms with a Power like Soldier 4 would
roll a d6, d4 instead of d4, d4. If he had PL 5 he’d roll
72
d6, d6 instead of d6, d4. On the other hand, a Knight
PL 8 would still roll d8, d8; the sword wouldn’t improve
on that, though it would justify using both dice in-
stead of being reduced to one for being unequipped.
Equipment can be given the same Advantages and
Disadvantages that Abilities can, raising and lowering
the Equipment Rating by one die size instead of one
Power Level. E.g. a Crossbow d6 with the Shots Disad-
vantage becomes d8; a Greek Fire Flask d8 with the
Area Effect Advantage becomes d6, etc.
Hindered Equipment
Since Equipment is itself only a single die, if it becomes
Hindered (say because of an attempt to disable it) it’s
reduced by a die size and takes on the Fragile disad-
vantage until maintenance is performed.
Typical Equipment Dice
Equipment Die
Small/Minor d4
Medium d6
Large/Major d8
Rare/Expensive d10
Legendary d12
Disadvantages will increase the equipment die,
while Advantages reduce it. E.g. a piece of equip-
ment that would otherwise be d6 would be d8 if it
had the Shots Disadvantage; a d8 piece of equip-
ment would be d6 if it had the Area Effect Advantage.
Equipment Mishaps
If you’re only rolling the single Equipment Die, a roll
of a 1 is a Mishap; if you’re rolling it in place of the
smaller die on your Ability, then doubles is a chance of
a Mishap as normal (roll a d12 and get higher than the
Equipment Die size to prevent the Mishap). Remem-
ber you only have to check for Mishaps if you have a
Disadvantage that requires one, such as the Erratic or
Side Effects Disadvantages. (If you find it simpler you
can just roll a d12 when you have to check for Mishaps
and a 1 is a Mishap; it’s just a matter of whether you
prefer to have to roll an extra d12 every time or only
 Maintenance

once in a while.) A campaign intended to have a grit-

tier tone might have all equipment check for mishaps;
in this case, if a Mishap occurs on a piece of Equip-
ment that doesn’t have a specific Disadvantage trig-
gered, the GM should narrate some general ill-fortune
such as dropping it, or it getting jammed or stuck.

Example Equipment

Not all of this equipment will be available in every set-

ting, and the GM is encouraged to change the basic
parameters to better match the setting. For instance,
Low Fantasy settings will often have no armor better
than chain, and no cross-bows or arquebuses at all.
Magic arms and armor will be +1 die size, powerful
Magic will be +2 die sizes; even if the equipment ex-
ists in the setting, there’s no guarantee that the PCs
will be able to purchase it: a magic sword might only Transport
be available by finding it as treasure or defeating its Equipment Die
current owner. Truly powerful magic items will proba-
bly be Major Assets, much like mounts or companions,
Animals
with Attributes and Powers, not just equipment.
(DD) High Maintenance, (AA) Larger Scope
Pony d4
Donkey d6
Arms Horse d8
Equipment Die Warhorse d10
Ox d8
Melee Weapons
Wagons
Small One-handed (short sword, hand axe) d4
(DD) Limited to roads, (AA) Larger Scope
Large One-handed (arming sword, broadsword) d6
Cart d4
Two-Handed (longsword, battle axe) d8
Wagon d6
Small Pole arms (spear, halberd) d6
Coach d8
Large Pole arm (pike, lance) d8
Coach-and-six d10
Missile Weapons
Ships
(D) Shots
(D) Limited to water, (D) Slow, (D) High Maintenance
Short Bow d6
(AA) Larger Scope, (A) Larger Scope
Longbow, Light Crossbow d8
Rowboat d4
Crossbow (D: Slow) d10
Sailboat d6
Heavy Crossbow (DD: Very Slow) d12
Longship d6
Arquebus (DD: Very Slow, A: Armor-Piercing,
d10 Bireme d8
treat armor as 2 die-sizes lower)
Trireme d10
Single-masted Ship d12
Armor
Automatic defense Two-masted Ship d8+5
Leather d4 Three-masted Ship d8+10
Chain d6
Magic +1 die-size
Plate d8
Powerful Magic +2 die-sizes
Jousting Armor (D: Encumbered) d10
Shield
Small (buckler) d4 Maintenance
Improvised (e.g. cloak, chair) d4
Medium (Viking) d6 Some equipment needs routine care and upkeep,
Large (Kite, Hoplite) d8 particularly animals; such equipment will have the
High Maintenance Disadvantage. Once per session,
Magic +1 die-size players with such equipment should spend a Scene
Powerful Magic +2 die-sizes describing how they’re performing maintenance on
73
20. E QUIPMENT

some single piece of equipment: this stands in for all

the maintenance that they need to do on all their
equipment to keep it in good repair. If they skip this
scene, all their equipment either becomes Hindered
or becomes Disabled completely until the scene is
performed depending on whether High Maintenance
was a Big (DD) or Small (D) Disadvantage on the
equipment.

Encumbrance
In Fantasy settings characters are much more depen-
dent on muscle power, and can’t generally rely on
super-light and compact equipment or the conve-
nience of being able to run down to the corner store
for their basic necessities; as a result, they need to
worry about carting around a lot more stuff than is typ-
ical in other genres, enough that it could be a definite
nuisance, if not a danger, to fight or engage in other
strenuous athletic activity. On the other hand, care-
ful tracking of inventory is not a prominent feature of
such stories, either.
Zounds! handles this mostly by appeal to the Pri-
mary Rule that it has to sound sensible in terms of the
genre.

Encumbrance and Athletics

While in combat or performing athletic feats, if you
are wearing a backpack, carrying armfuls of things,
or carrying things in your hands that you need to be
careful not to spill or break, you are Encumbered. En-
cumbered is treated as Hindered (abilities reduced to
one die), but you can’t clear it simply by spending an
Action. You stop being Encumbered as soon as you
shed the load.

Encumbrance and Travel

If you are carrying anything except a walking stick or
staff that isn’t secured (in a backpack, slung over your
back, with a shoulder-strap, or on your belt), you are
Encumbered for the purposes of travel (roll one die
on movement and other travel skills). Anything par-
ticularly heavy in your backpack will also Encumber
you. If you are wearing heavy armor while traveling
you are also Encumbered, unless you’re riding. Armor
on mounts makes them Encumbered, as do any out-
sized loads or riding double.. After one travel scene
(as defined in Trekking) while Encumbered, you be-
come Tired.

74
Chapter 21

The Environment

In fantasy stories the environment provides things for

Adventurers to break or use as weapons against each
other, and things that are dangerous to the charac-
ters. Other aspects of the environment merely provide
fodder for using the Primary Rule and plot and char-
acterization for the adventures.

Environment Description

The GM should take care to describe the environment

in sufficient detail to provide the players with a good
sense of the ways that they can employ the Primary
Rule when taking their actions. It’s not necessary to
be obsessively detailed, and a battle mat and minia-
tures are almost certainly overkill (though if you want
to and have the action figures lying around, go for it),
but a bit of extra time fleshing out the scene slightly
is well worth it. Don’t just say “When you kick down
the door, you see a magical lab and a bunch of ap-
prentices.” If you can, add some salient details: Along
the right side of the room are a bunch of bubbling
tanks with shadowy figures suspended in them; a myr-
iad of tubes criss-cross the ceiling and descend into
the tanks. In the middle of the room a group of about
seven apprentices in robes are working at some ta-
bles with alembics and chalked pentagrams, various
alchemical glassware, and beakers of steaming po-
tions. Along the left side of the room is a gigantic
tapestry, and three guards in mail, with spears and
shields are standing there. At the rear of the room, on
a raised platform that takes up the entire back of the
room, there is some sort of metallic table with restraints
and a wicker basket containing some kind of shad-
owy creature suspended by a chain above it. Light
is coming from flickering torches on the walls, like the
rest of the tower, and there is another closed double
door at the far end past the platform.
Players are free to assume that there are features
that aren’t explicitly mentioned, as long as they make
sense given what they’re told is there, but they should
exercise some restraint when it comes to unusual, too
convenient, or bizarre features. A mad alchemist’s
lab certainly has glassware, might have rats or even
monkeys in cages, but almost certainly doesn’t have
a pool full of hippopotamuses unless the GM has men-
75
tioned it or it’s somehow in keeping with the enemy’s
persona.
Fortifications
Fortifications are similar to Quarters, but will usually
lack any Abilities except an Automatic Defense Power
which will start at PL 6 and Toughness/Tiers of Defense
by the level indicated in the chart below. Ordinary
buildings will have Toughness 1, and PL 3, but can be
higher for special-purpose or hardened buildings such
as prisons or armories. As with Vehicles, merely getting
an Out on a Fortification with a Power on the same
Scope as listed doesn’t destroy it...it breaches the for-
tification’s security and perhaps a wall. To be able to
destroy a fortification in a single blast requires scoring
an Out with a Power 3 levels higher in Scope. E.g., it
takes a Power on the Titanic scale to potentially de-
stroy a whole walled city in a shot, or Power on a Bib-
lical scale such as a plague of locusts to destroy an
entire village. You can destroy a building with lesser
Power, if you keep applying it, such as a siege engine
destroying a large tower or castle wall, but it’s up to
the Primary Rule to determine how long it takes or if it
can be done at all...after all a single trebuchet can’t
expect to destroy an entire city by itself in any reason-
able amount of time.
21. T HE E NVIRONMENT
Fortification Levels and Scope
This chart shows the Personal Scope levels that are
considered equivalent to the type of fortification
listed. Such fortifications may appear at any Adven-
ture Scope, the listed Personal Scope is how powerful
a character must be for her Powers to be capable of
contending with the fortification’s defense to breach
its defenses.
1. Normal: Ordinary building.
2. Heroic: Fortified Inn or Palisade.
3. Cinematic: Manor.
4. Romantic: Motte and Bailey Tower.
5. Homeric: Castle.
6. Biblical: Walled city, enormous castle such
as Gormenghast.
7. Legendary: Mega-structure such as Great
Wall of China, or Tower of Babel.
8. Mythic: Mythic city such as Dis, or Atlantis.
9. Titanic: Home of the Gods such as Mount
Olympus, Kadath, or Valhalla, or dungeon
like Tartarus.
10. Cosmic: Pan-dimensional city such as
Tanelorn, or Cynosure.
More Stuff To Break
The world is full of stuff for adventurers to break. Most
of the time this can be handled by simple application
of the Primary Rule, particularly when the character
is setting out to break it. If a Normal Level character
wants to smash through an ordinary interior door us-
ing his Abilities, the door should smash. Sometimes,
though, it’s questionable whether the character has
sufficient power, such as when a Normal Level charac-
76
ter wants to smash through a vault door. Power Level 6
is enough to lift a donkey, but to break open a vault?
As mentioned in the Collateral Damage rules, ran-
dom objects generally have Toughness equal to the
minimum Scope at which a number of them tend to
appear, and the Default Skill (PL 4) for resisting attacks.
Food stands and watering troughs are Village Level
(3), wagons and carts are Town Level (4), and so on.
Attacks at the same or lesser Scope will break the ob-
ject on an Out result, but not destroy it; and destroy it
on Overkill. Attacks from a higher Scope character will
destroy an object with an Out, though it takes three
levels higher to destroy a building or similarly huge ob-
ject (or collection of objects, such as a city block or
manor house).
Particularly tough objects, such as iron strongbox,
should be given the benefit of the three levels rule as
if they were fortifications, and possibly an actual Au-
tomatic Defense; realistically a strongbox would prob-
ably survive the the building it’s in burning down or
collapsing, so it would be somewhat implausible for a
enemy who couldn’t destroy the building to be able
to smash the strongbox in a single blow.
Perils and Obstacles
The world is full of dangerous things that can injure or
inconvenience the unwary character: rivers of bub-
bling lava, perilous crumbling cliffs, bottomless pits,
portals opening onto the nether hells, and other perils
too numerous to mention. Perils are treated as Auto-
matic Attack Powers. Obstacles are treated as Au-
tomatic Powers that attempt to Counter certain ac-
tions, most often movement or senses. A patch of oil
that attempted to Counter any movement across it
would be a Obstacle; a patch of oil that was on fire
would be a Peril, and perhaps an Obstacle to sight.
The GM should assign a Power Level based on a
combination of how difficult to avoid or how deadly
or effective it is. A rivulet of lava only 2 feet across will
probably have a lower Power Level than a cloud of
sleep gas that completely fills the room. A patch of
loose gravel that made running difficult would have a
lower Power Level than an oil slick, even if it covered a
much larger area. When the characters interact with
the Peril, such as when a room is filled with sleep gas
or if dumped into the pit, treat is as an attack against
their defense. The Peril should act against the charac-
ter once per Round, generally on the character’s Turn
to make it easier to track.
When characters interact with a Obstacle, the Ob-
stacle should attempt to Counter their actions when-
ever they narrate something that would interact with
it, such as running across the oil slick; treat it as a
normal attempt to Counter, where they have the
usual options of aborting to save their Power and Ac-
tion, rolling against it to see if they succeed anyway,
or spending an Action to use some other Power to
counter it (such as using a grappling hook and a rope
to try to swing over the oil slick instead of running

across it; the attempt would still be resolved as a roll of
the whatever power the character was justifying the
grappling hook with, or its equipment rating vs. the
Power Level of the oil slick representing the distance
that they’d have to cross).
Perils are often non-lethal. Non-lethal Perils can
still potentially put characters Out, either by actually
knocking them out, or by removing them from com-
bat for three Turns. E.g., if a dam bursts and inun-
dates the character, scoring an Out against the ap-
propriate defense could represent the character be-
ing washed away down river and needing three Turns
to return rather than being unconscious. If something
can’t reasonably put a character Out, only inconve-
nience them or block their actions, treat it as a Obsta-
cle instead. Slippery floors, or clouds of obscuring gas
are almost always Obstacles, not Perils.
Some things might be treated as both: a river of
lava might be a Obstacle if you attempt to cross it,
and a Peril if you fail and fall in. Use the Primary Rule to
decide which, given the circumstances. Such things
should typically have different Power Levels as a Peril
or a Obstacle: being extremely deadly does not auto-
matically make something nearly impossible to avoid
or overcome, and vice versa.
Perils and Obstacles should never use Wild Swing,
or exert Supreme Effort, but simultaneous perils might
Combine Actions, and clever characters might try to
combine their Power with them. If the ceiling of the
secret lair is caving in at the same time that the char-
acter is trying to leap to safety over the bubbling lava,
treat it as a Combined Obstacle acting to Counter his
leap. This works out slightly to the character’s favor,
but speeds things along.
Note that since Perils count as Automatic Attacks
there’s no limit to how many times they can attack
in a Round as long as the conditions that trigger the
attack are met. The Peril will only attack a given
character on its “own initiative” once per Round, but
other characters can try to incorporate the Peril into
a Combined Attack as many times as they like, pro-
vided they can justify it by the Primary Rule. For in-
stance, you might combine Martial Arts with the room
filled with sleep gas by saying you were punching the
foe in the gut to force him to breathe some in. Re-
member that combining attacks with Automatic Pow-
ers such as Perils always use the lesser Power as the
base, and add to that. E.g. Martial Arts PL 8 and Sleep
Gas PL 6 would combine to a PL 6+1 attack not a PL
8+1...but since the Sleep Gas is the base it would be
an attack vs. Stamina instead of Toughness, just as the
martial artist intended.
Perils and Obstacles might behave as if they had
certain Advantages and Disadvantages, such as be-
ing Area Affect, or Exotic, or Single Use, just as if they
were a normal Power.
If the character tries to eliminate the Peril or Obsta-
cle, say by freezing the lava in place, treat that as an
attack to Disable the Power. It’s possible that a Peril
or a Obstacle is so dangerous or permanent it can’t
77
Perils and Obstacles
be eliminated, for instance a sea of lava in a Heroic
campaign; in that case don’t even assign it a num-
ber, just say it’s beyond the character’s abilities. The
GM should assign a Toughness based on how easy it
is to eliminate the Peril or Obstacle.
Like all Abilities, Perils and Obstacles follow the Pri-
mary Rule. It doesn’t matter that the river of lava is de-
fined as a Obstacle, if the character has flight she can
just fly over it without having to roll her Flight Move-
ment Power versus the lava’s attempt to Counter. If
she decides to dive in it to see if there’s something
at the bottom and her only defense is Acrobatics,
then the lava doesn’t need to roll–she’s going to get
burned.
Creating an Obstacle or Peril
Characters can create Obstacles or Perils with their
Abilities. Generally, treat these as if they have the
same Power Level as the Ability used to create it. If
a character uses his PL 6 Ice Ray to create an ice slick
on the floor, that becomes a PL 6 Obstacle to any-
body trying to cross it. The character won’t have to
continue to spend Actions in subsequent Rounds; in-
stead the Obstacle should last a reasonable amount
of time, generally until the end of the scene unless
somebody Disables it to eliminate it.
Out by a Peril
One important difference between a Peril and a en-
emy is that when it comes to being Out, in most cam-
paigns enemies will let up rather than attempt to fin-
ish the job if for no other reason than they have big-
ger fish to fry than beating on a helpless character.
Perils, particularly when they’re environmental factors
like high radiation or poison gas, will continue as long
as the character remains exposed, doing a Finishing
Blow on the second Round. This can present a prob-
lem if you want a low-lethality campaign; if so the GM
should give the character’s companions ample op-
portunity to rescue the character before any perma-
nent harm is done, if necessary helping along by nar-
rating the Out in such a way that rescue is still plau-
sible (e.g., falling victim to the fumes on a small out-
cropping surrounded by the lava rather than plung-
21. T HE E NVIRONMENT

ing right into it). If they fail to do so, and there’s no

plausible way for the character to jump back in af-
ter the usual three Turns then the character is missing,
presumed dead. The player should decide whether
to leave the character in that state for a while, play-
ing a different character in the meantime, or have the
character return almost immediately. In any case, in
order to return, the player needs to come up with an
explanation for the character’s miraculous escape.
Note that it is perfectly acceptable to use a Shtick
to create a Peril or Obstacle; this is one way you
can promote a non-combat Ability to be useful in
combat. Thus, a character with a Pick Locks Shtick
couldn’t use it to attack a group of men at arms di-
rectly, but could use the Shtick to lock the doors sep-
arating them, thus creating an Obstacle they would
have to surmount, or even open the locks on lever
that raises the portcullis sealing the hideous tentacled
creature in its cave, creating a Peril that threatens to
pull them into its gaping maw. The disadvantage, of
course, is that Obstacles and Perils don’t discriminate
between the character’s friends and foes, so an ally
on the wrong side of the doors is just as stuck as the
men-at-arms, and in just as much trouble when the
creature is let loose.

78
Chapter 22
Wealth
Wealth is an optional system in Zounds! Many Fantasy
settings make the characters’ wealth irrelevant, or just
part of the background: they may be traveling from
one end of the world to the other on their quest, but if
they have to stop sometimes to earn enough money
for the next leg of their journey that’s not mentioned.
In other settings, the getting and keeping of wealth
beyond dreams of avarice are the heart and soul of
adventuring. In such settings the characters may wish
to track every last copper they possess, rather than
using the following abstract system. Most of the time,
though, the Wealth rules represents a plausible middle
ground: characters can accumulate wealth, and it
benefits them to do so, but the exact amount doesn’t
matter, just whether their current wealth is best mea-
sured in hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, etc.
Wealth Levels
Level Amount
1 1
2 10
3 100
4 1,000
5 10,000
6 100,000
7 1,000,000
8 10,000,000
9 100,000,000
10 1,000,000,000
11 10,000,000,000
12 100,000,000,000
Each level of Wealth represents an order of magni-
tude of wealth that’s available to your character; it
doesn’t represent a specific amount of money, rather
it’s assumed that anything that cost at least a level
less than that order of magnitude (1000’s when your
Wealth is measured in 10,000’s) is basically free as long
as you don’t try to stock up on ten at a time. Things
that are on the same order of magnitude (1,000’s
when your Wealth is in the 1,000’s) are significant in-
vestments for you, when you purchase them or if you
lose or expend them during play there’s a chance
that your Wealth level is reduced. The unit that Wealth
is counting not given a concrete name: that is up
79
to your setting. E.g. If the GM decides that a horse
costs somewhere in the hundreds in the setting, then
a character with Wealth 3 can have one, but it that
might adversely affect her wealth; if she has Wealth
4, then replacing it or buying an extra for a friend is
no problem; a character with Wealth 2 won’t be able
to afford one, and will have to try to get one in the
course of adventuring.
What Money is Called
Characters in the setting may be dealing in gold or
silver pieces, crowns, doubloons, ryo, sovereigns, and
so on, and it may vary from place to place in the set-
ting; all that Zounds! tracks is the number of digits of
wealth you have.
Buying Stuff
When you make a significant purchase (one that’s at
your current level of Wealth, e.g. costs in the thou-
sands when your Wealth is measured in the thou-
sands), you have to roll your Wealth. If you roll a
Mishap, you obtain the item, but your Wealth drops
a level. This does not represent buying something
stupidly expensive, but that the vicissitudes of fortune
have reached the point where you were just on the
edge. You can refuse to buy the item, but your Wealth
is Hindered. Until you spend a Wealth Point to restore
it, you only roll one die when using it as an Ability
and the next major purchase you make reduces your
Wealth by a level. If it’s more plausible, the GM can
narrate an event or a series of unavoidable expenses
that have depleted your savings to this point.
Wealth and Adventure
The GM should adjust your current Wealth level ac-
cording to your fortunes while adventuring, using the
orders of magnitude as a guide. Generally it’s as-
sumed that the character is making ends meet and
the character’s income and expenses are in balance
at the current Wealth level, including normal rewards
for adventures (bounties collected, pay for services,
and so on). If the character wants to increase Wealth
22. W EALTH

through adventuring, the player should tell the GM

she’s looking for riskier, higher paying missions. If an
employer offers the character substantially more than
the usual, such as on the order of 10,000 for a mission
when the character’s Wealth Level is 2, after the mis-
sion the Wealth Level becomes 4....assuming the char-
acter survives and the employer pays up. Once at
Wealth Level 4, missions and expenses will be assumed
to be roughly on that scale. On the other hand, if
your Wealth Level is 7 and you have to abandon ship
and find yourself stranded on a desert island in noth-
ing more than your under-garments, your Wealth Level
may be reduced to 2 or even 1.

Wealth and Experience

Another way to increase your Wealth is simply to pay
XP for it. Wealth is treated as a Minor Asset: pay 1
XP to begin at Level 4, 2 more XP to get to Level 5,
etc. A starting character can thus start at Wealth 5 by
spending 1 Boost. If you lose your Wealth as a result of
an adventure, you don’t get XP back. If your Wealth is
increased as a result of adventuring, you don’t have
to pay for that, but if you want to increase it further,
you have to pay the XP to the next Level cost just as if
you’d bought it up that far to begin with.
Level XP to next Level Total
<4 no XP cost
4 2 1
5 3 3 Wealth and Trade
6 4 6 You can gain Wealth through trade by using your Abil-
7 5 10 ities. You use any of your Abilities as if you were using
8 6 15 the Arcane Research rules and selling the results, ex-
9 7 21 cept instead of gaining an XP you gain a Wealth Point.
10 8 28 Naturally you need to provide a reasonable Primary
11 9 35 Rule explanation of how you’re employing your Abil-
12 10 44 ities for cash, and the GM should adjust any Mishaps
E.g., to go from 7 to 8 Wealth costs 5 XP, regardless of that occur to fit the Ability used. You need a flat 10
whether you got to 7 Wealth by adventuring or spend- WP to gain a level of Wealth, regardless of your cur-
ing XP. rent level. You can still spend WP as if they were XP
in order to improve Assets other than Wealth. If you
want a more elaborate system of commerce, so that
Income you can play merchant traders, take a look at the sys-
tem for trade in Zap! The Science Fiction RPG.
Wealth in Zounds! primarily represents income and
savings, not net worth: other Assets the charac-
ter has don’t count towards the character’s Wealth.
The character can continue to spend money to pur-
chase things, or allocate XP/WP to gaining new As-
sets, without decreasing Wealth as long as there are
no Mishaps. Assume that the character’s income is
steady given their in-game pursuits, whether it’s ad-
venturing, land-holding, or even theivery, unless in-
game events such as being robbed, thrown in prison,
or receiving a large reward or inheritance cause it to
change. Wealth still follows the Primary Rule: if it seems
implausible that the characters should spend money
as freely as they do without becoming impoverished,
they should refrain or reduce their Wealth voluntarily.
80
Chapter 23

Trekking

Fantasy stories often have a good deal of fairly rou-

tine travel: not every sea voyage is punctuated by
pirate attack, crossing a shipwreck, or encountering
a sea monster. But if play skips over the days, weeks,
or even months of routine to get to the “good stuff”
the world can end up feeling very small, with treks
halfway across the continent feeling like a trip down
to the corner store. To combat this and give texture to
the routine travel activities that make up a large part
of genre, Zounds! uses a “just the highlights” system
called Trekking, which rates travel distances in terms
of Scenes needed to complete the travel.
Based on the Adventure Scope and technology
of the setting, the GM should determine how much
subjective time (how many Scenes) should pass to
trek between the closest points for long-distance
highlights-only travel. Longer distances should then
be made proportional to that. For example, at a Cin-
ematic Scope, the GM could decide that distances
between baronies in a single kingdom traveling on
foot should take a few days, while the nearest neigh-
boring kingdoms would be weeks away, and the fron-
tier a couple of months. Based on this, she decides
that travel between baronies takes between one and
three Scenes; between kingdoms 6 to 12, and the
far side of the continent would be 21+ Scenes away.
Note the deliberate discontinuity, so that embarking
on an journey between kingdoms feels like a signifi-
cantly more time-consuming enterprise than hopping
around within a kingdom; also note that the number
of scenes needn’t be strictly proportional...if a trip that by one of the players some activity their character is
takes a day requires one Scene, a trip that takes a performing during the trip, such as maintaining their
week doesn’t necessarily require seven Scenes. A GM equipment (see Maintenance), training, performing
who wanted the players to be able to flit from location Research, or role-playing a conversation or interac-
to location more casually could make things like fly- tion between several of the PCs or the PCs and NPCs.
ing carpets available to the players, and reduce the It can also be some incident or encounter that the
number of travel scenes by carpet to, say, 1, 3 and 6 GM presents: if the ship actually does encounter
Scenes respectively. Of course, the GM can always some pirates or a distress call, that counts as a Scene
skip Trekking entirely and hand-wave everything as “3 towards completion of the journey. Scenes needn’t all
months later, you arrive.” take place shipboard; feel free to include stops along
the way to refuel, trade, explore, or for some R&R, as
Scenes appropriate for the setting and the PC’s goals. Some
of these may turn into adventures in their own right,
A Scene during Trekking is exactly like a scene in a while others might just be short interludes and an op-
book or a movie: a single situation or incident, usu- portunity to insert some local color.
ally in a single location. This can be a description Scenes can be as short or as long as you care to
81
23. T REKKING
make them, but the point of playing out the Scenes is
to give the players some interesting memories of what
happened during their trek from Point A to Point B, not
merely to force them to do a slow count to ten before
the action can resume. This is a good opportunity to
work in some of the Complications of the various char-
acters or the ship itself, or to give some spotlight time
to characters that haven’t been front-and-center of
the action recently.
Translating Distance to Scenes
If the GM has worked out exact travel distances be-
tween various locales and speeds for various forms
of transportation, that can be translated directly into
Scenes by assigning a unit of time for a One-Scene
trip. Just figure out how long it would take the party to
travel and translate that into scenes, rounding up. E.g.
if the party can travel 18 miles per day on foot, then to
travel 36 miles between cities would take them three
days, which would be three scenes at one scene per
day, or one scene at one scene per week.
Another way to do it would be to scale scenes
by distance instead of time. E.g. if the GM had a
map of the kingdom scaled to 6 miles per hex, ev-
ery three hexes traveled through could be one Scene.
This makes calculating the number of scenes a sim-
ple matter of counting; using this method faster meth-
ods of travel would still generate the same number of
Scenes. Whether this is an advantage or disadvan-
tage depends on how much you want to abstract
away game time spent traveling.
Even though the the GM works out the number of
Scenes the trek will take in advance at something like
one Scene per day or one per 18 miles, that doesn’t
mean that Scenes ought to be spaced out evenly.
E.g. if you’re translating one week’s travel = one
Scene, the individual Scenes don’t have to occur one
per week like clockwork; if it makes sense, you should
immediately follow one Scene with another, such as a
Scene where the PCs decide to stop in a city to sell
some loot, followed immediately by another Scene
where they hunt for bargains in the bazaar, and an-
other where they get drunk in a local bar. If that’s all
the Scenes that are required to complete the journey
they were on, that just means that you should make
the remaining weeks pass without incident once they
get underway again.
The GM could also use a sliding scale, typically to
make longer distance travel less tedious, such as by
making Trekking take one Scene per day up to 7
Scenes, then an additional two Scene per week up
to one month (another 8 Scenes), and three Scenes
per month’s travel thereafter. This would have the ad-
vantage of making a contemplated 6 month journey
still seem like it would take a significant amount of time
as measured in Scenes without forcing the players to
figure out 180 Scenes to fill up the time; on the other
hand, depending on the setting you might want a six
month journey that crosses the entirety of the known
82
world to be a daunting prospect that will take months
of playing...or at least prod the players into thinking
about getting faster transportation.
Cutting to the Chase
Don’t slow down the action or insist on playing out
the Scenes just to prolong the process of travel. If
the players are chasing some fleeing bad-guys, by all
means skip ahead, even if it would normally amount
to a bunch more Scenes. Keep a sense of pacing,
and don’t fritter away any sense of urgency the play-
ers have built up. If they want to cut to the chase,
oblige them. If they don’t want to play out the pro-
cess of traveling at all, and would rather just start each
adventure at a new locale, then drop the Trekking
rules all together...though you should probably still try
to include some time in each session for “down time”
activities. Even action-adventure fantasy TV shows
usually include some scenes of normal activity each
episode as a change of pace or to allow for charac-
ter development; non-stop action can be as tedious
as no action at all.
Typical Scenes
The GM and players can pick from any of these, or
make up their own. If the players want an encounter,
they should feel free to notice the spoor of some mon-
ster or hear a cry for help even if the GM isn’t inflicting
it on them.
• Maintenance/Care for animals
• Training/Research
• Personal Issues
– Disagreement between party members
– Family emergency
– Romance
• Complication Crops Up
• Recreation
• Resupply/hunt
• Non-hostile Contact
• Encounter
– Hostiles (bandit, pirates, monsters)
– Call for help
– Strange phenomenon
– Hazard of travel
– Outbreak
– Crime
Chapter 24

Questing

Often in fantasy stories, the journey is the adventure.
As an adjunct to the Trekking system for travel that’s
hazardous enough to require planning, or where sac-
rifices might be required to reach the destination, but
where you still don’t want to play it out day by day,
mile after mile, Zounds! offers the Questing system.
When the PC’s decide to set off on a journey full of un-
known dangers, the GM comes up with a list of various
likely impediments on the way, arranging them in the
order they’d be encountered based on geography
and chronology. E.g., passing through the mountains
in the winter might run into a blizzard, in the summer it
might be bandits...whether they reach the mountains
in the winter or summer may depend on their plans,
their mode of travel, and how long it takes them to
deal with other things on the way. This can be done
by any method the GM chooses: examining a map
to see what lies on the route, consulting encounter
tables (from the Trekking section or any other gaming
source), other fantasy stories or tales of real-life expe-
ditions, or just making stuff up. Once the GM has a
list of various difficult-to-traverse pieces of geography,
bandits and hostile territory, monsters and weather
conditions, the Difficulty for the trip will be the number
of potential impediments on the way.
travelers painstakingly compiled from visits to scribes
and libraries, extra rations, special clothing, magical
spells, mounts, and so forth. The PCs can make the list
as long as they like, but each item on the list should
either represent a substantial cost to someone of their
level of Wealth (use the Wealth of whoever is the
wealthiest in the party), or be something that would
be a genuine hardship if they had to sacrifice it along
the way. They can group items together into bun-
dles in order to increase the cost if necessary. E.g. if
the party has Wealth 5 at their disposal (their money
counted in tens of thousands of the base unit of cur-
rency), then buying extra food wouldn’t count as spe-
cial preparation...but they might be able to bundle
together food, clothing, medicine, and pack animals
into an item that would cost roughly 10,000. Extra food
would count as a special preparation even if it didn’t
represent a significant investment of their Wealth pro-
vided they were proposing to travel somewhere that
replacement food would be hard to come by, such as
a desert or arctic waste. The party should then look at
their preparations and see how Encumbered they will
be while traveling (see Encumbrance and Travel).

Preparing for the Quest

The PC’s can attempt to find out some of the things
that might be on the list using the usual investigative
techniques: talking to folks, research in libraries, con-
sulting any local knowledge they might have based
on their Abilities and background, etc. This can be
handled through role-play, or if the players are in a
hurry or not that interested, as a straight-up roll of
their investigative Abilities against a Difficulty based on
Adventure Scope of the journey. Every point of suc-
cess should reveal one potential problem they could
run into; usually the problems closest to their starting
point are the easiest to find out about in advance,
unless they’re quite large and famous, e.g. everybody
knows that to get to Avalon you’re going to have to
cross the Western Sea at some point.
The PC’s can then prepare for the trip by creating
their own list of advance preparations, such as pack
animals, native guides, maps and journals of prior
83
24. Q UESTING
Starting the Quest
Once the PC’s have made all their preparations, they
describe how they intend to travel. The GM should
then adjust his list to eliminate items that don’t make
sense according the the party’s plan (e.g. if they
elect to go overland instead of by the sea route, drop
all the sea-related items) and count the remaining
Difficulty. The PC’s then roll the Ability they’re using
to travel against the Difficulty the GM has set for the
Quest. They may use the usual rules for Combination
and Supreme Effort, but not Tropes like Battle Cry. If
they use Supreme Effort or Failure Is Not An Option!
they are Tired during any resolution of any Impedi-
ment while on the Quest; even if they choose to rest
along the way, their blistering pace will just tire them
out again. If they have a vehicle (as a Major Asset or
as Equipment) that they can all travel in, they can use
its movement Power as the base Ability or combine it
with the one they’re using instead. They cannot use
powers from Mounts unless they are all mounted, and
even if they are all mounted they use the movement
power of the weakest mount. Likewise, if using their
own movement powers they use the weakest of those
movement powers as the base; if they choose some
other power as the base for the roll, movement pow-
84
ers can be used to Combine normally (even if Levi-
tate PL 4 would make for very slow travel as the pri-
mary means of getting around, being able to Levitate
along the way to scout or bypass obstacles is conceiv-
ably useful enough to justify the +1 for Combination).
You then compare the Questing roll with the diffi-
culty of the Quest. Every point of the roll represents
a potential impediment that the party easily over-
came, or luckily failed to encounter at all; these can
be played out as ordinary travel Scenes as in Trekking,
or skipped to speed things along. Every point that
the roll falls short of the Difficulty represents an Imped-
iment: something that the PC’s have to make some
kind of decision or sacrifice to get by, or else play out
in full.
Narrating the Journey
The GM should then start narrating the journey, ticking
the potential problems off her list. For each point of
the PC’s Questing roll, one potential problem should
be described and passed over lightly, as a descrip-
tion of local color along the way. Each actual Im-
pediment gets more attention, and requires the party
to make a decision. The GM should take the geo-
graphical/chronological order list and select the ac-
tual Impediments the party runs into, so that the Im-
pediments the party has to deal with aren’t all at the
beginning or end of the adventure. GM’s that pre-
fer could roll randomly to see which items on the list
turn from a potential problem to an actual Impedi-
ment until the difference between the Questing roll
and the Quest’s Difficulty is accounted for.
Impediments
Impediments are one of the following types: Perils,
Obstacles, and Encounters. The first two are de-
scribed in Perils and Obstacles, and represent things
that might harm the party if they interact with it (quick-
sand, a flimsy rope bridge across a deep gorge), or
passively block the way (a landslide that’s covered
the road, or a raging river with no bridge or ford).
Some Perils will by their nature not wait for the party
to interact with them, but “attack” immediately. A
raging river only attacks as you try to cross and only
those characters crossing, a blizzard may simply close
in and attack the whole party. Encounters are groups
of NPC’s that the PC’s can interact with; to count as
an Impediment, they should at least have the poten-
tial to be hostile or cause a significant unwanted de-
lay.
When the party runs into an Impediment, the GM
should describe the nature of the Impediment, and
offer the party a choice: either they can narrate how
they sacrifice one of the preparations from their list,
bearing in mind the Primary Rule, or they can go
ahead and try to overcome the Impediment through
playing it out. If they offer a sacrifice, provided that it’s
 Great Wealth and Travel

a genuine sacrifice and not something they can triv- ways they can still use their Wealth to aid in their Quest
ially replace given their resources and circumstances, if they choose.
they should succeed in bypassing the Impediment,
though the GM should narrate the circumstances in
such a way that plays up the nature of the sacrifice
they’ve chosen. If they choose to play it out, then
they have no guarantee of success; if they decide to
fight their way through hostiles or scale a murderous
cliff and they lose the fight or the peril beats them,
they can’t go back and make the sacrifice to get
around; they must deal with their failure in some other
way. The GM should set the Power Level of Obstacles
and Perils according to what seem plausible by the
Primary Rule, rather than scaling it to the power of the
adventurers. Since they can choose to buy their way
out with a sacrifice, it usually won’t end the adventure
right there if crossing the mountains in a blizzard is su-
pernaturally hard...unless the party tries to brave it, in
which case it cheapens their decision if the GM scales
it back so they can succeed. On the other hand, if
it would make no sense to have an army of bandits
camped within a few miles of the capitol then if one
of the Impediments the party encounters as they ap-
proach the capitol is bandits they should be a small The first is just to use Wealth as their travel Power:
band, not an army, even if an army is what it would this represents them using their Wealth to its full ad-
take to truly threaten the party given their Personal vantage to smooth their way, buying the finest gear
Scope. and transport, expert assistance at every stage, pay-
ing whatever bribes are necessary, and so on. Any
Impediments they run into should either be ones
Example that money can’t easily resolve, such as inclement
The Impediment is a hostile tribe of goblins on the weather, disease or natural disaster, or ones that
mountain pass ahead. The GM tells them their scouts Wealth invites, such as bandits attracted by the ru-
have found traces of the goblins before they actually mors of wealthy travelers seeking to hold the party for
run into them. On the party’s list they have a map, ransom.
some trade goods, a string of mules, and a letter en-
titling them to passage on a ship across the inner sea.
The second way is to assume that the bulk of their
They might choose to sacrifice the map, justifying it
Wealth is not readily available on the journey; in set-
by saying they’re taking a detour around the moun-
tings without an international banking system and
tain pass so they don’t run into the goblins, but that
good communications, it can be hard or impossible
takes them off the route the map covers; they could
even for the wealthiest to access their riches when
sacrifice the trade goods, bribing the goblins to let
far from home. Your wealth is reduced to what you
them by; they could sacrifice the string of mules, for
can carry with you, and perhaps a letter of credit you
instance by offering those as a bribe to the goblins, or
might be able to use once you come to some civi-
stampeding them and sneaking by, or by climbing the
lized area. The players can choose, or the GM can
cliff to avoid the pass but having to leave the mules
impose, a temporary cap on their Wealth that repre-
behind. They can’t figure out a plausible way to sacri-
sents their traveling money;how much they might be
fice the letter of passage, so that’s off the table. If they
able to carry with them can depend on things like
don’t care to make any sacrifice, they can just go
whether they choose to have part of it in gems or jew-
ahead and try to deal with the goblins by playing out
elry that are less bulky but harder to exchange (and
the Encounter. Maybe they can smooth-talk their way
perhaps easier to lose to sneak-thieves than chests of
through with their social abilities, or offer their services
gold), whether they choose to carry enough to en-
to the tribe using some of their other abilities such as
cumber them or their pack animals, and so on. Prepa-
healing, or sneak through the camp with stealth and
rations can then count as potential sacrifices relative
magic, or even just fight their way through.
to this traveling Wealth instead of their overall Wealth.
A mule that might be a trivial expense to a Duke in his
Great Wealth and Travel home lands could well count as a significant setback
if sacrificed in the middle of the steppes to bypass an
If the party’s Wealth is so great that it’s implausible impediment, e.g. by needing to eat it if trapped by
that any material preparations that they might make a blizzard, or trade it to hostile tribesmen to cross their
would represent a potential sacrifice, there are two territory.
85
24. Q UESTING

Adapting to the Player’s Decisions

The list of potential problems along the way is meant
as a guideline to help the GM narrate the journey, and
present the players with interesting and memorable
decisions along the way. It is not intended as a series
of challenges that the party must overcome in order
to advance. The GM needs to use the Primary Rule
to determine what’s plausible in light of the decisions
the players make and the actions they take along the
way. If half-way through the journey the players some-
how manage to obtain a magic carpet, and that
means that most of the rest of the potential problems
are no longer relevant, the GM needs to adapt. If
they can now bypass the bandits, suddenly giving the
bandits aerial mounts to make them a threat again
isn’t fair to the players, nor is it likely to be plausible
in terms of the Primary Rule. Now, if the bandits had
aerial mounts all along, because that’s how they op-
erate, that would be a different story; among other
things, the players presumably could have found that
out in advance while they were planning and pre-
pared for it.
The players might also decide to change their
route, to pursue a side-quest, or even abandon the
Quest altogether. Again, the GM should adapt the
Quest to the changing circumstances, or even set
it aside temporarily or permanently. If it’s a com-
plete change of direction, the GM can prepare a
new Quest and call for a new Questing roll, or just
handle things scene by scene according to whatever
maps or encounter tables are appropriate. The im-
portant thing is that the Questing rules don’t become
a straight-jacket for either the players or the GM.

86
Chapter 25

Experience

As you play the game you earn Experience (XP). Gen- Major Assets are treated as if they were characters:
erally adventurers earn one XP per session, plus one if you keep track of their Boosts, and increasing their
they were put Out at least once during the session, Boosts costs as many XP as that Asset currently has in
plus one more if the entire group was defeated. (De- Boosts, or 1 if it starts with 0. E.g., a Companion starts
feat is an excellent teacher!) The GM may choose to with 0 Boosts so it costs 1 XP to give that Compan-
award more, up to two or three, for significant accom- ion a Boost. After that it’s a 1 Boost Companion, and
plishments, such as finally completing a story arc that will cost 1 XP to improve again to 2 Boost Companion,
has been taking place over a number of sessions. then 2 XP to get a 3rd Boost and so on.
Characters may earn an extra XP for “Carousing”, You can also spend XP directly on Minor Assets, such
volunteering to place their character at the mercy of as Favors, Perks, Reputation, or Contacts. One new
the GM in order to move the game along or get re- Minor Asset costs 1 XP, as does adding 1 level to an
integrated in the main action if they’ve somehow be- existing Minor Asset.
come separated. See Carouse.
Characters may also earn additional XP for partici-
pating in Arcane Research. See Arcane Research.
When you accumulate enough XP, you can trade it
in for additional Boosts on your character. Every ad-
ditional Boost after the start costs as much XP as the
number of Boosts your character has so far. Remem-
ber Assets like Companions, Quarters, Mounts and
Wealth do not count towards the character’s num-
ber of Boosts, nor do Bonus Boosts for the Templates
that have them. E.g., a starting Hero character has 3
Boosts plus 1 Bonus Boost, so it takes 3 XP to get an ad-
ditional Boost. Once the character spends the XP on
a personal improvement the character has 4 Boosts
and so the next Boost would cost 4 XP.
With one Boost you can:
• Increase a Power by 1 Level
• Increase two Shticks by 1 Level each
• Add one Small Advantage, or change a Small
Advantage to a Big Advantage
• Remove one Small Disadvantage, or change a
Big Disadvantage to a Small Disadvantage
• Add 1 to one of your Attributes
• Take a new Power at the Level indicated in your
Template (e.g. 5 for Hero, 4 for Adventurer).
• Take two new Shticks at the Level indicated in your
Template (e.g. 5 for Adventurer, 4 for Hero).
• Get a Major Asset such as a Companion, Mount,
or Quarters.
87
Chapter 26
Domains and War
Frequently characters in fantasy are rulers of king-
doms or other political divisions, or at least highly
trusted advisers and functionaries to rulers. Somewhat
less frequently they are the leaders and mucky-mucks
of other organizations such as guilds, churches, or mil-
itary units. In Zounds! all such organizations are called
“Domains”, and the following rules can be used for
handling running them and wars or other conflicts be-
tween them.
The first thing to determine about a Domain is what
Scope it operates at; a Domain’s Scope determines
how long a Turn represents for that Domain. Do-
mains have Attributes, Powers, and Assets just like
characters, and can use their Powers to accomplish
things during their Turns, whether that’s accumulating
wealth or improving their Powers and Assets, or using
their Powers with or against other Domains (War).
Scope
Domains have Scope on the same scale as Adven-
ture Scope. When you are playing out events at that
Domain’s Scope, each Turn represents the amount of
time listed. So, if you wanted to run a single Household
for a while, you’d play out 3 Turns per workday, while if
you were running a Kingdom, 4 Turns would be a year.
This makes it easy to fit in personal adventures even
while the characters are in charge of Domains, and to
figure out how to “zoom in” for more detail when you
want to handle a particular Action at a lower Scope.
88
Domain Scopes
1. Household Turns are six hours.
2. Estate/Manor Turns are days.
3. Village Turns are three days.
4. Town Turns are weeks.
5. Barony/City Turns are fortnights.
6. Duchy/Province Turns are months.
7. Kingdom Turns are seasons.
8. Empire Turns are years.
9. Continent Turns are five years.
10. World Turns are generations (20 years).
11. Several Worlds Turns are three generations (60
years).
The increase in periods of time from Scope to Scope
is roughly 3:1, but only roughly since it’s more conve-
nient to have turns represent a fairly natural chunk of
a modern calendar. An ambitious GM could make
up a calendar for the campaign area and smooth
out the increases to an exactly 3:1 ratio. In game
terms any difference between 3:1 and the times listed
represent unaccounted for non-productive time (late
night, winter or monsoon season, holidays and festi-
vals, and so on).
Attributes
Toughness is the same as for characters: a measure
of how resilient and resistant to defeat the Do-
main is.
Morale is the Domain counterpart to Will: a measure
of how hard it is to intimidate or influence the Do-
main, and how much of a bonus the Domain gets
for Supreme Effort.
Supplies is the Domain counterpart to Stamina: a
measure of how large a stockpile the Domain has
of goods to carry it through hard times.
 Playing a Domain

Leadership is the Domain counterpart to Actions: Playing a Domain

each point of Leadership allows the Domain to
take one Action in a Turn. You play out a Domain’s turn exactly as you would if it
were a character. It can use its Powers to according
to the Primary Rule to accomplish things that make
The chart suggests what levels various Attributes rep-
sense according to the genre; if you want to send your
resent for Domains.
army against a pirate fleet, you still need to narrate
how you are doing that to justify it. There are some
Domain Attributes
special rules for gaining Wealth and War, but other-
Toughness Morale Supply Leadership
wise things play out the same as in the rest of the rules,
1 Effete Reluctant Poor Anarchic including being able to do things like Combine Pow-
2 Civilized Willing Average Feudal ers and use Supreme Effort.
3 Hardy Dedicated Good Monarchical
4 Barbaric Fanatic Great Imperial
5 Savage Crazed Fantastic Bureaucratic Wealth
6+ Inhuman (e.g. hive-minds)
It’s recommended that you use the optional Wealth
rules in order to run Domains, so that Domains can
gain and use Wealth Points (otherwise just use XP).
Powers Domains can attempt to generate 1 Wealth Point by
spending one Action using an Asset. Roll the As-
Domains also have Powers, just like characters; unlike set’s Power Level vs. Difficulty equal to the Domain’s
characters, Domains don’t have Shticks. Any ability Scope: sucess means the Domain gets 1 WP, a result
that a Domain has must be a Power, that is useful for of doubles indicates a problem. The GM comes up
attack or defense when at war or in conflict with an- with some difficulty that Hinders the Asset, such as a
other Domain. Typical Powers for Domains will vary crop failure, vermin, bandits or the like. The Asset will
with the Scope of the Domain. At the Kingdom level, stay Hindered until the Domain uses an appropriate
a Power might be an Army, a Navy, or a College of Power or Asset and spends an Action to fix whatever
Wizards, while at a Manor level, Powers might be Men- is wrong. Roll to see if it’s a Mishap: d12, trying to
at-arms, Fortified Manor, and Vassal Knights. Domains beat the die-size of larger die of the PL to avoid a dis-
start with 3 Powers. aster, such as vermin infestation turning into famine or
plague. On a Mishap the Asset becomes Out, and will
take an an appropriate Power or Asset and an Action
Assets and a Wealth Point to restore.

Domains will have Assets as well; a Domain’s Assets

are the equivalent of Minor Assets, and have a single
PL rating rather than Attributes of their own. Assets are
things like Mills, Orchards, Navigable Rivers, Mines and
the like that can be used to contribute wealth, raw
materials and manpower to the Domain. Assets may
be seized from other Domains through War; if Assets
are attacked, they use the Attributes of the Domain
that owns them. Domains start with 7 Assets.

Domain Template

Basic Domain
A Domain can be at any Scope from Household
to Many Worlds; this template is also suitable for
representing organizations like guilds and military
War
units.
The biggest difference between War and ordinary
Toughness: 1, Supplies: 1, Morale: 1, Leader- fights between characters is that it is impossible in War
ship: 1 for adversaries of the same Scope to defeat each
Powers: 3 Powers @ 4 other directly, as a result of a single roll. Instead, Do-
New Powers begin @ 4 mains fight by attacking Assets and Powers, trying to
Assets: 7 Assets @ 4 either seize control or destroy them. It’s only when all
New Assets begin at 4 of a Domain’s Powers have been rendered ineffective
that a same-Scope foe can completely seize it. This
89
26. D OMAINS AND WAR

better matches the genre, where wars between king- or an action from a suitable Power, or a Rally, Fes-
doms can stretch on for year, decades, or even gen- tival, or Causus Belli to restore.
erations. It takes an invading empire or horde from a
larger Scope to completely seize a Kingdom in short Conquered If it’s an Asset, it belongs to the attacker
order. now (though it must be rebuilt from Defeated if
Domains use the following equivalents for figuring the attacker wants to do more than Pillage it). If
out the outcome of conflicts between Powers, or be- it’s a Power, it’s Defeated for three Turns, or one
tween Powers and Assets. If something requires “one Turn not at War, and reduced by one PL perma-
full turn”, that doesn’t mean you have to spend any nently.
Actions to restore it, but you must spend a Turn without Laid Waste An Asset is destroyed: treat as Defeated,
using it. and reduced by one Power Level permanently (if
Damage is this would put it lower than 4, it is removed). A
Attribute
<= Attr > Attr > Attr + 3 Power is treated as if it were Defeated, and re-
Toughness Defeated Conquered quires 1 WP to be restored.
Supplies Hindered Deprived Laid Waste Routed An Asset is treated as Defeated–everybody
Morale Demoralized Routed who would normally have operated the Asset has
Defeated The Domain has lost the contest (equiva- run away; in addition one nearby Asset is treated
lent to Out); it cannot use the Power or Asset for as Hindered, because of the refugees (roll ran-
one full Turn, unless it can bring it back with a suit- domly if it’s not obvious from the Primary Rule
able Power (which costs 1 WP in addition to the which Assets are nearby). A Power is treated as
Action). Defeated, and is reduced by one Power Level
permanently (if this would put it lower than 4 it is
Deprived Powers and Assets roll only one die (equiva- removed).
lent to Tired). Requires one full Turn to remove, or
an action from a suitable Power, or spending 1WP. Domain Tropes
Demoralized Powers and Assets roll only one die Certain Tropes can’t be applied to Domains: All for
(equivalent to Influenced). Requires one full Turn, One, Battle Cry, Berserk, Careful Aim, Carouse, Pull
Your Punch, Sheer Determination, and Take the Hit.

New Tropes:
Causus Belli At the start of a War, whether or not you
began it, for 1 Action you can rally your citizens
and remove any Deprived or Demoralized condi-
tion from all your Powers and Assets.

Festival For the cost of 1 Action and 3 Wealth Points,

you can remove the Demoralized condition from
all your Powers and Assets.

Oppress You can automatically extract 1 extra

Wealth Point from an Asset that you are using
(spent an Action on) this Turn, but it becomes De-
moralized.

Pillage Extract 1 WP from an Asset that you’re cur-

rently fighting over; it need not be an enemy as-
set. That is, you can Pillage your own Assets while
you’re defending them, to support your armies.
Roll the Asset’s PL, doubles means the Asset’s is
Hindered; a Mishap means the Asset is Deprived.
If you are Pillaging a friendly Asset, it becomes
Demoralized; Pillaging an enemy Asset restores its
Morale by one level.

Rally A PC or major NPC can make a contested roll

using some sort of persuasive or oratory ability
(default PL3) against the Power or Asset to restore
its Morale. Success restores 1 level, success by >=
3 restores two levels.
90
 Zooming

Occupying a Domain or oppose it, but if you want to abstract it, treat it as
an unopposed roll (using the Domain’s Default PL 3
Once a Domain has lost its Powers to resist, an attack- if it doesn’t have a Power or Asset like Royal House,
ing Domain can Occupy it by spending an Action to Charming Prince, or the like) versus a Difficulty based
use a Power as an occupying force. There is no equiv- on the original Leadership of the subordinate Domain,
alent Trope to Down for the Count for Domains, so the plus 1 for every Asset or Power in rebellion. In order
attacker must keep tying up the Power and Action as to complete the Royal Marriage, should the roll suc-
long as the Domain is to remain Occupied. The Occu- ceed, on the next Turn the Domain must throw a Festi-
pying Domain may spend WP to create a new Asset: val. After a Royal Marriage, the Domains are merged
Puppet Government (starting at PL 4 for 1 WP, as with as in Absorbing an Occupied Domain.
all Assets). As long as the Puppet Government is not
Defeated, the Occupier may roll the Puppet Govern-
ment vs. the Domain’s Morale as a Difficulty to see
how many Actions the Occupiers may perform that
Turn with the Domain’s Assets and Powers; the Oc-
cupier may (and probably will) combine this roll with
Powers such as an occupying army. Failure means the
Puppet Government has its hands full and can’t spare
any actions; a Mishap means open rebellion: all the
Assets are rebelling; roll for the Powers, and each one
that rolls over what the Puppet Government rolled to
trigger the rebellion is also in rebellion. A roll of a
Mishap on an Asset or Power the Puppet Government
is using that Turn means the Asset is rebelling, and will
have to be attacked by the occupying force to quell
it. To avoid chances of rebellion, the Puppet Govern-
ment can act Cautiously, using the regular Trope, to
get only half the largest die when rolling vs. the Diffi-
culty for Actions.

Absorbing an Occupied Domain

Eventually an Occupier can absorb an Occupied Do-
main, making it a province or eventually merging the
domains. To do this, the Occupier has to build up new
“legitimate” government by purchasing a Leadership
Attribute, starting from 1. This costs one Boost, not one
WP, and can only be done when the Domain has no
Powers or Assets in rebellion. At this point it becomes
a Province, and the occupier does not have to keep
occupying it. It is treated as an Asset belonging to
the former Occupier, with a PL of the average of its
Powers. If the owning Domain wishes to fully incorpo-
rate it, it has to spend Boosts to bring the province’s
Leadership equal to the Domain’s Leadership; at this
point the bulk of the populace regards it as a fully le-
gitimate government, and the two entities merge. The
newly merged Domain has the Powers and Assets of Zooming
both Domains, and the Attributes of the average be-
tween the two. You can use the Domain system to “Zoom” in and out
on the various levels of detail according to what the
players are interested in. At the highest level the Do-
Royal Marriage
main plays as if it were a single character: when you
The process of absorbing an Occupied Domain can commit a Power to an Action, you roll the Power either
be shortened by an actual merger of the Leadership vs. the opposing Power or against a Difficulty. If you
of the Domains; this is usually accomplished by join- want to “Zoom” in on the action, you can play it out
ing the ruling houses in marriage, though in fantasy at any lower Scope by converting the Power into a set
domains many other forms of government can lead of units or sub-Domains, depending on what makes
to different power sharing arrangements. Royal Mar- sense, and run that sub-Domain for three of its Turns.
riages are usually good opportunities for adventure The chart gives an idea of what sort of military unit
for the players, whether trying to make it come off particular attribute values suggest.
91
26. D OMAINS AND WAR

Unit Attributes Powers at PL 4. You may adjust the PL’s one-for-

Toughness Morale Supply Leadership one, as long as none go below 4.
1 Green Reluctant Poor Rabble
2 Regular Willing Average Strongman • 7 Assets. A converted Power has Power Level 4;
a converted Asset has the same PL as the parent
3 Veteran Dedicated Good Mercenary
Asset. Again, you may adjust the PL’s one-for-one,
4 Elite Fanatic Great Professional
none below 4.
5 Battle-bred Crazed Fantastic Inspired
6+ Inhuman E.g., A Navy Power PL 6 converts to three Powers at 6
and 7 Assets at 4. One of the Powers is then lowered
to 4 to raise another to 8; it can’t be lowered any fur-
Example of Zooming ther. None of the Assets can be adjusted since they’re
For example, if the top-level Domain is a Kingdom, the already at 4.
players might decide to allocate the Kingdom’s Lead- You can choose to Zoom in on any or all of the
ership 4 (one Action per Leadership) to using the King- Actions that you are spending one of the Domain’s
dom’s Army Power to pursue war agains the Goblins in Leadership on.
the North, to send the Navy Power against the pirates
of the Silver Sea, use one of its Assets, the Iron Mines, Translating Results Back to the Parent Scope
to produce a Wealth Point, and an Action to restore
the Fishing Village Asset that had been Hindered by a If the outcomes of the Actions taken at the sub-
pirate raid the previous season. Domain level are mixed, use the majority outcome
If they want to Zoom in on the expedition against as of the end of the parent’s Turn. If there’s no clear
the pirates, they can convert the Navy Power to a mil- majority keep reducing the severity of the worst out-
itary unit one Scope down and play out three Turns comes by one step until there is a majority. E.g., one
for the Navy that represent the Kingdom’s Action that Power is fine, one is Hindered, and one is Routed.
Turn. (Always use 3:1 for sub-Domain Turns, even if they Routed gets reduced to Defeated...there’s still no ma-
don’t quite fit according to the Scope chart) They de- jority, so it gets reduced to Hindered. Now the majority
cide the Navy’s Powers are Northern Fleet, Southern outcome is Hindered, so the Power is treated as Hin-
Fleet, and Channel Island Fortresses; how to define dered at the parent Domain’s Scope.
the Powers is up to the players, or the GM for NPCs,
though it probably makes sense to try to make it con-
sistent from time to time (the same Power should be
defined the same way if you Zoom in on it on two dif-
ferent occassions).
If they choose, they can Zoom in further, to play
out the fleet’s actions in detail, say the Northern Fleet
engaging the pirate fleet, while the Southern Fleet
raids the pirates’ home islands. The Powers on both
sides would be converted into units another Scope
down, and the units would play three Turns at the
lower Scope for each Turn at the Fleet Scope, so nine
Turns total during the one Turn (season) for the King-
dom.

Converting Parts to Sub-Domains

Because each Scope is roughly an order of magni-
tude (10 times) bigger than the next smaller Scope,
Domains are divided into 10 parts: 3 Powers and 7 As-
sets. When you Zoom In on one of those pieces, it gets
divided into 10 parts as well.
A Domain’s Power or Asset converts to a Unit or sub-
Domain as follows:
Example of Translating Results Back to Parent
• Attributes are directly inherited from the parent Scope
Domain. You may adjust the Attributes, trading
points among them one-for-one as long as none You decide to play out the Kingdom’s Army attack
goes below 1. on the Northern Goblins at one Scope down, divid-
ing the Army into three Powers (say, Cavalry, Heavy
• 3 Powers. A converted Power has the same Power Infantry, and Light Infantry) vs. the Goblin’s three Pow-
Level as the parent Power; a converted Asset has ers (say, Wolf Cavalry, Infantry, and Goblin Tunnels). At
92
 Zooming

the end of three Turns, two of the three Goblin’s Pow-
ers are defeated. The Goblin’s Army at the Kingdom
Scope is thus defeated. During those three Turns, the
Kingdom’s Cavalry was defeated once, and its Light
Infantry defeated once, but at the end of the three
Turns only the Light Infantry is still out of commission,
so since two of the three Powers are unhindered King-
dom’s Army is intact. Had the Cavalry still been Hin-
dered, and the Light Infantry defeated, the Army as a
whole would be Hindered.
Optional Rule: Singled Out by Destiny
In some fantasy stories, the protagonists are special,
and it’s their actions that determine the fate of the
world. Sometimes they are literally destined, others
they happen to be at just the right place at the right
time at the turning point of history. If you want to guar-
antee that the PC’s individual actions aren’t over-
shadowed or erased by the flow of larger events, and
in particular the random results from other Actions tak-
ing place at the same time in the Domain, instead of
using the majority rule for determining the outcome at
the parent Scope, have the outcome of the Actions
that the PC’s are directly involved in determine the
overall outcome. E.g. if the PC’s are in direct com-
mand of one of the three units, and they win, then
the outcome for the parent Power that Turn is a win
regardless of the outcome for the other two units; if
they lose, then overall it’s a loss.
Zoom In and play out the activity at the Mines the
Difficulty for generating a Wealth Point at the lower
Scope is only 6. They would need to get 10 WP at
the lower Scope to equal 1 WP at the higher Scope,
which may take more than the three Turns that make
up the season (one Turn) at the higher Scope, but at
least they can make progress. They could also use the
lower-Scope WP generated to improve the Iron Mines
and other Assets until the parent Asset has a better
chance of being able to succeed against Difficulty 7
in one go.
The Iron Mines get divided into 3 Powers at PL 4,
and 7 Assets at PL 7. The players decide (or look up,
if they’ve done this before) that the Iron Mines’ Pow-
ers are the Hill Forts, Local Militia, and Dwarven Allies.
The Assets are the Big Spur Mines, the Wintertop Mines,
the Hooper River, the town of Iron Oak, the Charcoal
Burners of Morrow Wood, the Miners’ Camps, and the
Strongarm Armory.

Zooming in on Assets
One of the primary purposes of spending Actions on
Assets is to generate Wealth. You need to accumu-
late 10 Wealth Points at the sub-Domain level in order
to generate 1 WP at the parent’s Scope. Wealth Points
not transfered at 10 to 1 to the higher Scope can be
saved up to make improvements on its own Assets or
until they reach 10. Track these improvements in case
you Zoom in on the Asset again, but they won’t regis-
ter at the parent Domain’s Scope until enough of the
seven Assets have been improved to increase the av-
erage score by one. E.g., at the parent level the Asset
is PL 5. After improving two of its sub-Assets to 6, it’s still
PL 5 when operating at the parent’s Scope, though if
you Zoom in you can use those sub-Assets at 6. Only
when at least 4 out of the 7 sub-Assets are raised from
PL 5 to PL 6 will the average be 6 and the parent Asset
be raised to 6. The Iron Mines inherit the Attributes of the parent
Domain. Let’s suppose that is Toughness 3, Morale
Asset Example 2, Surplus 2 and Leadership 3. They can thus take 3
Actions per Turn vs. Difficulty 6; each success would
The players decide to use their Kingdom’s PL 7 Iron generate 1 WP. They can thus take 9 Actions during
Mines to generate some Wealth. While they could just the course of the parent’s season-long Turn, poten-
assign one Leadership to the Iron Mines Asset and roll tially generating 9 WP...almost the 10 needed to trans-
to see if they generate the Wealth Point or if there’s late back to 1 WP for the parent. If they were willing to
any kind of setback, since Kingdoms are Scope 7, Oppress one or more of the Assets (using the Oppress
there’s little chance of success without using some Trope), they could almost certainly generate enough
Trope like Supreme Effort. Instead, if they decide to WP, at the cost of having some of the Iron Mine’s As-
93
26. D OMAINS AND WAR
sets being temporarily Demoralized. Otherwise they
could record however many WP they managed to
generate, and get the rest on the following season.
Optional Trope: Free Enterprise
The Domain system’s rules regarding gaining Wealth
from Assets is based on a relatively static top-down
society, which is a good fit for most fantasy lands. Big
improvements in productivity and wealth are hard to
achieve, and take a long time. In order to get an
Asset to produce more wealth than it takes to keep
things going, and to make sure that wealth actually
reaches the rulers for their projects instead of being
siphoned off by various petty officials and tax gather-
ers, it takes a good deal of the leaders’ limited time,
and the higher the Scope of Wealth you’re trying to
produce the harder it is. It is much easier to get Wealth
through oppression and warfare against the neigh-
bors, though that can also be risky and costly. Dis-
asters such as famine, plague and crop failure can
be hard to recover from, eating up preciously gained
wealth before it can be used to make improvements.
If you want to increase the pace of progress, you
can allow the optional Free Enterprise Trope. If the
GM allows this in the setting, then as Ruler of a Do-
main, you can declare Free Enterprise. How it’s justi-
fied depends on the setting, but it could be freeing
the serfs from bondage to the land, allowing women
to own property, opening a frontier for settlement or
trade with the outside world, ending government or
guild monopolies, etc. This is a reasonably common
Trope in fantasy stories featuring contemporary char-
acters entering a fantasy setting, or spacefaring trav-
elers having to “bootstrap” the setting’s technology
to return them to space, though sometimes it is char-
acters native to the setting reacting against some of
the more blatantly unjust restrictions setting a whole
Rennaissance period in motion.
Assets no longer require an Action to produce
Wealth, instead every Asset can roll every turn to see
if it produces a Wealth Point. However, if they do pro-
duce a Wealth Point, that Wealth Point must be rein-
vested in improving the Asset unless you seize it by Op-
pressing the Asset. Mishaps when the Assets are rolling
are as likely to be political intrique by conservative
factions opposed to the reforms as mundane things
like crop failures. You may still spend an Action in the
usual way in order to attempt to gain a Wealth Point
as the ruler of the Domain by levying taxes; if you do,
that is instead of the Asset’s roll to improve itself that
Turn. A roll of doubles Demoralizes the Asset, as if you
had Oppressed it; a Mishap results in rebellion or se-
vere political unrest.
94
Zooming Out
The rules for Zooming In can be used to Zoom Out
from a smaller Domain controlled by the players to
a larger one, generally in order to advance time a
bit between adventures or to figure out the outcome
of a war that they’ve kicked off through their actions.
Their Domain either becomes a Power or an Asset of a
Domain one Scope higher, using the average of the
Power Levels of the Powers or the Assets depending
on which. A result from the higher Scope translates
to the majority of the relevant Abilities for Domain it-
self suffering that result. E.g., if the Domain being used
as a Power becomes Hindered, then translated back
to its normal Scope, two out of three of its Powers are
Hindered; if it were being used as an Asset, 4 out of 7
would be Hindered.
Founding a Domain
To found a new Domain, the players need to assem-
ble three Powers and seven Assets of the appropri-
ate Scope. This can be done through adventuring,
or at Scopes less than or equal to the character’s Per-
sonal Scopes directly by purchasing them with XP or
WP. E.g., since at the Heroic Scope, Major Assets like
Quarters are things like manor houses or towers those
can form the basis of a Domain the size of a Manor or
Estate. At Cinematic Scope Companions are equiva-
lent to 50 civilians or 8-12 men-at-arms, and can actu-
ally be a squad of men-at-arms, so can be used as a
Power for a Domain at the Village Scope. And so on.
The players can choose which Major Assets to con-
tribute to the new Domain, and which ones will be
Powers and which will be Assets according to what
makes sense by the Primary Rule. A fortified manor
house or perhaps a river boundary makes sense as a
Power, since it can be used to defend against attack;
a smithy or fields of grain should be an Asset instead.
The contributed Assets can come from any of the PCs,
but once contributed they belong to the Domain and
its rulers, not the individual PC. That doesn’t neces-
 Other Types of Domain

sarily mean that the PC is no longer in charge of it,

or even that legal title is transfered, but it does mean
that in the event that something at the Domain level
happens, such as the Domain being conquered, the
PC can’t recover it simply by declaring it’s no longer
part of the Domain.
Once the Domain is founded, expanding it takes
place using the normal rules for Domains, rather than
by improving it by spending the PC’s personal XP or
WP, unless the group wants a very PC-centric cam-
paign where the direct intervention by the PC’s can
cause their Domain to leap-frog ahead of others in
the setting.

Other Types of Domain

So far the term Domain has mostly been applied to
political territories or military units, but the rules can
be used for any sort of organization, such as a church,
guild, business, political faction, sports team, or even
an abstraction like a religion or philosophy as a whole.
The only thing necessary to be treated as a Domain
is for the players or the GM to be able to describe it
in terms of its goals and action it takes towards those
goals, and some sort of plausible way to conceive of
it has having “Powers” (abilities that can be used to
influence or combat other rival entities or defend itself
from their influence) and “Assets” (abilities that don’t
help it directly against rivals, but contribute towards its
goals, resources, and well-being).

95
 Part III

Game Mastering

96
Chapter 27

Campaign design

Unless you are running a one-shot, you need to think consider calling your campaign The Chronicles of the
a little bit about the overall structure of the campaign Name of Your Setting.
you want to run. Even for a one-shot there are some
decisions you might want to make before you begin.

Setting

High vs. Low Fantasy

High Fantasy stories are set in a completely fictional
fantasy world, such as Middle Earth in The Lord of the
Rings, although in some stories it might be accessible
from the real world, as in The Chronicles of Narnia; Low
Fantasy stories are set in the real world, with the ad-
dition of magical or fantastic elements, for example
Puck of Pook’s Hill, or urban fantasy like Charles de
Lint’s Newford stories. Zounds! is generally about High
Fantasy, while Argh! is Low Fantasy. Since they both
use the SFX! system, it’s easy for characters to go from
one to another if your campaign moves in that direc-
tion, for instance a modern day urban fantasy where
the characters take an extended journey into Faerie.
Epic Fantasy vs. Sword and Sorcery
Epic Fantasy is usually about the grand struggle
against vast evil forces, with the fate of entire civi-
lizations or even the world at stake. Good and evil
are sharply delineated, and may be objectively real
in the metaphysics of the setting, as when you can
magically detect “Evil” as something distinct from hos-
tile intent, or evil is present in inanimate objects or
places that have no consciousness, will or desires.
Epic fantasy often has very high Adventure Scopes, as
the protagonists travel the length and breadth of the
world, even if the protagonists themselves are fairly
ordinary people caught up in extraordinary circum-
stances. The Personal Scope of characters in epic
fantasy can run the gamut, as long as the stakes and
the power of the adversaries are in keeping with the
epic level of the adventure. The Lord of the Rings, the
tales of the Knights of the Round Table, The Chroni-
cles of Narnia, the Prydain Chronicles, The Chronicles
of Amber, and The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant,
and the Epic of Gilgamesh are all epic fantasies. As
you can see, if you want an epic tone, you should
97
Sword and sorcery is usually concerned with much
smaller, more personal stakes, such as whether
the characters manage to amass personal fortune,
achieve political power, are successful in romance, or
sometimes just manage to survive in a hostile world.
The stories of Conan, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser,
and Glen Cook’s Garrett are sword and sorcery. Robin
Hood would also count, although it lacks sorcery and
other fantastic elements. Good and Evil in sword and
sorcery are usually less metaphysical. That’s not to
say that sword and sorcery heroes are always morally
ambiguous, although the might be; heroes in sword
and sorcery can be heroic, and villains are often very
villainous indeed, but it’s their actions and personal
desires that make them so, not because they are the
avatars or even foot-soldiers of some vast, cosmic war
between the forces of Good and Evil. Sword and sor-
cery is much more likely to take place at relatively low
Adventure Scopes, sometimes being confined to a
single city with rare forays into nearby areas; the Per-
sonal Scope of the protagonists will range from Nor-
mal to whatever Scope is roughly parallel to the Ad-
venture Scope. It’s rare for a protagonist who mostly
adventures within an area such as Sherwood Forest to
have enough personal power to raze that forest.
27. CAMPAIGN DESIGN

High vs. Low Magic

In high magic settings, magic is integral to the set-

ting. Without magic, the world would be a very dif-
ferent place, or might not exist at all as in settings that
are physically impossible in the real world, such as is-
lands floating in the sky. In such settings magic is usu-
ally commonplace. If not everyone can do magic,
everybody knows somebody who can. Every village
has some resident magic user, witch, wizard, or priest
capable of minor miracles. Magician might be a re-
spectable profession, or at least as respectable as
swordslinger or other adventurer.
In very high magic settings, magic items may be
available in shops that specialize in them, or perhaps
every shop has at least some magic versions of the
items it sells. Magic may literally grow on trees. In a
very high magic setting you can expect every adven-
turer to have at least one magic item, and perhaps
so many that the setting requires a Restriction on just
Dark Fantasy
how many magic rings one is allowed to wear on one
hand and still be able to use them.
Typically fantasy worlds aren’t as grim and squalid as
In low magic settings magic is rare, perhaps even
Earth was during the Middle Ages. Whether because
unheard of except for the single magical item or
of reliable magic and active, benevolent deities, or
place that’s the basis of the campaign. Hardly any-
just more enlightened attitudes, people in these set-
body can do magic, or even knows somebody who
tings enjoy a more peaceful, prosperous lifestyle and
does, although in some low magic settings the inhabi-
greater personal freedom than was historically the
tants may believe that magic is more common than it
case...or at least they do until the invasion by the
actually is, and call the local crazy old woman a witch
forces of Evil. Peasants aren’t legally bound to their
and blame her for their misfortunes. Even adventurers
land, and can go off to become adventurers and
may have limited or no access to magic, unless it’s
perhaps even carve out their own kingdom in the
their unique abilities or magical items that drive them
wilderness. Women are often legally the equal of
to become adventurers in the first place.
men, allowed to own land and enter any profession.
Xenophobia is rarer, or just confined to certain “evil”
races. If governments and churches are corrupt, it’s
something that the PC’s can combat, or at least run
their domains differently. Disease and starvation are
events, and perhaps a call to adventure to find a
cure, rather than an ubiquitous condition.
Dark Fantasy settings either refuse to “sanitize” the
living conditions, attitudes and politics of the world
in order to be more palatable to modern sensibili-
In some such settings there is no magic at all, ties, or deliberately up the horribleness factor to make
though they would still count as fantasy rather than a “crapsack world” that nobody would want to live
alternate history if the geography or cultures of the in, even those at the top of the heap, but is enter-
world were different enough, or the world included taining to adventure in. Dark Fantasy settings usually
fantastic elements such as different physics. E.g. a make mere survival a difficult task, and hunger, dis-
world where gunpowder, steam engines or electron- ease and poverty are the norm. Personal freedom
ics couldn’t work, as a reason that the technology is non-existent except where anarchy reigns. Morality
never advanced beyond the Middle Ages. tends to run in shades of gray to black, and the setting
High Magic vs. Low Magic makes a big difference may actively punish attempts at goodness or nobility,
in Zounds! in terms of the Primary Rule, and what sorts e.g. NPC’s will never respond to overtures of friendship
of Abilities and Equipment characters have, but very with anything but betrayal...even when it’s not in their
little mechanical difference. In fact, Zounds! is ideal own self-interest, and any act of kindness or mercy will
for campaigns that mix the two, since characters with eventually come back to haunt you.
and without access to magic can have completely Dark Fantasy campaigns are almost always gritty,
equivalent levels of power...as long as you don’t inter- though the reverse isn’t true. See Gritty Campaigns for
pret the effects of the Primary Rule to favor one over some optional rules you can use to tweak Zounds! for
the other. grittier play.
98

New Fantasy Creature Templates
One way you can shape the setting for your game is
to decide which kind of fantasy creatures are com-
mon enough to warrant a template for player char-
acters. As mentioned earlier, usually the templates
are geared for playable creature types, those that
can at least interact with humans and have recogniz-
able goals and concerns. However, even creatures
normally alien beyond comprehension, such as sen-
tient swords, can have that aspect deemphasized to
allow them as player characters.
Remember that players can potentially have char-
acters who are fantasy creatures, either ones that are
“standard” in the setting or unusual or unique, but
use one of the regular templates simply by choosing
to; doing so emphasizes that particular character’s
training and talents over whatever the typical Abilities
creatures of that type typically have. In other words,
players should use the Fantasy Creature Templates if
they want to play a mostly stereotypical creature, and
the regular Templates if they want to play against or
independent of type. Sticking to stereotype tends to
make the characters more powerful but less versatile.
With the GM’s permission, players may play a crea-
ture using one of the regular Templates but keeping
the Restrictions of the base Creature Template in re-
turn for Boosts above the standard 3 Boosts (one Boost
per Restriction), provided they don’t use the Boosts on
anything that the Creature Template doesn’t (e.g. if
the Creature Template starts at Toughness 3 and one
Restriction, the player can keep the Restriction and
also start at Toughness 3, but not keep the Restric-
tion and apply the Boost to Will instead). If the player
would rather not, or the GM would rather not deal with
having PCs have that Restriction or the extra Boosts,
then it’s presumed that the PC is an unusual creature
of that type who has found a way around the stereo-
typical restriction, e.g. a vampire who isn’t evil and is
thus not hurt by holy symbols, but is slightly weaker in
some respect as a result (lacking the extra Boosts the
Restrictions gave).
99
Setting
Start with this bare bones template, filling in the
power descriptions:
Toughness: 2, Stamina: 2, Will: 2, Actions: 2
Powers
3 powers @ 6. If suitable, you can add Advan-
tages and Disadvantages to each power.
Shticks
2 Shticks @ 4 if they meet the stereotype, or 3
otherwise.
New Power Levels start @ 6, if they fit the stereo-
type, 4 otherwise. List the optional powers that
many but not all of these creatures have. For
example, Glamour might be an optional power
for a Fairy in the campaign. It won’t be part of
the starting Powers, but will start at 6 if the player
adds it. If the player selects a power that isn’t
part of the Fairy stereotype as defined by the
Template, such as a Giant Size or Necromancy,
it would start at 4.
New Shtick Levels start @ 4 if they fit the stereo-
types, 3 otherwise. Again, the Template should
list the stereotypical Shticks.
Restrictions: Any number of restrictions. Pool sim-
ilar or minor restrictions together.
Power boosts: For each restriction, add one
Boost to the Template.
New Initiations
You should come up with a set of Initiations that help
fit the characters into your particular setting. Typical
Initiations can be into churches, military and law en-
forcement organizations, aristocracies and societies
(secret or public), guilds, and the like. Make them
specific as you can: an Initiation in the the Assassin’s
Guild should come with very different benefits and re-
strictions than initiation into the Goldsmith’s Guild or
the Wizard’s Guild, and even Assassin’s Guilds in differ-
ent cities might be different, perhaps a formally rec-
ognized guild in the decadent capitol but just a gang
that specializes in murder in the boondocks, or a clan
of ninja in a culture based on fantasy Japan. A single
organization might have different Initiations depend-
ing on different roles, such as one Initiation that ap-
plies to traveling or adventuring priests and another
that applies to the clergy that see to a village’s or
town’s spiritual needs; different gods in the same pan-
theon might also have different Initiations, rather than
all sharing one.
An Initiation can grant as many Power Boosts as it
has Restrictions. Power Boosts can be anything that
you could buy with experience: Attributes, Abilities,
Assets, etc. Restrictions should constrain the behav-
ior of the Initiate in conformance with the goals and
precepts of the organization. Restrictions can be Tem-
poral or Supernatural.
Temporal Restrictions are restrictions that are en-
forced by the authorities, usually those of the orga-
nization, but sometimes of the larger society (per-
haps witches are legally required to wear distinctive
27. CAMPAIGN DESIGN
dress so that people know when they’re dealing with
witches and can be wary of undue influence from
charm spells). Violations of Temporal Restrictions are
punished in mundane ways by the authorities if the Ini-
tiate is caught; depending on the severity of the viola-
tion it can be pro-forma, or perhaps a fine, demotion
or assignment to unpleasant duties, or it can cause
the Initiate’s expulsion from the organization and re-
vocation of all the privileges.
Supernatural Restrictions are imposed by supernat-
ural means, perhaps as part of a bargain with a su-
pernatural entity, or the will of the god the Initiate wor-
ships. Violations of Supernatural Restrictions are pun-
ished by supernatural means, and are usually pun-
ished immediately and without fail or error; depend-
ing on the Supernatural restriction it might be possible
to violate in thought and not just deed. Punishment
may include revocation of abilities, being placed un-
der a geas to undertake a quest or penance, imposi-
tion of a curse, or even a bolt from the blue.
The Campaign
Episodic Or Epic?
Each session can be a self-contained adventure,
or the whole campaign can be a single mega-
adventure, or something in between.
In an episodic style of campaign, each adventure
has a clear beginning, middle and end. There may
be ongoing plot threads and themes from episode to
episode, but the major focus of the episode comes to
a definite conclusion, with the PC’s immediate goal
(explore the mountains, establish contact with the
dwarves, escape from the cataclysm, carry off the
robbery) accomplished even if their ultimate motiva-
tion for going on adventures hasn’t been resolved.
Emphasis on episodes can mesh well with players’
100
often hectic schedules, particularly if the episodes
are short, one or two sessions each, since a particu-
lar character’s absence from the current adventure
doesn’t tend to need much explanation or leave a
huge hole in the plot. This makes episodic games
ideal back-ups for when you don’t have a quorum of
your regular players, for when you have a guest player
or two, or just a “pick up” game.
On the other hand, if players prefer an epic style
campaign, where there is a single over-arching plot
or antagonist and everything builds to a big climax
dealing with that, it’s certainly possible. One thing to
watch out for, besides the usual issues of players feel-
ing “rail-roaded” and unable to affect the plot except
in minor details, is making sure that the epic won’t be
short-circuited by the players defeating the Big Bad or
otherwise resolving the driving issue of the campaign
prematurely.
Unless you’re cheating, if it’s possible for the play-
ers to defeat the Big Bad or solve the problem without
using a “Plot Device”, then it’s possible that can hap-
pen any time they encounter him or work on a solu-
tion, including the first time in what was intended to
be the prelude. If you want an epic campaign with-
out cheating in favor of whatever is driving the plot
you should make sure that the players can’t come to
grips with the main enemy or issue until the climax, for
instance by arranging that it can only be finally re-
solved with a Plot Device, that the resolution require
visiting various sites, or that the plot can roll merrily
along even without the main driver to guide it.

Examples:
• The villain can reconstitute himself given time un-
less the ring has been destroyed in Mount Doom.
• The endless winter that is gripping the land can
only be broken by rescuing Spring from where she
is trapped in the Underworld.
• Driving back the invaders will require diplomatic
missions to all of the rival factions to get them on
board, and they may have demands in return for
cooperation that will in turn lead to adventures.
• The enemy has set something in motion that his
capture won’t stop (“You may have defeated
me, but the sacrifice is complete and the Great
One shall rise again once the stars are aligned!”).
• There is a lieutenant or secondary bad guy wait-
ing in the wings to step in when the original insti-
gator is dealt with.
• The clever plan by which the heroes halted the ini-
tial problem has generated side-effects that need
to be dealt with before the campaign is truly over.
Or, you could just deal with the anticlimax, allow the
players to have their triumph, and move on to the
next arc. Many, perhaps even most, players would
prefer to have an unexpectedly short and successful
“epic” than be railroaded to a predetermined con-
clusion; just because they’d love to destroy the villain
just at the moment of his apparent triumph doesn’t
necessarily mean that they’ll love it if you arbitrarily
thwart their every attempt to prevent his plans from
getting that far along the way in order to get to that
final scene.
It is also possible to combine the episodic and epic:
have an epic campaign in the big picture, leavened
with one or two-session adventures that relate tan-
gentially or not at all to the over-arching plot. This
is the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” model of story arcs:
over the course of a “season” of twelve or even more
sessions there is a major enemy working towards a fi-
nal Earth-shattering scheme, but aside from a bit of
foreshadowing in each episode the big scheme pro-
ceeds in fits and starts while most of the adventures
deal with largely unrelated schemes by different bad
guys. In fiction, the heroes may be completely un-
aware of the presence of the chief bad guy of the
arc until it’s time for the climax, with only the audience
seeing how step-by-step he gets closer to his goal; in
an RPG that doesn’t work as well, unless the players
are unusually open to having “cut scenes” of out-of-
character knowledge just for flavor. A better model is
for the heroes to be slowly acquiring the clues needed
to figure out the plot or pieces of the Plot Device to
defeat the main threat.
101
Gritty Campaigns
Gritty Campaigns
Sometimes you want to run a campaign where ev-
erything is a struggle, and life is cheap. By default
Zounds! leaves it up to the players and GM to narrate
their actions and results according to what they find
plausible given the genre and setting. The first step to
a grittier, bloodier, sweatier campaign is adjusting the
tone of your narration. Instead of being Hindered be-
ing narrated as being knocked over and temporarily
pinned beneath a table, and recovering from being
Hindered spending an Action to get out from under
the table and standing up, narrate being Hindered
as getting stabbed in the leg, and starting to bleed,
and becoming un-Hindered as spending an Action to
bandage the wound. Describe the bone-crunching
and blood-spraying injury that results from failing your
Armor roll when you are Out. And so on.
If you want rules for grittier results, you can do any
of all of the following:
• Treat Out as dead for most NPC’s. For a truly grim
campaign, treat Out as dying for PC’s as well. De-
scribe the death gruesomely.
• Treat Overkill as dead even for PC’s, or...
• Treat Overkill as a grievous wound for PC’s. Roll
2 times Stamina as a die (i.e. Stamina 1 is d2,
stamina 2 is d4, etc.). The result is how many turns
until you die. If the result is greater than the dam-
age that exceeded your Toughness, you won’t
actually die, but you are down for the count.
Even if you receive medical attention, you’ll have
picked up a new Restriction or Complication re-
lated to your injury.
• When recovering from Out, roll your Armor die vs.
the amount of damage that exceeded Tough-
ness in order to avoid Injury (instead of the usual
“roll higher than 1”).
• Roll 2 times Stamina as a die (1 = d2, 2 = d4, 3 = d6,
etc.) when recovering from Injury. On a 1, your
27. CAMPAIGN DESIGN
wound is infected. Treat as an additional Injury
(and Complication).
• After every combat, roll 2 times Stamina as a die
(as above) vs. your Armor die. If your Stamina
doesn’t beat your Armor, you are Tired.
• Check for a Mishap on every combat roll, or even
every roll. The GM should make up some suitable
unlucky thing to happen. If the result would still
be a success, the Mishap happens in addition to
whatever success would indicate. A Mishap on
a defense roll might result in an Injury, even if you
weren’t Hindered or Out.
• Eliminate some or all of the following Tropes:
– All For One, and One For All!
– Battle Cry
– Failure is Not an Option!
– Sheer Determination
• Eliminate or place Restrictions on all Abilities along
the lines of Healing, Regeneration, Resurrection
and the like. Tone down what’s deemed plausi-
ble in the setting for the remaining healing abili-
ties, such as First Aid or Medicine. Allow Mishaps
on such rolls to make matters worse, or at least
that the wound or malady is beyond the charac-
ter’s power to aid.
• Increase the amount of time it takes to recover
from being Tired to three scenes, and don’t allow
recovery from Tired during combat except by in-
voking Second Wind.
• Allow dice to “explode”: if a die gets the highest
possible, reroll that die and add; keep doing it as
long as you keep rolling the highest possible. You
might think this sounds more over-the-top and cin-
ematic, but actually making even the toughest
creatures and characters vulnerable to a lucky
shot, and making it more likely that a crowd of
lesser foes can seriously hurt or even kill a PC
makes combat more unpredictable and deadly.
• Make PC’s less special by removing the “Ties go
the the player” rule. Instead, ties only go to the
player if the result on the die is even, odd goes
against the player. E.g., if the Player rolls 4 against
the enemy’s roll of 4, the player prevails and the
enemy is Hindered; if the rolls had been 5 vs. 5 the
enemy would be unscathed.
• Remove the extra XP the players get for being put
Out or defeated.
• Decrease the pace of advancement by increas-
ing the amount of XP required for Boost, e.g. by
doubling all costs.
102
Plausibility of the Fantastic
Zounds! relies heavily on the players deciding what
is plausible according to the Primary Rule “Does this
sound like something from a fantasy adventure?” For
most actions, that’s pretty easy. Does a torch set pa-
pers alight? Can you scare horses by making a loud
noise? Can ducking behind a tree protect you from
arrow fire? Even if the answer is maybe, that’s enough:
you can roll to see if it actually works. Fantasy sto-
ries, though, are defined by having elements that are
implausible or downright impossible in the real world.
Some of these are still easy enough to handle by ap-
peal to convention, either in general (vampires are
harmed by sunlight, right?) or to a particular source
that the campaign is explicitly trying to emulate (play-
ing a game based in Camelot, swimming a moat in a
coat of heavy iron mail is plausible, at least if you’re as
great a knight as Lancelot). Other areas, particularly
when it comes to magic and fantastic creatures can
be much trickier. Is there anything that magic can’t
do? How do you know?
Appeal to whether it sounds like a fantasy story
doesn’t really help here, since the limits of magic in
fantasy stories often seem to be driven by the plot:
if magic could do X, the story would end too soon,
so it can’t do X...or can’t do X until the end of the
story is reached. That’s not satisfactory for a roleplay-
ing game, where you want players’ decisions includ-
ing the clever use of magic to be able to shape the
story instead of working towards an ending plotted in
advance. Instead, you want to set guidelines about
what is plausible before the players have to make de-
cisions about how to use their magic.
Zounds! works best if you set broad generalizations
about what magic can and cannot do, rather than
trying to list it out spell by spell and item by item.
First establish a handful of campaign wide “rules of
magic” that all magic must abide by, and then add
narrower rules based on the Initiations a mage might
belong to, and finally create Restrictions for Wise
Ones, possibly unique to that character, chosen for
flavor or specialization.
For instance, as GM you might establish that in the
setting, all magic is accomplished by negotiation with
spirits and extra-dimensional entities, or all magic is
powered by the caster’s own life force. Then you
might create Initiations base on, say, a shamanic Ini-
tiation where the shaman gains powers from animal
totems and ancestral spirits, a necromantic Initiation
where the necromancer’s power comes from the spir-
its of the dead, and a hermetic Initiation where the
wizard’s power comes from pacts with demons. When
a player decides to create a shaman character, to-
gether you might decide that her totem animal is a
hawk, so all the spells have to somehow either be re-
lated to hawks or the air, or to wisdom that her an-
cestors can provide by their knowledge of tradition
or their ability to perceive the spirit realm. This gives
her a solid start to being able to reason about what
 Establishing the Tone

sorts of things her magic can do, as well as giving all

the players a feel for what’s plausible when they run
across magic in the setting. E.g., if at some point they
run across suits of armor that move and fight on their
own, they can figure out that they are likely animated
by some sort of spirit bound to them that they might
be able to communicate with, command, or set free,
instead of being forced to say “well, that’s magic for
you.”

Working Out The Rules As You Go

It’s not necessary to work out all the rules of magic
and what can and can’t appear in terms of fantas-
tic creatures before you begin. In fact, part of the
charm of magic and the fantastic is that things are
often mysterious, even spooky. Having an encyclope-
dia of monsters and spells that the players can mem-
orize even before the game starts can rob it of flavor
and make the whole thing much more prosaic and
dull. Work out the broad strokes, but leave the details
until later when you need them. You can know that
necromancy is one of the three basic types of magic
in the setting without knowing yet exactly what spells
a necromancer might know, or every type of undead
creature there is; there’s time enough to fill in those
details when you need them, say when the party is
likely to meet one on a quest..or when a player de-
cides to play one. Once you do work out some de-
tails, though, try to file them away for the future.
Another way to quickly set the tone for a setting is
Establishing the Tone to define it as an amalgam or “mash-up” of two differ-
ent settings, e.g. “Fantasy fuckin’ Viet Nam” or “Ho-
Since so much in Zounds! depends on the players strik- ratio Hornblower, with dragons.” This works very well
ing the right tone with their actions, it’s very help- if all the players are familiar with the source material,
ful to communicate the proper expectations before and somewhat less well if some of them aren’t but are
play begins. Zounds! can accommodate almost any willing to take the time to at least skim it. If the play-
tone as long as the players including the GM are all ers aren’t familiar with the sources and don’t want to,
agreed, but can be frustrating if different players are or don’t have the time to, become familiar, it can still
really trying to play different styles at the same table. work out if they’re willing to take their cues from the
One of the quickest ways to firmly establish the ex- players and GM who are familiar with it until they get
pected tone is to pick a particular fantasy story and a better understanding. If they don’t want to do even
say it’s going to be like that. The game could liter- that, the campaign probably won’t work out for them,
ally be set in the world of the story, but more often and they run the risk of spoiling everybody else’s fun.
in a setting that’s merely reminiscent of it; even in a In such situations, if you can’t talk it out, it’s probably
completely original and possibly bizarre fantasy world, better to play something else.
though, you can use a particular story as the touch- Finally, you can set the tone the old-fashioned way:
stone for what sort of action is considered plausible. by discussing what you’re aiming for, both before you
For instance, if you say that the tone should be similar begin and scene by scene as you play... at least for
to the Conan stories of Robert E. Howard, then even if the first few sessions until the tone starts to be estab-
nothing in the world is actually taken from the stories, lished by what has gone before during play. This can
you can think about the kinds of things that Conan work quite well as long as all the players are prepared
was, or wasn’t, able to do in the stories when decid- to discuss what they prefer in terms of tone: otherwise
ing how the Primary Rule ought to apply to your own it can tend to be disjoint, with different character’s ac-
actions in the game. The exact same setting, but tak- tions coming from different styles of story, or be domi-
ing its tone from Xena: Warrior Princess or Glen Cook’s nated by whoever is the most forceful or demanding
The Black Company would play out completely differ- player.
ently.

103
Chapter 28
Designing an Adventure
What you need to design
An adventure is a problem that confronts the PC’s.
The problem might be specific, concrete, and de-
mand that something be done immediately (there is
a monster loose in the village, and if it’s not captured
or killed it will eat everybody’s heads), or it might be
vague and long-range (the PCs need more informa-
tion about what the factions are in capitol city before
they can make any decision about alliances), but if
the PC’s have no problems to solve, there’s nothing to
game and you might as well advance the action until
there is a problem that needs their attention. Some
players can be counted on to create their own prob-
lems, but even so it is a good idea to at least some-
times have problems from the outside spill over into
the things that the PCs are focused on. Even if the
players will happily spend whole sessions plotting their
coming takeover of the Thieves Guild, things get more
interesting when in the midst of that they need to deal
with a rival guild moving against the Thieves Guild be-
fore they’re ready, or a crackdown by the authorities.
It is usually better not to plan out a detailed sequence
of scenes to be played out in linear fashion, but in-
stead to invent a set of elements (monsters, people
to talk to, clues, events, special objects, secrets) that
might be inserted when needed. The rest of the sec-
tion are guidelines with suggestions about which ele-
ments to design. Feel free to use or ignore these as
you feel fit.
Adventure Arcs
Adventures are usually problems that need to be
solved. Most adventures will go through three stages:
Exposition, Investigation, and Confrontation. In the Ex-
position stage the PC’s learn of a problem, and hope-
fully decide to do something with that information,
even if they don’t know exactly what yet. This is when
the basic premise of the adventure is laid out. In a
television episode, this is typically the stuff that hap-
pens before the opening credits, where we learn our
band of merry adventurers is on their way to the capi-
tol carrying medical supplies to stop an outbreak of
the Bubonic Plague. In a campaign that is designed
more around the PC’s goals rather than a series of
104
specific adventures, the exposition stage might con-
sist of nothing more than a brief list of things the PC’s
activities have turned up that sound like they might
be of use towards those goals, or problems that have
cropped up that might interfere with them, allowing
the players to decide which they want to pursue first
or if they care at all. “Production is down at your
mine in the Dale, but the foreman can’t explain why;
meanwhile the ambassador from the Silver Islands is
meeting with your arch-rival, the Duke of the Argent,
and your chief wizard reported there are a lot more
fairy rings popping up in inhabited lands than any-
body can remember seeing before.”
Once the PCs have a goal, either invented, handed
to them, or forced on them by circumstances the In-
vestigation stage begins. In this stage they use their
skills and resources to try to learn more about the pa-
rameters of the problem or resources that might help
them reach their goal. In fantasy, investigation will of-
ten involve magical Research, either as part of the
scenes needed for a Wise One developing a spell or
ritual to address the problem, or to advance the PC’s
other goals.
Finally, there is the Confrontation stage, where it all
comes together and their immediate plans are re-
solved one way or the other. This doesn’t necessarily
mean they reach their ultimate goal: in some cam-
paigns it may be impossible to reach that goal by
design such as when the campaign is about trav-
eling from town to town solving whatever problems
crop up that session, or a long-term campaign about
the exploration and settlement of a new continent or
world. Nevertheless, the intermediate goals, whether
they are episodes or campaign arcs, need to get re-
solved so the players have some sense of forward mo-
mentum. Things might not always work out as the
PC’s wanted. Depending on how things play out they
might be resolved with a set-back or disaster, a partial
victory that leads to further goals and adventures, or
even a complete triumph for the good guys. Part of
the point of Zounds! is let the players and GM be sur-
prised by exactly how things turn out. If the GM knows
in advance both what the climactic scene is going to
look like and how it turns out, it’s too tightly plotted; it’s
important to leave plenty of freedom for the players
actions to matter to the outcome.
 The End of The World is not the end of the world

Interleaving arcs arcs can be the players gathering information and

completing a spell capable of defeating the necro-
This sequence of exposition, investigation, and con- mancer, pursued by them and the ever-growing army
frontation, which we’ll call an arc, can be a single of undead the necromancer has raised. Even if the
session or multiple sessions. Not every event needs to whole world is conquered by the necromancer, this
be related to the current arc. In addition, you can opens up new drama as the players become part of a
have multiple arcs in play in a single session. One way resistance movement, fighting the new order. Failure
to do this is to weave the arcs together, with some of should have consequences, but the aftermath of fail-
the exposition of the next arc happening during the ure should be a new adventure, not just instant oblit-
investigation of the previous arc. You can also link eration.
some or all of the arcs together into a “seasonal arc”,
with a whole adventure serving the same purpose of
one scene in the master arc for the season. For exam-
ple, suppose the master arc is about an expedition of
unscrupulous explorers planning to excavate a dun-
geon on the lands the players are protecting, possibly
unleashing some pent up horror best forgotten. The
first adventure could be the PC’s crossing paths with
the explorers who are attempting to steal information
such as a map from a PC or ally of the PC’s that they
need to located the site. Thus, the whole adventure
serves as the exposition segment of the master arc,
with the purpose that the PC’s learn of the explorers
and their theft of the map, but not necessarily why
they want it (assuming the map has more on it than
just the directions to that dungeon).

Failure is always an option. Success is

always an option
Whenever you plan for an encounter, never assume
that the players will succeed or that they will fail. For
example, don’t plan an adventure with the assump-
tion that the explorers will steal the map from the
players, because they might succeed at stopping the
theft. On the other hand, don’t make the adventure
contingent on the players capturing a thief, because
they may not succeed at capturing her, or they may
decide to kill her, or make a deal with her. Better is to
say, “The explorers will attempt to steal the map from
the players” and make a plan for further encounters
whether or not the theft succeeds. If you really need
the map stolen, it is better to have it be stolen before
the adventure even begins. It is unfair, but at least
you’re not trying to fool your players into thinking it was
their fault.

The End of The World is not the end of the

world
Allowing for the possibility of failure does not mean
the stakes cannot be high. What is a complete disas-
ter from the player character’s point of view can be
an invigorating change of pace for the campaign.
In a fantasy game even death is often reversible, ei-
ther literally or with the possibility of returning as a
doppelganger, ghost, or alternate universe version. If
the explorers succeed at opening the dungeon and
reviving the long dead necromancer, the next few
105
Chapter 29

Bestiary

Animated Object
This is a magically animated household object,
like a broom, rope, or armchair. Bigger or more
sophisticated animated objects could be con-
siderably more dangerous. Some may have ex-
tra features such as arms to carry buckets, or
a myriad of little legs to move around on that
aren’t typical of the non-animated version of
that object.
Minion
Scope: Normal
Toughness: 3, Stamina: 1, Will: N/A, Actions: 1
Powers: Movement (by shape) 4 (d4,d4); Non-
living (auto def.) 4 (d4,d4); Attack (by form) 4
This chapter gives templates for some of the canon- (d4,d4)
ical types of creatures that often occur in fantasy. This Restrictions: Treat as hindered in a situation they
is a starting point for including such creatures, and aren’t designed for. E.g., an armchair’s move-
includes discussion of some ways to handle them in ment would be Hindered anywhere that wasn’t
Zounds! to emphasize their unique aspects and spe- approximately as flat and level as a floor, such
cial abilities; as GM you are expected to freely alter as in a forest, swamp, or on stairs. Follows com-
them according to your needs. The entries generally mands very literally.
describe categories, so even within the same setting
creatures of that type (e.g. Crawlers) may vary widely
from encounter to encounter. You are encouraged to
raise or lower the numbers, change the descriptions,
add new abilities and restrictions, or remove those
that don’t fit with your conception of the creature.
The Scopes listed are just suggestions, based largely
on the kinds of stories they typically appear in. You
can either use them as is (shifting their power levels up
and down to match the Personal Scope of the char-
acters), adjust them to be a Scope more in keeping
with the way you imagine them, or ignore the Scopes
altogether, which automatically treats them as being
the same Personal Scope as the PCs and makes them
ready to pit against their characters; doing so does
tend to make some of the more powerful creatures
much easier to handle, since the entries are scaled
roughly against a single character of the same Scope
as the creature.
Minions are lesser creatures such that a single oppo-
nent might actually be a pack of three or more crea-
tures, treated as a unit. See Mobs.

106
Ape
This is a giant ape, around 10 feet tall. A
smaller ape should have lower stats and pow-
ers, more in line with the Creature template. If
you want closer to King Kong proportions, in-
crease the Scope or add new Boosts to Tough-
ness, Strength, and Size.
Scope: Cinematic
Toughness: 5, Stamina: 3, Will: 2, Actions: 2
Powers: Strength 12 (d12,d12); Size (auto def.) 11
(d12,d10); Climb (movement) 6 (d6,d6)
Shticks: Keen senses 6 (d6,d6)
Restrictions: Bewildered by fire/flash (anyone
with appropriate magic or torches can attack
him vs. Will, but a Mishap on the roll causes
him to go Berserk instead of being Influenced
or Out and makes him immune to such attacks
while Berserk), Giantism: Hindered in enclosed
space if he doesn’t want to destroy things. No
opposable thumbs: can’t wield or is clumsy with
many weapons or tools. Knuckle-walker: can’t
or won’t carry things while traveling at speed.
Notes: Naturalistic apes might be relatively shy
and unaggressive or curious and mischievous,
but more fantastic sorts might have a taste for
human flesh and human or greater intelligence.
They can be solitary, or occur in bands. It’s com-
mon in fantasy stories for them to be even more
exotic by, e.g., giving them white fur and an ex-
tra pair of arms (justifying at least on extra Action
and perhaps splitting their Strength Power into
two slightly weaker Powers), wings (and a Flight
Power), the ability to speak and wield weapons,
or psionic powers.
107
Basilisk
The basilisk is a reptile, called the “king of the ser-
pents” for the crest or crown on its head, reputed
to be so deadly that it can kill with a glance.
Where it steps plants will wither and never grow
again. Basilisks lair in holes in the ground, that
can be recognized by the scorched earth and
dead plants around it. Basilisks are hatched by
cockerels from the eggs of serpents.
Scope: Heroic
Toughness: 3, Stamina: 3, Will: 3, Actions: 1
Powers: Gaze 12; Scales (auto def.) 8
Restrictions: The odor of weasels is poisonous to
basilisks. They can be killed by seeing themselves
in a mirror. In some legends, they are killed by
hearing the crow of a rooster.
Notes: Monsters such as Basilisks require a cer-
tain amount of care when using them in Zounds!
By the Primary Rule, the merest glance should kill
a character, which means that unless you add
details such as the creature needing to be able
to see a person’s flesh and not just their armor,
or needing to stare for a longer period of time,
in many cases characters won’t get more than
their Default Skill to resist. It might even be im-
plausible that high Toughness, Stamina, or Will
would aid in resisting. If you’re going to rule that
by the Primary Rule they shouldn’t count, you
should at least allow the characters to spend
multiple Actions dodging or hiding from its gaze,
with each Action spent being treated as one
more “Toughness” that the basilisk’s gaze has to
beat in order to truly hit and kill the character.
GM’s should give the players plenty of warning
that there’s a basilisk in the area before spring-
ing one on them. Fortunately that’s not hard,
given the destruction basilisks wreak on the en-
vironment around them.
29. B ESTIARY
Beast
The minion version represents a fairly ordinary
animal, such as a watchdog or one of the pack
of wolves a vampire can summon. The crea-
ture version is a large, ferocious predator such
as a lion or bear. Many supernatural creatures
are basically beasts with a few additional super-
natural powers. You can up the scope and add
these powers to get a variety of animal-based
monsters.
Minion
Scope: Normal
Toughness: 2, Stamina: 1, Will: 1, Actions: 2
Powers: Maul 4; Keen Senses 4; Reflexes (auto
def.) 5 can be hindered (D)
Shticks: Track 4
Restrictions: Hindered outside natural habitat
(by species)
More deadly version, a very large predator or
supernatural beast:
Scope: Heroic
Toughness: 3, Stamina: 2, Will: 2, Actions: 2
Powers: Maul 6; Keen Senses 6; Reflexes (auto
def.) 7 can be hindered (D); Stalk prey (move-
ment) 6
Shticks: Track 6
Restrictions: No manipulatory appendages.
Scared of fire.
Notes: Beasts are generally of animal intelli-
gence; they may be very good at certain in-
stinctual activities such as hunting and bringing
down prey, but are easily confused by the unfa-
miliar, and lack the capacity to plan ahead or
use tools. Almost all beasts can be made expo-
nentially tougher by granting them human intel-
ligence, though that also opens the possibility of
communicating and negotiating with them.
108
Blob
An amorphous ooze, slime, or jelly.
Scope: Heroic
Toughness: 4, Stamina: 2, Actions: 2
Powers: Corrosive touch 6; Amorphous (auto
def.) 7; Sense motion and heat 6; Ooze (move-
ment) 6 can move through small cracks and
crevices; Engulf 8 (optional)
Restrictions: Short-distance senses and little
memory mean that the creature has no “in
sight” range. If a creature trying to elude a blob
wins a single movement competition, the blob
has lost track of it, unless the blob has different
senses such as ones that let it track a scent trail.
In any event, blobs should be easy to fool or de-
coy if you can figure out how their senses work.
Notes: Blobs may vary in capabilities, often with
different colors of blobs or oozes indicating dif-
ferent types. Some blobs may have complete or
partial immunity to things like fire, or lightning, or
to cutting or bashing damage; some might heal
or grow larger from consuming flesh, or even
any organics, while others might only consume
wood, metal, or magic. In some settings, blobs
are an intelligent species; in such cases you may
wish to create a playable character template,
and they usually will be able to form eyes or
have other non-short-range senses, and may be
able to shapeshift, though usually they only as-
sume the shape and not the color and appear-
ance of what they’re imitating. They have no
mind, and thus no Will stat, and are immune to
mental powers and illusions.
Catoblepas
A legendary creature with the body of a buffalo
and the head of a boar, joined to the body by
a long thin neck. Both its gaze and its breath
turned people to stone, or were poisonous de-
pending on the legend.
Scope: Heroic
Toughness: 5, Stamina: 3, Will: 1, Actions: 2
Powers: Stoning Breath or Gaze 8; Scaly Back
(auto def.) 8; Immune to Poison 6 (optional)
Restrictions: Cannot lift head, so its gaze or
breath is hard to employ: almost any plan to
avoid its power by taking advantage of this fact
should work without needing a roll.
Notes: As with the basilisk, it’s wise to give the
players advanced warning of the presence of
catoblepas in the area, particularly if its gaze is
deadly. Many typical defenses such as tough
hide, armor, or skill with weapons won’t work as
a defense against breath or gaze, leaving char-
acters to defend with the Default Skill or per-
haps their Movement. On the other hand, since
according to legend it has difficulty raising its
head, the catoblepas is not quite as deadly as
the basilisk, and players can more easily take
advantage of this limitation, provided they can
learn of it or notice it in time. As GM you can try
to describe it as its moving and fighting so that
the players can come to this conclusion, if they
don’t already know it, without blatantly telling
them how to handle it.
Unlike the basilisk, which is solitary, the cato-
blepas can occur in herds, and catoblepas are
immune to the breath or gaze of their kind.
In some legends, the catoblepas’ poisonous
breath comes from its eating poisonous plants;
it is this version that is immune to being poisoned
itself.
109
Carnivorous Plant
Carnivorous plants tend to come in two varieties:
those that seize their prey using vines or spe-
cialized appendages (like Venus Flytraps), and
those that lure their prey with scent and then
drug it or trap it in an organ that’s hard to es-
cape from (like a pitcher plant). Most cannot
move, or move very slowly. Some may be able
to shoot darts or spores.
Scope: Normal
Toughness: 5, Stamina: 2, Actions: 3
Powers: Grab 6 (A) Area Effect, but limited to
Actions Attacks per Round (multiple tentacles or
traps); Engulf 8 (D) Must Grab First; No Internal
Organs (auto def.) 7; Soporific Pollen 8 (A) Area
Effect (optional).
Shticks: Appear Harmless 6
Restrictions: Unable to move: automatically
loses any Movement vs. Movement contest and
the prey gets away, but once it grabs on can op-
pose Move Actions with its Grab without it taking
an Action.
Notes: Vegetable intelligence means that it
can’t plan, but it is immune to Will-based effects
(hence has no Will stat), including persuasion,
and spells like charm and sleep.
29. B ESTIARY
Crab, Giant
Giant Crabs or other crustaceans can represent
any sort of big monster with an incredibly thick
shell or tough hide.
Scope: Heroic
Toughness: 6, Stamina: 3, Will: 1, Actions: 2
Powers: Claws 8; Impenetrable Shell (auto def.)
10; Huge Body (auto def.) 8 so big it’s hard to
strike a vital spot; Scuttle 6
Restrictions: Can only walk crabwise: treat non-
sidewise movement as Hindered. Cannot sur-
vive indefinitely out of water.
Notes: You can encourage players to treat the
shell as impenetrable to normal weaponry ei-
ther subtly by describing how thick and heavy
it looks and how they can see arrows and spears
still sticking out of the shell from previous en-
counters it had with adventurers, or blatantly by
describing it as appearing impenetrable to nor-
mal weapons. It’s important to let the players
know what’s considered plausible before they
use their actions, since they are the ultimate
arbiters of the plausibility of their own actions.
This should guide the players to trying other ap-
proaches or at least using Primary Rule justifica-
tions such as attacking the joints, or going for
the eyes; as long as they are trying something
more than just hacking away, they’re playing in
the spirit of the game. Even if “realistically” it
would still require quite a bit of luck for their plan
to work, let the dice decide by rolling their at-
tack vs. the crab’s Shell.
Attempts to deal with things like crabs and tur-
tles by flipping them over should be treated as
an unopposed roll vs. a Difficulty based on the
size of the creature; they shouldn’t need to suc-
ceed at an attack just to try to move or flip it. In
general, you shouldn’t have multiple checks for
the same task in Zounds! Raise the difficulty, or
let the foe combine Powers instead of piling on
extra rolls.
110
Crawler
This represents any sort of creature that can
crawl on walls and ceilings dropping on its prey:
insects, spiders, lizards.
Scope: Normal
Toughness: 2, Stamina: 2, Will: 1, Actions: 2
Powers: Poison sting 6; Cling (movement) 7;
Jump 6 Note that this is not a movement power.
The creature crawls faster than it can leap re-
peatedly, but leaping at prey or away from a
predator is useful in combat; Carapace (auto
def.) 6; Spines or Web 6 (optional) some creepy-
crawlies have a ranged attack.
Shticks: Stealth 6
Restrictions: Relies on hiding in concealment.
Treat as hindered in an open area.
Notes: Crawlers can represent any sort of insect,
reptile, or other creature that is as comfortable
moving on the walls and ceiling as the floor. Al-
though Zounds! doesn’t use specific move dis-
tances or maps, you should be sure to empha-
size the relative location of the crawlers so that
the players have to come up with appropriate
and hopefully creative Primary Rule justifications
for hitting things scuttling along outside of easy
reach with melee weapons. Use either ranged
abilities for the Crawlers or their Jump ability to
change ranges. Smaller crawlers may be able
to crawl inside of armor or under clothes; this
doesn’t count as a power, just another way for
them to use the Primary Rule to their advantage.
Demon (Type I)
A disembodied evil spirit, who only manifests by
possessing corporeal beings.
Scope: Romantic
Toughness: 4, Stamina: 2, Will: 4, Actions: 2
Powers: Incorporeal Spirit (auto. def.) 8; Pos-
sess 8 Control (AA); Magical Powers 6 A: Flexible
(usually Telekinesis, Clairvoyance, Levitation, Py-
rokinesis, Invisibility, and Illusion)
Shticks: Theology 5, Arcane Knowledge 8
Restrictions: Can only affect world through its
Possess Power. Can’t touch or be in holy ob-
jects or places, and is susceptible to holy ob-
jects. Can be commanded by those who know
its true name.
Notes: This sort of demon is a possible result of
a Magical Research mishap. It is malevolent,
but it probably doesn’t simply want the physi-
cal destruction of the being it possesses. Rather,
it wants to use the form to trick or tempt others
into committing evil acts. A murderous rampage
might be fun, but random slaughter may well be
a net loss for Hell. Tricking others into murdering
innocents for fear that they are possessed or in
league with Hell, now you’re talking.
This makes certain assumptions about the cos-
mology and theology of the setting and the na-
ture of Hell and demons that aren’t true of all
settings, but are quite common in fantasy sto-
ries. If you wish to have demons be simple di-
mensional travelers, and not necessarily malev-
olent at all, by all means do so. The inhabitants
of such a setting, including the PCs, might nev-
ertheless believe that demons act as described
here. Learning the truth can be an interesting
set-up for an adventure.
111
Demon (Type II)
Demons that take physical form are usually
hideous nightmarish agglomerations of mis-
matched animal and human parts. Can usually
only manifest in the world as the result of being
summoned by a sorcerer, who hopes to bribe or
compel them to some service.
Scope: Romantic
Toughness: 5, Stamina: 3, Will: 3, Actions: 2
Powers: Unnatural Abomination (auto. def.) 8;
Animal Part 8 (claws, teeth, horns, tusks, quills,
suckers, etc.); Fly 6 whether or not they have
wings, they can propel themselves through the
air; Magical Resistance 8 (auto. def) A: Flexible
as soulless magical beings, can shrug off the ef-
fects of many spells. Magical Powers 8 A: Flexible
Shticks: Theology 5, Arcane Knowledge 8
Restrictions: Can’t touch or be in holy objects or
places, and susceptible to holy objects. Usually
constrained by the deal with the sorcerer that
summoned them, and the rules of the higher
powers depending on the world’s theology (e.g.
only interested in collecting the souls of the
wicked, so unwilling or unable to kill innocents).
Can be commanded by those who know its true
name.
Notes: Demons should want things besides just
murdering adventurers. There are plenty of mon-
sters for that. Demons should make the players
reconsider the way their evil or amoral charac-
ters have been living.
29. B ESTIARY
Dragon
A huge fire-breathing lizard.
Scope: Romantic and above
Toughness: 5, Stamina: 3, Will: 4, Actions: 3
Powers: Impenetrable Scales (auto def.) 11;
Huge size 9 can be used as defense to shrug
off attacks, or as attack to throw weight around;
Fiery breath 8 area effect (AA); Talons of steel 8;
Fly (movement) 6
Restrictions: Greedy and grasping: can’t stand
to see treasure spent or lost and always takes an
opportunity to gain more. Vanity: treat as Will 1
for attacks based on self-esteem and almost al-
ways falls for flattery. Awkward: treat as hindered
in any confined space where it doesn’t want to
destroy. Usually has one weak point in its armor,
although it may be hard to discover.
Notes: There are almost as many different kinds
of dragons as there are stories about them. Al-
most anything vaguely lizard or serpent like, par-
ticularly if it has wings or can fly, gets classified
as a dragon. Killing a dragon usually requires a
great hero, or an army, and the traditional re-
ward is half a kingdom. The above stats are
for a fairly simple kind, not possessed of great
cunning, unable to transform into a human, use
magical spells, see through illusions, or breath
anything more unusual than fire.
112
Dryad
A nymph, a type of minor deity or spirit associ-
ated with a tree or grove. Dryads are invariably
female, as are all nymphs, and appear young
and beautiful, and love to sing and dance. They
can be killed, but are otherwise immortal. They
are usually sexually liberated, and will dally with
anyone, male or female, who pleases them. The
encounter may leave their lover struck dumb, or
besotted.
Scope: Heroic
Toughness: 2, Stamina: 3, Will: 3, Actions: 2
Powers: Charm 8; Hidden Life Force (auto def.) 6
the life force of a nymph is actually contained
in her tree, her body cannot be permanently
harmed as long as the tree stands; Wood Walk 5
dryads can merge with trees and emerge from
any other tree in the same grove; Command
Plants 6 (optional) (A) Flexible
Restrictions: Cannot live if their tree is chopped
down; cannot venture far from their tree; can be
captured with cold iron.
Notes: Similar nymphs may exist for mountains
(oreads); rivers, streams and fountains (naiads);
the sea (nereids); breezes (aurae); and so on for
most natural and many mythical locations such
as the underworld. All nymphs are bound to a
particular location; even celestial nymphs are
associated with a particular star or the breezes
of a particular locale such as a mountain pass
or desert. A dying dryad may be able to place
a terrible curse on whoever killed her tree.
Fairy
A miniature flying person, with magical powers.
Scope: Normal
Toughness: 1, Stamina: 2, Will: 3, Actions: 2
Powers: Flight (movement) 6; Miniscule (auto
def.) 7; Pixie dust 5 Flexible (A) typical uses:
sleep, sneeze, blind, invisibility, shrink. Needs to
gather certain pollens or perform a dance ritual
to change out pixie dust powers for new ones.
Restrictions: Small size means can’t move most
objects.
Notes: Fairies might be malicious or benevolent,
but even benevolent fairies tend to be either
haughty and easily insulted, pranksters, or suf-
ficiently alien in outlook that their help can be
troublesome.
113
Fire Elemental
A manifestation of the element Fire, given shape
and will. Usually appears in the form of a flaming
lizard, though some versions are a vaguely man-
shaped being of fire or a flaming whirlwind.
Scope: Romantic
Toughness: 3, Stamina: 2, Will: 3, Actions: 2
Powers: Strength 6; Flames 6 area effect (AA);
Body of fire (auto def.) 7; Fiery touch (auto at-
tack) 6
Restrictions: Cannot resist burning or destroying,
even at great risk. Vulnerability: Water
Notes: Per the Primary Rule, Elementals are im-
mune to any attacks based on the Element they
command; they may even be increased in size
and power by such attacks. Contrariwise, they
are vulnerable to attacks based on their polar
opposite element.
Gazebo
The dread Gazebo.
Scope: Heroic
Toughness: 12
Powers: It’s a Gazebo (auto def.) 12
Restrictions: It’s a Gazebo
Notes: It cannot be bought, bullied, reasoned or
negotiated with: it’s a Gazebo.
29. B ESTIARY
Ghoul
Carrion-eaters, vaguely humanoid.
Scope: Heroic
Toughness: 3, Stamina: 1, Will: 1, Actions: 2
Powers: Devour 4; Frenzy (auto def.) 4; Paralyz-
ing Touch 6 (optional); Shapeshift 6 (optional);
Fear 6 (optional) A: Area Affect
Shticks: Find graveyard, carrion, and corpses 5
Restrictions: Insatiable hunger. They will stop to
consume downed foes (and friends, and each
other) even when there are living, dangerous
foes left. Hindered by daylight.
Notes: Ghouls are hideous creatures, and much
should be made of this fact, even if you aren’t
using the Fear Power; many NPCs may turn tail
and run upon being confronted with one. In
some legends, cannibalism is what turns you into
a ghoul in the first place, and haunt graveyards
and burial places. Ghouls may be a form of un-
dead, or may be degenerate or cursed people,
or even a race of creatures.
In other legends, ghouls are a form of shapeshift-
ing demon. They use their shapeshifting to try
to lure travelers into deserted areas; they can
assume the form of the last person they ate,
or of an animal such as a hyena. They drink
blood, steal away babies, and eat corpses.
They are also avaricious, stealing coins and rob-
bing graves for wealth and not just food.
114
Giant
Big, primitive people. Known to grind people’s
bones to make their bread.
Scope: Heroic or greater
Toughness: 4, Stamina: 3, Will: 2, Actions: 2
Powers: Strength 7; Club 6 A: Area Attack; Size
(auto def.) 6; Stride (movement) 6
Shticks: Smell blood 6
Restrictions: Awkward: Hindered in confined
spaces.
Notes: Giants are good opportunities to make
the players work harder in terms of their Primary
Rule justifications for attacking, and sometimes
defending: a club the size of a tree trunk is
hard to parry with a shortsword. Big enough gi-
ants can be hard to reach with ordinary melee
weapons, or even big enough that it’s unlikely
they would even be hurt unless it’s a particularly
vulnerable location. Even bigger giants can ac-
tually be environments that character can climb
around on, or in. Some giants are phenomenally
stupid, and can be defeated by trickery where
they cannot be harmed physically.
Golem
Human figure made of clay, and animated by
holy writing. They cannot speak. Some settings
call any artificial creature created from an inan-
imate substance a golem.
Scope: Heroic
Toughness: 4, Stamina: 3, Will: 1, Actions: 2
Powers: Strength 8; Clay body (auto def.) 8
Restrictions: Follows orders literally. Some ver-
sions are prone to violence and destruction, un-
less carefully instructed not to. Awkward: hin-
dered whenever wishes to not cause collateral
damage. De-animated if writing on forehead
tampered with.
Notes: Many things ought not be able to harm
a golem at all according to the Primary Rule,
but players should generally be able to use its
literal-minded following of orders against it; if the
golem is ordered to prevent people from com-
ing into a certain room, for instance, it should
just stand there impassively when they manage
to fish what they want out of the room with a line
and grapnel.
115
Goblin
Small supernatural creatures, usually numerous,
ugly and cruel. Some may merely be mis-
chievous. High-ranking goblins may be able
to look like whatever they wish, such as David
Bowie. Typical goblins range in height from a few
inches to the size of a dwarf, and may have var-
ious animalistic features.
Scope: Heroic
Toughness: 1, Stamina: 3, Will: 1, Actions: 2
Powers: Magic 4 (A) Flexible (typical: Invisibility,
Shapeshift, two others); Used to Pain (auto def.)
6
Restrictions: Greedy (easily led by the nose
through their greed), but for things like locks
of hair, tears, babies, not for money; Grudge-
bearing (will go to almost any lengths to get
back at somebody who crossed them).
Notes: In rare cases goblins are benevolent, or
bound by magic or ancient treaty to render aid
to a specific person or family. If so, they will
do so wholeheartedly, without trying to twist the
terms or betray their ally, at least as long as the
pact lasts; should the other party do something
that breaks the pact, even if inadvertently or for
good reason, the goblins will treat it as having
been double-crossed.
29. B ESTIARY
Griffin
Griffins have the forequarters of an eagle, albeit
with prominent ears, and the hindquarters of a
lion. They are the king of all the beasts of the
air or land (as the eagle is the king of the beasts
of the air and the lion the king of the beasts of
the land), and are as strong as eight lions. They
are often as intelligent as humans, though they
usually cannot speak. Because of their cunning,
griffins are exceedingly hard to catch and even
harder to tame; the usual way is to gain a tame
griffin is to raise it from an egg. For this reason,
griffin’s eggs are immensely valuable. Their fa-
vorite prey is horses, and even tame griffins are
not to be trusted around horses. The scent of
a griffin will usually cause normal horses, even
trained warhorses, to panic; magical or blessed
steeds, such as a paladin’s mount are immune.
Scope: Romantic
Toughness: 4, Stamina: 3, Will: 3, Actions: 4
Powers: Beak 6; Claws 8; Catlike Reflexes (auto
def.) 8; Fly 7
Restrictions: No manipulative appendages.
They mate for life.
Notes: Its feathers can restore sight to the blind,
and its claws and egg shells are reputed to
have medicinal properties. Griffins are reputed
to guard gold in areas where it is found in the
wild, or are set as guards of fabulous treasures
by mighty magicians.
116
Harpy
Half women, half bird, often a vulture. Vicious,
cruel, and violent. In earlier legends they were
beautiful winged women. Generally found in
large groups.
Scope: Heroic
Toughness: 2, Stamina: 2, Will: 3, Actions: 3
Powers: Fly (movement) 6; Talons 6; Carry Off 8
(D) Only in combination (two harpies together
can pull a man-sized victim into the air, and bear
him off to be tortured and devoured); Control
Wind 8 (A) Area Effect (optional).
Restrictions: Harpies generally lack hands, and
their claws are unsuited to fine manipulation.
Notes: Harpies are the personification of the de-
structive power of wind, and may be able to
command or control winds. They are also ser-
vants of the gods, carrying out divine punish-
ments, abducting and torturing those who have
angered the gods, carrying them off to Tartarus.
If they are natural creatures instead of divine,
they may come in both sexes; if not, either they
are immortal, created as needed by the gods or
powerful sorcerers, reproduce asexually, or need
to mate with males of other species.
Hippogriff
Hippogriffs have the forequarters of an eagle,
and the hindquarters of a horse. They are om-
nivores, and can fly fast as lightning, even faster
than griffins. They are exceedingly rare, being
the offspring of griffins and horses, which are nor-
mally griffins’ favorite prey. Hippogriffs aren’t as
intelligent as griffins, although they are still much
smarter than horses.
Scope: Romantic
Toughness: 4, Stamina: 3, Will: 1, Actions: 3
Powers: Beak 5; Talons 6; Fly Fast as Lightning 12;
Dodge (auto def.) 8
Restrictions: No manipulatory appendages.
Notes: Can sometimes be tamed and used as
a mount. In some fantasy settings, there are en-
tire cavalry troops mounted on Hippogriffs; pre-
sumably in such settings either they breed true
or can be conjured up by a sufficiently power-
ful magician. Hippogriffs, unlike normal horses,
are not afraid of griffins, perhaps because griffins
don’t regard hippogriffs as prey.
117
Hydra
A hydra is a multi-headed reptile; each head
that is cut off grows back two more. In the
canonical version its breath is so poisonous that
even its tracks are poison. Later versions tend to
substitute gigantic size for poisonous breath.
Scope: Heroic
Toughness: 4, Stamina: 3, Will: 3, Actions: 3
Powers: Bite 8 (A) Limited Area Effect the multi-
ple heads allow it to attack everybody around it,
counting as a single Action; Head/Neck Scales
(auto def.) 6; Body Scales (auto def.) 12; Poi-
son Breath 8 (A) Area Effect (optional); Gigantic
(auto def.) 8 (optional); Heads Grow Back (auto
revive) 8
Restrictions: No manipulatory appendages.
Notes: If it grows back two heads for every one
cut off, in Zounds! that won’t generally allow it to
attack more times in a Round: it’s already able
to attack everyone adjacent to it. Instead treat
it as an automatic power, requiring no Action,
that revives the monster whenever to remove
any Hindered condition or restore it from being
Out. Only attacks versus its body or using a suit-
able Primary Rule explanation (fire to cauterize
the neck wounds, say) can put it Out for good.
If its tracks are poisonous, treat that as a Peril 6
(say) attacking everybody in its lair area once
per Round; other places it might have stepped
should have smaller attacks.
29. B ESTIARY
Kobold
Mischievous spirits, which may manifest as ani-
mals, objects, fire, or small humanoids. There
are two distinct sub-types that differ from the run-
of-the-mill kobolds: household kobolds and min-
ing kobolds. Household kobolds are generally
benevolent and protective of the household, as
long as they’re given their due respect (includ-
ing leaving out tiny amounts of milk and food);
they can appear as miniature humans, no larger
than a small child and may even appear as chil-
dren if they choose. Kobold miners are diminu-
tive coal-black dwarfs who look like old men,
dressed as miners; they are generally malevo-
lent, or at least highly territorial.
Scope: Heroic
Toughness: 4, Stamina: 3, Will: 1, Actions: 2
Powers: Spells 8 (A) Flexible Typical spells:
Telekinesis, Repair, Control Fire, Fly, Bolt of Pain,
Curse, Illusion; Invisibility (auto def.) 6; Shapeshift
(auto def.) 8 (A) Flexible. Includes size-change
and changing into fire or objects. Mining
kobolds are Strong 6 and will be armed with
picks.
Restrictions: Kobolds, except mining types, are
susceptible to cold iron, and depending on the
setting other things such as holy objects that are
harmful to spirits.
Notes: These are kobolds as they appear in
folklore, rather than D&D’s mini lizard folk or
Japanese computer RPG dog people.
118
Manticore
The manticore has the face of a man, with a
triple row of shark-like teeth, the body of a lion,
and a barbed tail, which may be like a scorpion
or may be spined. If the tail is spined, the man-
ticore can fire spines from it like arrows. Its roar
is like a trumpet. Manticores are man-eaters;
if not exclusively, then as their preferred food.
For this reason, despite the danger, if a manti-
core moves into an area it is necessary to hunt
it down; with luck there are some adventurers
passing through who can be persuaded to un-
dertake the task.
Scope: Heroic
Toughness: 4, Stamina: 3, Will: 2, Actions: 2
Powers: Spiky Tail or Poison Sting 8; Catlike Re-
flexes (auto def.) 8; Shoot Spines 6 spines para-
lyze victims; Bite 6; Swallow Whole 8; Fly 6 (op-
tional); Horns 7 (optional)
Restrictions: No manipulatory appendages. De-
spite having a man-like face, manticores are not
usually depicted as having human intelligence
or capacity for speech.
Notes: Manticores swallow their prey whole, in-
cluding weapons, armor and other possessions,
and leave nothing behind. This means they al-
most never have any treasure, though their poi-
son, teeth, or hide may be of use to a magician.
Some manticores have bat-like wings and can
fly. Others have horns and can butt or gore foes.
Mermaid
Mermaids have the upper half a woman (or
man, if they are a race of creatures and not
unique), and the lower half of a fish. Reputed to
seduce and drown sailors, either deliberately or
through misunderstanding. Some can take hu-
man form completely, perhaps with the aid of
spells.
Scope: Normal
Toughness: 2, Stamina: 2, Will: 2, Actions: 2
Powers: Swim (movement) 7; Evasive maneu-
vers (auto def.) 7 can be hindered (A); Siren’s
Song 5; Control Sea Creatures 7 (optional); Con-
trol Weather 6 (A) Area Effect (optional)
Shticks: Charming 6
Restrictions: Hindered except in water.
Notes: More powerful versions may be able to
turn into water, or take fully human form; in the
later case, there is often an additional Restric-
tion such that if their true nature is guessed or the
source of their magic discovered they must shed
their human form and return to the sea. In some
legends either their tears or flesh grant immor-
tality, causing them to be hunted by evil men.
They may be solitary, or have entire underwater
kingdoms. They may work in tandem with other
sea monsters, luring ships to their destruction, or
they may try to warn sailors away from danger-
ous creatures or areas. They are often accom-
panied by porpoises.
119
Minotaur
The Minotaur has the body of a man, head of
a bull, and is a man-eater. In mythology he
was unique, but in fantasy fiction minotaurs are
often a race of creatures. The Minotaur was
kept in a labyrinth designed by the great inven-
tor Daedelus, and young men and women were
sacrificed to him annually; he was killed by the
hero Theseus, with the help of Minos’ daughter
Ariadne who game him a spindle of thread that
allowed him to find his way out of the labyrinth.
Scope: Homeric
Toughness: 3, Stamina: 3, Will: 2, Actions: 2
Powers: Strength 9; Horns 6; Tough Hide (auto
def.) 6
Restrictions: May be unable to speak except in
bull-like bellows.
Notes: For some reason, perhaps because of
their great strength, fantasy minotaurs are usu-
ally depicted as favoring battle-axes; if such is
the case, a minotaur may have a Great Axe d10
or even d12 as Equipment.
29. B ESTIARY
Mummy
Desiccated corpse, often wrapped in ban-
dages as part of funerary rites, brought back to
horrible semblance of life by foul sorcery or as
part of a curse.
Scope: Cinematic
Toughness: 3 , Stamina: 3, Will: 3, Actions: 2
Powers: Undead (auto def.) 8; Strength 6;
Curse (auto attack vs. those who desecrate the
mummy’s tomb) 5 Persistent (AA) Combination
Difficult (D) Those who desecrate the mummy’s
tomb will have a series of accidents until they re-
turn what they stole. Drain Life 8 (optional) Mum-
mies that can drain life can restore themselves
until they can pass for human by draining a vic-
tim to death
Restrictions: Those that remain desiccated
corpses are vulnerable to fire. There is always
a spell that can either reverse the unholy life
granted the mummy, or bring it to the atten-
tion of the gods of the underworld who will take
steps to recover the errant soul. Those that can
drain life usually have to repeat the process reg-
ularly or the magic will fade and they will return
to their mummified appearance. Those that are
animated by curses may be forbidden to harm
any except those who desecrated the tomb.
Notes: Mummies may be evil high priests or
sorcerers, returned from the dead to wreak
vengeance or extend their rule, or they may
merely be the unfortunate instruments of a curse
placed by someone else to guard a tomb. In
some cases, they are motivated by a tragic love
and seek to restore their loved one to life... or
at least the semblance of it. Even these are usu-
ally extremely dangerous to anyone who gets in
their way.
120
Nightmare
This is a creature that an avatar of the dream-
ing victim fights in a dreamworld created from
the victim’s own subconscious. Allies can use
psychic powers or magic to enter the dream-
world. The usual Abduction rule applies. If the
Nightmare wins decisively, e.g., all the Allies are
Out, it can put the victim in a coma, change
the victim’s personality, turn the victim evil, etc.
If the victim wins, the Nightmare can be perma-
nently exorcised, or made to possess someone
else, or magically trapped. It could even be per-
manently kept in the victims subconscious, to be
drawn on in time of need (always a dangerous
move).
Scope: Romantic
Toughness: 3, Stamina: 2, Will: 4, Actions: 2
Powers: Mutability (auto def.) 8 changes self
so that attack does not apply; Change scene
(movement) 8 change the mental arena; Read
victim’s subconscious 6; Summon victim’s mem-
ories 8 Power-up to 10 if player agrees that at-
tack form is something character fears (A).
Restrictions: Victim gains similar powers of
Change Scene and Summon Memories, at
power level 2 x Will (with the same advantages),
although they might not realize this at first. Can
only affect those that dream.
Notes: In some cases nightmares appear as
literal mares, perhaps with ghostly, skeletal or
other supernatural attributes. In others they ap-
pear as a horrible little homonculus, shadow, or
whatever the victim fears most.
Ogre Oread
Gigantic humanoid, of incomparable strength Mountain nymphs. See Dryad.
and savagery.
Scope: Heroic
Toughness: 5, Stamina: 5, Will: 1, Actions: 2
Powers: Strength 12; Huge Size (auto def.) 8
Restrictions: Automatically Hindered in any con-
test of wits.
Notes: The stupidest of giant kind, and the most
voracious. Capable of absurd feats of strength
and size, such as swallowing entire rivers.

Pegasus
Winged horse.
Scope: Heroic
Toughness: 4, Stamina: 3, Will: 1, Actions: 2
Orc Powers: Hooves 8; Swift (auto def.) 6; Fly (move-
ment) 10
Grotesque troops of evil. They savor man and elf
Restrictions: No manipulatory appendages.
flesh, and are probably cannibalistic. They may
Notes: The traditional mount of Valkyries and
be created from tortured and broken elves, or
great heroes.
by an evil god as a mockery of life. They are
smaller than men.
Scope: Heroic
Toughness: 4, Stamina: 3, Will: 1, Actions: 2
Powers: Fighter 8; Tough Hide (auto def.) 5
Restrictions:
Notes: Footsoldiers of the forces of evil. In games
and more recent fiction, Orcs are sometimes a
natural race, with males and females, children,
villages, perhaps even be noble savages.

121
29. B ESTIARY

Phoenix
Immortal bird, dies every 100 years and is reborn
from flames that spring up from its nest. It is about
the size of an eagle.
Scope: Heroic
Toughness: 4, Stamina: 3, Will: 1, Actions: 2
Powers: Claws 6; Reborn in Flame (auto def.) 8
Notes: Will be reborn from flames if it is killed; the
conflagration might be dangerous to its killers. In
some versions it has magical powers, and can
transform itself into a human.
Shadows
Creatures of living shadow.
Scope: Heroic
Toughness: 1, Stamina: 2, Will: 2, Actions: 2
Powers: Intangible (auto def.) 9; Frighten 6;
Flicker (movement) 6
Shticks: Stalk 8 Follow target without being no-
ticed.
Restrictions: Intangible (can only affect physical
world indirectly), Cannot manifest in daylight,
hindered in bright light, and susceptible to at-
tacks with light (any success means Out)

Skeletons
Animated bones.
Minion
Toughness: 1, Stamina: 1, Will: 1, Actions: 1
Powers: Fleshless and insensate (auto def.) 4;
Weapon 4 e.g., a cutlass or spear

Sea Serpent
Gigantic serpent found in oceans and seas, or
less often in lakes.
Scope: Legendary
Toughness: 6, Stamina: 3, Will: 2, Actions: 1
Powers: Bite 8; Constrict 10 (D) Slow; Scales
(auto def.) 8
Restrictions: No limbs.
Notes: The biggest versions can crush ships or
drag them under the waves. This is one creature
you probably don’t want to adjust the Scope
downward for adventurers of lesser Scope.

122
Spider Troll
Arachnid of unusual size, or with poison or spe- Large hairy humanoid.
cial abilities that make it a threat to people. Scope: Heroic
Scope: Cinematic Toughness: 6, Stamina: 3, Will: 2, Actions: 2
Toughness: 2, Stamina: 2, Will: 2, Actions: 3 Powers: Strength 10; Tough Hide (auto def.) 9
Powers: Web 4 Area Effect (AA) Ultra-Slow (DD) Restrictions: Sleep or turn to stone in sunlight.
Persistent (AA) Creates a web that it can later Notes: Some trolls are capable of magic.
use to trap, confuse or entangle; Poison bite 6;
Crawl (movement) 6 move easily on walls ceil-
ings and especially webs; Jump 6 sudden move-
ment that aids in attack or defense.
Restrictions:
Notes: Spiders come in all different types, with
wildly different tactics for catching prey. Be-
sides the classic web, there are spiders who
leap long distances, conceal themselves behind
trapdoors, fish with lines of web, throw bolas of
web, mimicking the appearance of other crea-
tures such as ants, and more. Add in supernat-
ural abilities for fantasy spiders and you could
probably have an entire setting’s worth of hor-
rible monsters.

Swamp Creature
Amphibious humanoid with natural camouflage
for swamp terrain
Scope: Heroic
Toughness: 3, Stamina: 3, Will: 2, Actions: 2
Powers: Tough, scaly skin (auto def.) 6; Rapid
Healing (auto def.) 5; Camouflage 7 Only in
swampy terrain (DD); Claws 6; Strength 6; Swim
(movement) 6
Shticks: Amphibious 6; Track 6
Restrictions: Afraid of bright lights, will retreat if
possible.
Unicorn
Magical horse with a single horn. King of the for-
est animals.
Scope: Romantic
Toughness: 2, Stamina: 3, Will: 3, Actions: 3
Powers: Grace (auto def.) 7, can be hindered
(D); Speed (movement) 6; Horn 9; Hooves 6;
Keen senses 6
Shticks: Cure 6 Horn cures disease and poison
with touch; Woodland lore 6
Restrictions: Hindered in crowded area with
close-set trees or bushes. Irresistibly drawn to vir-
gin maidens.
Notes: The Unicorn is the living embodiment of
everything that is pure and good. If they wish
to lay their single-horned heads in the laps of vir-
gins, you should get your mind out of the gutter.

123
29. B ESTIARY
Vampire
The classic blood-sucking monster. Can often
pass for human, except for odd habits like never
being around during the day-time.
Scope: Cinematic
Toughness: 4, Stamina: 2, Will: 2, Actions: 4.
Powers: Fangs 6; Strength 6; Already Dead (auto
def.) 6; Speed 6; Hypnosis 4 Control power (AA);
Summon wolves 6; Bat form 6; Gaseous form 6
Restrictions: Aversion: avoids garlic, mirrors, holy
symbols and holy ground. Can’t cross running
water or enter a dwelling uninvited. Destroyed
by sunlight, hurt by holy water. Must drink human
blood, once a day. Must sleep in a coffin or crypt
during daylight hours.
Notes: Vampires tend to come in two basic va-
rieties: horrifying or seductive. The horrifying
versions emphasize the disgusting blood-sucking
corpse aspect, the seductive versions usually
emphasize passing for human...at least until they
get close enough to feed. Since they can’t
fool anybody, horrifying vampires usually prey
on lone travelers, sleepers, or children and in-
valids, lest they be instantly attacked by an an-
gry armed mob. Seductive vampires may also
choose easy prey, but are more likely to do so af-
ter having inveigled themselves into the house-
hold as a guest or lover.
Even the most powerful of vampires are utterly
helpless during daylight hours, and so will go to
great lengths to conceal the fact that there is
a vampire hunting in the vicinity for as long as
possible, unless perhaps they have a castle full
of non-vampire servants to protect them.
124
Werewolf
Man who turns into a wolf. Generally a raven-
ing beast when transformed: a man-eater who
can’t resist attacking even close friends and
family. They appear as a wolf-like man, rather
than a normal wolf.
Scope: Heroic
Toughness: 4, Stamina: 3, Will: 2, Actions: 2
Powers: Fangs 8; Regeneration (auto def.) 7 re-
generates even from death, unless the wounds
were from silver, fire, or wolfsbane. Infect (auto
attack) 6 attacks whenever the werewolf’s bite
has inflicted at least an Out result; the victim
must resist the attack (be unharmed) or become
a werewolf as well.
Restrictions: Susceptible to silver and fire; poi-
soned by wolfsbane; must transform when the
moon is full.
Notes: Modern takes often make them more like
actual wolves in appearance and disposition;
such werewolves usually are a distinct species,
whose bite is not infectious. Some ancient ver-
sions transformed when they donned a magi-
cal wolf-skin cloak or belt instead of when the
moon was full; they were depicted as cunning
and malicious users of black magic, rather than
the somewhat tragic version whose lycanthropy
is a curse.
Wyvern
Lesser draconic beast, with only two legs. They
are typically unable to breath fire, but pos-
sess a deadly barbed tail, which is horribly poi-
sonous. They are usually depicted as unintelli-
gent beasts, in contrast to dragons who often
have human or more than human intellect.
Scope: Heroic
Toughness: 5, Stamina: 3, Will: 3, Actions: 2
Powers: Bite 8; Scales (auto def.) 8; Fly (move-
ment) 6; Sting 9 so poisonous that Out should
probably be treated as fatal even in low-lethality
campaigns. If so, be sure to warn the players by
means of rumor or lore before you spring this on
them, though.
Restrictions: Not immune to their own poison, so
if you can trick one into stinging itself, it will die.
Notes: Wyverns may be mistaken for dragons,
particularly while they are flying. They are likely
to take up habitation in abandoned towers and
castles, preferring them to natural caves. They
do not usually amass hordes of treasure.
125
Zombie
An animated corpse that follows simple instruc-
tions from its creator. Or maybe it just wants to
eat your brain.
Minion
Toughness: 2, Stamina: 1, Will: N/A, Actions: 1
Powers: Dead (auto def.) 4; Grapple 4; Remain
motionless in surprising locations (movement) 6
useable once (DD) Just when you think you’ve
gotten away from the Zombies, you turn the cor-
ner and bump into another one.
Restrictions: Either 1.) Follows simple orders liter-
ally, does not respond to circumstances, or 2.)
Insatiable longing for brains.
Zombie Plague
A horde of zombies that infect others with their
bite or scratch instead of being created in a
magical ritual. More common in modern day
low fantasy, but an interesting variation in high
fantasy.
Scope: Cinematic
Toughness: 5, Stamina: 2 , Will: 1, Actions: 2
Powers: Mob 4, Area effect (AA), x4 Power up by
1 every scene where more people get infected,
possibly offstage, up to 12; Diffuse and dead
(auto def.) 4 x4 Power-up (A); Infect (movement)
4 x4 Power-up (A). This represents a chase scene
where the characters think they’ve escaped,
only to realize that a victim they’ve rescued or a
stranger in the place they’ve escaped to is ac-
tually becoming zombified.
Restrictions:
Notes: This is an example of how to treat a swarm
as a single creature. This is the contagious zomb-
ification, a.k.a. zombie apocalypse.
 Part IV

Appendices

126
Appendix A
How To Be A Good Player
Give your character a personality It needn’t be any-
thing elaborate, and you don’t have to put on an
accent, change your speech patterns, or even
speak in the first person (though all those can add
something), but it’s more fun for everybody at
the table when the characters are memorable,
and people can derive a lot of satisfaction out of
recognizing when a character is doing something
that typifies the character’s established personal-
ity (“Oh, that’s sooo Merath!”) and even more
when they manage to predict and take advan-
tage of that (“I knew Merath would go along with
that plan, because she gets to dress up as the
princess and boss everybody around”).
Don’t make your character a jerk unless you’re ab-
solutely sure of your ability to entertain the other
players and GM with the character’s jerkiness.
It’s OK to be the character that everybody loves
to hate, but it’s not cool for anybody to actu-
ally hate it when you play that character. When
you’re gaming with friends they’ll probably put up
with your character making everything less fun for
everybody but you, at least for a while, but that’s
no excuse. Even if you are sure that it’s entertain-
ing and not too disruptive, it would be wise to limit
the jerk aspect to specific situations (the charac-
ter goes on a bender after successful adventures)
and not just be all-around unpleasant.
Make your character a team-player unless you’re
playing solo. Loners aren’t necessarily jerks, but
in Zounds! your character is going to be part of
a team, even if it’s not a formal team, and it
screws up the game if the character keeps go-
ing off away from everybody else and makes the
GM split attention between what the loner is do-
ing and then what the rest of the party is doing.
Even if you want to play a character like Boromir,
try not to have it end up like with Boromir, with
the party split into three groups for the rest of the
campaign. If your character needs some alone
time to be true to the character, see if your GM
is amenable to doing that between play sessions.
That might be brief play-by-email, or it might just
be a couple of sentences at the start of the ses-
sion “In the six months between the end of the
127
last adventure and now, Isarno the Cat has been
pilfering from the nobles of Port Autumn,” “Korvu
has been traveling among the Dwarves, trying to
drum up support for an expedition to reopen the
Dwarven mines at Mohdul,” or even just “My druid
has been communing with nature.”
Make the character a self-starter and give her a clear
Drive. Everything is easier for the GM if the char-
acter can be counted on to have certain but-
tons that can be pushed. On the flip side, don’t
give the character Drives that are incompatible
with the plot or tone of the game, at least with-
out consulting the GM and other players first, un-
less you’re quite prepared to play out how the
character’s goals are frustrated. If the campaign
is about dealing with a plague of undead that
have been attacking the local region, it’s per-
fectly fine if your character’s Background is exiled
ruler of a distant Kingdom, but if your Drive is to
get restored to the throne it can amount to an at-
tempted hijacking of the campaign if you dig in
your heels and ignore the plight of the local resi-
dents while trying to turn every adventure into a
quest to return to your realm.
Don’t be a afraid to retire a character. If you’re
a design-in-play player who can’t really set out
to make a character with a given personality
or approach, some of the above advice might
seem hard to carry out. You might not have set
out to create a jerk or a loner, but as play pro-
gressed you found that’s what the character has
become. If that happens, and you can’t see a
way to nudge the character you’ve envisioned
into something the other players can enjoy play-
ing with, it’s time to let that character go. The
loner can go off and be alone, and you can cre-
ate a new character and try again. And even if
you’re not design-in-play, and had the character
all figured out with a ten-page back-story before
you sat down at the first session, if you’re at all into
thinking about the inner life of the character there
may come a point where events in the game
mean that what the character would do is leave
the group. Characters quitting and eventually re-
turning (or not) is a staple of the fantasy genre. So
A. H OW TO B E A G OOD P LAYER
let the character leave, and maybe you’ll pick it
up again if in-game events bring the character’s
goals or location and the party’s back in sync.
Sometimes this will require some out-of-game fi-
nagling with the GM and other players (too many
plots are written that make the party a sealed
group with a common origin or the only ones in
the world who can accomplish the overarching
campaign goal), but it beats making yourself and
everybody else miserable with your square peg in
the round hole character.
Stick to genre and tone. Fantasy can cover a vast
variety of themes and settings, so it’s necessary
for any specific campaign to make certain as-
sumptions as to what the game is “about”, and
what sort of things it’s appropriate to do and
what things aren’t, and what characters fit the
setting and what don’t. Don’t push the bound-
aries, at least until you’re used to playing in that
setting and with that group. Yeah, fine, a enemy
who’s just pretending to be a hero until he can
betray the team might be a cool idea, but save it
for when you’re sure you can carry it off without
wrecking what everybody else is hoping to get
out of the game. Similarly for a hero who would
just as soon execute the hostages himself to pre-
vent them from turning into undead when it’s es-
tablished that in this campaign heroes almost al-
ways manage to save the victims before they are
irrevocably harmed. It can be amusing for every-
one if your hero sometimes grumbles about tak-
ing a harder stance...but if you just start decapi-
tating the hostages over the protests of the other
players, you’ve crossed the line.
Play the system appropriately. Zounds! is designed
to promote a certain style of play, which gives a
large amount of freedom to the players to help
define game-world reality; this can be difficult to
get used to at first if you’re accustomed to just
announcing your bonuses and rolling the dice, or
searching for the tiniest ambiguity to turn into a
tactical advantage. Contribute to the game in
the spirit that everybody else is playing, even if it’s
not your preferred style. If you have a real prob-
lem with the style that everybody else is enjoying
you can bring it up for discussion, but maybe you
should be playing a different game.
Don’t hog the spotlight, but don’t shun it either. The
only real limitation in the game is not how power-
ful or effective the characters are, but how much
time they get to strut their stuff and be the center
of attention. That’s the real currency of the game:
how much time do you get to show your charac-
ter doing her stuff. If you suck up all the available
time, that’s bad, but it’s also bad if your sole con-
tribution to the group’s enjoyment is getting your
turn out of the way as expediently as possible,
whether out of shyness or boredom. If you’re not
128
doing anything more than saying “I attack” ev-
ery time somebody points out it’s your turn, you’re
not contributing as much to the entertainment
as you could be. If you feel like your character
is ending up with too much “spotlight” time, you
can often share the spotlight with other charac-
ters by engaging them in-character–particularly if
you know something about their Complications.
If you’re feeling starved for attention to your char-
acter’s doings, make sure that you offer the GM
good character and plot “hooks” through your
Complications...and remember that in Zounds!
you can change your Complications if you wish.
Discuss your preferences with the other players. If
your preferences aren’t being met, talk about
it with the other players. Be open about what
you want, they’re there to entertain you as much
as you’re there to entertain them, but don’t try
to unilaterally change things more to your lik-
ing. If you want more combat you can tell the
other players that, or you can have your charac-
ter grouse about inaction and lust for battle, but
don’t just have him attack when they’re trying to
negotiate to force their hand. If you can’t come
to an accommodation, you can’t play their way
or come up with a character that you’ll have a
good time playing and they can’t enjoy your pre-
ferred style, then find a game that will satisfy you,
don’t subvert theirs.
Ultimately, most of this advice boils down to a princi-
ple of courtesy. Keep in mind that everybody at the
table shares the responsibility of making the game fun
and entertaining for everybody involved. Be willing
to make sacrifices as far as what would be your ideal
ultimate solo gaming experience in order to keep ev-
erybody involved and having a good time. Be flexible
in what and how you play, and don’t play if you’re not
having fun.
Appendix B

Tables

Adventure Scopes
1. Household Handfuls of people. Does not go on
adventures unless pressed. Turns are six hours.
2. Estate/Manor Dozens of people. Turns are days.
3. Village Hundreds of people. Turns are 3 days.
4. Town Thousands of people. Turns are weeks.
5. Barony/City Tens of thousands of people. Turns
are fortnights.
6. Duchy/Province Hundreds of thousands of peo-
ple. Turns are months.
7. Kingdom Millions of people. Turns are seasons.
8. Empire Tens of millions of people. Turns are years.
9. Continent Hundreds of millions of people. Turns
are five years.
10. World Billions of people. Turns are generations (20
years).
11. Several Worlds Tens of billions of people. Turns are
three generations (60 years).

129
Scope 1 Normal
Power Level Weight Example Speed Example
1 100 lbs child 3 mph Walking, Walking horse
2 (Normal) 120 lbs hundredweight 4 mph
3 140 lbs Woman 5 mph Swimming (record)
4 (Default) 170 lbs 6 mph Pig
5 200 lbs Man 7 mph Jogging
6 225 lbs 8 mph Trotting horse
7 250 lbs Hotdog cart 10 mph Bicycle (typical)
8 325 lbs 12 mph
9 400 lbs Lion 14 mph Marathon (record)
10 450 lbs 17 mph Sprinting, Cantering horse
11 500 lbs Max bench-press 20 mph Black Mamba
12 556 lbs 23 mph Sprinting (record), galloping horse
+1 +20% +20%
Scope 2 Heroic
Power Level Weight Example Speed Example
1 100 lbs child 4 mph Walking (brisk)
2 (Normal) 133 lbs Woman 5 mph Swimming (record)
3 175 lbs Man 7 mph Jogging, pig
4 (Default) 250 lbs Hotdog cart 9 mph Trotting horse
5 300 lbs Lion 13 mph Marathon (record)
6 425 lbs Motorcycle 17 mph Sprinting, Cantering horse
7 567 lbs Max bench-press 22 mph Sprinting (record), galloping horse
8 750 lbs Grand piano 30 mph Dog, cat
9 1000 lbs Cow 40 mph Racehorse, elk, greyhound
10 1333 lbs Small car 53 mph Cheetah
11 1750 lbs sports car 71 mph Hurricane winds
12 2333 lbs cartload 95 mph Autobahn
+1 +33% +33%
Scope 3 Cinematic
Power Level Weight Example Speed Example
1 100 lbs child 4 mph Walking (brisk)
2 (Normal) 63 lbs Woman 6 mph Swimming (record)
3 88 lbs Man 7 mph Jogging
4 (Default) 125 lbs Hotdog cart 10 mph Trotting horse
5 177 lbs Lion 14 mph Marathon (record)
6 250 lbs Motorcycle 20 mph Sprinting, Cantering horse
7 354 lbs Max bench-press 28 mph Sprinting (record), galloping horse
8 500 lbs Grand piano 40 mph Racehorse, elk, greyhound
9 700 lbs Cow 56 mph Car (major rd), Cheetah
10 1000 lbs 79 mph Thrown club
11 1400 lbs sports car 112 mph Atlatl dart
12 2000 lbs cartload 150 mph Arrow from a 150 lb draw bow
+1 +50% +50%
Scope 4 Romantic
Power Level Weight Example Speed Example
1 100 lbs Small woman 4 mph Walking (brisk)
2 (Normal) 160 lbs Man 6 mph Jogging, pig
3 256 lbs Hotdog cart 10 mph Trotting horse
4 (Default) 410 lbs Motorcycle 16 mph Marathon (record)
5 655 lbs Max bench-press 25 mph Sprinting (record), galloping horse
6 1049 lbs Grand piano 40 mph Racehorse, elk, greyhound
7 1678 lbs Cow 60 mph Cheetah, mallard
8 1 ton cartload 100 mph Atlatl dart
9 2t Medium car 125 mph Arrow, hawk
10 3t Small elephant 175 mph Crossbow quarrel, tornado
11 5t Elephant 300 mph
12 8t Pickup truck 500 mph
+1 +60% +60%
Scope 5 Homeric
Power Level Weight Example Speed Example
1 121 lbs Med woman 4 mph Walking (fast)
2 (Normal) 212 lbs Lg Man 7 mph Running, Trotting horse
3 371 lbs Hotdog cart 12 mph Marathon
4 (Default) 648 lbs Max bench-press 21 mph Sprinting (record), galloping horse
5 1135 lbs Fattest human 38 mph Racehorse, pigeon
6 1 ton cartload 64 mph Cheetah, mallard
7 2t Medium car 100 mph Atlatl dart, object falling 100m
8 3t Small elephant 200 mph Tornado, crossbow quarrel
9 5t Lg car 350 mph
Jumbo, Hubble
10 9t Telescope 600 mph Speed of sound (ish)
Airbus 310, Big
11 16 t Ben 1000 mph Speed of Earth's rotation
Empty Semi
12 29 t trailer 1750 mph
+1 +75% +75%
Scope 6 Biblical
Power Level Weight Example Speed Example
1 125 lbs Med woman 4 mph world record swim
2 (Normal) 250 lbs Lg Man 8 mph Trotting horse
3 500 lbs Max bench-press 16 mph Sprinting (record), galloping horse
4 (Default) 1000 lbs 32 mph Racehorse
5 1 ton cartload 64 mph Cheetah, mallard
6 2t Small car 128 mph Arrow, hawk
7 4t Medium car 256 mph Tornado, crossbow quarrel
8 8t Small elephant 512 mph
9 16 t Lg car 1024 mph Speed of Earth's rotation
Jumbo, Hubble
10 32 t Telescope 2048 mph
Airbus 310, Big
11 64 t Ben 4096 mph
Empty Semi
12 125 t trailer 8192 mph
+1 x2 x2
Scope 7 Legendary
Power Level Weight Example Speed Example
1 200 lbs Man 4 mph Walking
2 (Normal) 800 lbs Motorcycle 12 mph Bicycle (typical)
3 3200 lbs Cow 36 mph Racehorse
4 (Default) 4 tons Med car 100 mph Cheetah
5 12 tons Lg car 300 mph Tornado, crossbow quarrel
6 36 t Empty bus 900 mph
7 108 t Semi Trailer (full) 2700 mph
River gunboat,
8 324 t Blue whale 8000 mph
9 972 t Boeing 747 24000 mph Escape velocity
10 2916 t WWII destroyer 72000 mph
Space Shuttle,
12-story office
11 8748 t building (5) 216000 mph
Largest tree,
12 26244 t Godzilla 648000 mph
+1 x4 x3
Scope 8 Mythic
Power Level Weight Example Speed Example
1 275 lbs Hotdog cart 10 mph Bicycle (typical)
2 (Normal) 1000 lbs Fattest human 30 mph Racehorse
3 2 tons Med car 90 mph Atlatl dart, thrown club
4 (Default) 8t Pickup truck 270 mph Tornado, crossbow quarrel
5 32 t Loaded bus 800 mph Speed of Sound (ish)
Blue whale, river
6 125 t gunboat 2400 mph
7 512 t Largest aircraft 7200 mph
8 2000 t Space Shuttle 21600 mph Escape velocity
Largest tree,
9 8000 t Godzilla 64,000 mph
10 32000 t Titanic 192,000 mph
Empire State
11 125000 t building 576,000 mph
Largest ship,
World Trade
12 500000 t Center 1,728,000 mph
+1 x8 x3
Scope 9 Titanic
Power Level Weight Example Speed Example
1 550 lbs Motorcycle 20 mph Sprinting (record), suburban speed limit
2 (Normal) 2 tons Med car 80 mph Thrown club
3 16 tons Empty bus 320 mph Tornado, crossbow quarrel
4 (Base) 125 t Blue whale, gunboat 1280 mph
5 1000 t WWII destroyer 5120 mph
6 8 kt Godzilla 20000 mph Escape velocity
Starship
Enterprise, USS
Missouri, trans-
7 64 kt oceanic cable 80,000 mph
World Trade
8 500 kt Center 320,000 mph
9 4 mt Md dam 1,280,000 mph
10 32 mt Largest dam 5,120,000 mph
Great Wall of
11 250 mt China 20,480,000 mph
12 2 billion t Small mountain 81,920,000 mph
+1 x8 x4
Scope 10 Cosmic
Power Level Weight Example Speed Example
1 1000 lbs Fattest human 4,000,000 mph
2 (Normal) 8 tons Pickup truck 1c
3 125 tons Gunboat, blue whale 8c
4 (Base) 2 kt Space Shuttle 64 c
5 32 kt Titanic 512 c
6 512 kt Largest ship 4096 c
7 8 million t Great Pyramid 32000 c
8 125 million t 16 Great Pyramids 256000 c
9 2 billion t Small mountain 2,000,000 c
10 32 billion t Solar ejection 16,000,000 c
11 500 billion t Lg Mountain 128,000,000 c
12 8 billion kt 12 km asteroid 1,024,000,000 c
+1 x16 x8
Appendix C

Converting from D&D

Stats (min 1) Examples

Toughness 2 +/- CON bonus
Will 2 +/- WIS bonus
Stamina 2
Actions 2 + INT bonus (positive only)

Powers Some examples of converting characters from D&D.

Non-Spell-casting Class Name of your Class 4 +

Level
Frank the Fighter Level 3
Spell-casting Class
S 17 D 14 I 7 C 15 W 5 Ch 13 HP 17
Combat Spells 4 + Highest Level Spell you becomes
can cast. (A) Flexible (choose number Frank
of spells equal to your score in spells), (A) Toughness 3 Stamina 2 Will 2 Actions 2
Customizable. (D) Shots (number of shots Powers
= power level) Fighter 7 (A)
Ruggedness 4 + (HP / 6, round nearest) Ruggedness 7 (auto def.)
Reflexes 5
Reflexes 4 +/- DEX bonus
Shticks
Shticks Charisma 5
Languages 3 (A) Flexible: Human, Dwarf, Goblin
Charisma 4 +/- CHA bonus Brawn 6
Languages 4 +/- INT bonus Aim 4

If Melee combat class (Fighter, Paladin, Ranger,

etc):
Brawn 4 +/- STR bonus Max the Magic User Level 5
If Missile combat class (Fighter, Ranger, Thief, S 7 D 10 I 18 C 3 W 10 Ch 11 HP 10
etc): becomes
Max
Aim 4 +/- DEX bonus Toughness 1 Stamina 2 Will 2 Actions 4
If Spell-casting class Powers
Combat Spells 7 (A) Flexible, (A) Customizable. (D)
Knowledge 4 +/- INT bonus (WIS bonus for
Shots. Pick 7, can be swapped out with Research
Clerics)
Scene.
Non-Combat Spells 2+Highest Level Spell Ruggedness 5 (auto def.)
you can cast (A) Flexible (A) Customiz- Reflexes 4
able (D) Shots Shticks
Restrictions If Cleric: Must obey tenets of the church Charisma 5
Knowledge 7
Equipment as per the Equipment rules. Minor magical Non-Combat Spells 5 (A) Flexible (A) Customizable
equipment should be translated as a Minor Asset, (D) Shots. Pick 5, can be swapped.
powerful magic should probably be a Major As- Languages 7 (A) Flexible: Human, Elf, Demon,
set. Dragon, Goblin, Orc, Dwarf
140
 Examples

Carl the Cleric Level 4

S 12 D 10 I 13 C 14 W 16 Ch 8 HP 16
becomes
Carl
Toughness 3 Stamina 2 Will 4 Actions 2
Powers
Cleric Spells 6 (A) Flexible, (A) Customizable. (D)
Shots.
Melee Fighting 4
Ruggedness 7 (auto def.)
Reflexes 4
Shticks
Charisma 3
Knowledge 6
Non-Combat Spells 4 (A) Flexible, (A) Customiz-
able, (D) Shots. Pick 4, can be swapped
Languages 5 (A) Flexible: Human, Demon, Goblin,
Orc, Dwarf
Restriction: Must obey the tenets of the church

141
Appendix D

Prices

Armor Cost
Cloth Gambeson 10
Leather 15
Courboulli 25
Scale 150
Mail 300
Brigandine 325
Partial Plate 420
Plate, Complete 500
Plate of Proof 600 Board and Lodging Cost
Bascinet Helmet 50 Board (per night)
Shields College/Boarding School 1
Buckler 5cp Inn, London, beds 1cp
Small round shield 8cp Rural Inn, beds, incl meal w/drinks 5cp
Large round shield 1 Rural Inn Private Chamber 8cp
Kite shield 1.25 Beds for servants 1cp
Tower shield 2 Hot bath 5cp
Main gauche 2 Stabling & fodder/horse 4cp

Table D.1: Armor Prices Rent (per year)

Cottage 15
Craftsman’s house 60
All prices from historical records, based on
http://whitebard.tripod.com/prices.htm. The ac- Merchant’s house 150
tual price is listed, but if you’re using the Wealth rules,
you’re usually only interested in the number of digits Table D.2: Board and Lodging
(rounded to the nearest). Amounts are in silver pieces
unless otherwise noted. No fantastic or magical items
are listed; determining those, if such things can even
be purchased, is part of developing a setting.

142
Clothing Cost
Prices listed are for plain, standard-quality.
Apply modifiers for expensive materials,
fine workmanship, and so forth.
Belt, weapon 5cp Building Cost
Boots, pair 2
Church, stonework only 6,750
Chemise, linen 2
Cathedral 125,000
Cloak, woolen 9
Cottage, 2 story 120
" fur-lined 19
Hovel (found materials) 30
Gown (long), woolen 9
Hall and chamber (labor only) 720
Gloves * 7cp
Wooden gatehouse w/drawbridge
Hat 2.5
- w/materials from estate 320
Kirtle, woolen 6
- plus value of materials 960
Purse 4cp
Stone gatehouse in modest castle
Quiver, red leather 2
- w/materials from estate 1,000
Robe, woolen 9
- plus value of materials 1,800
Scarf 2cp
Tower in large royal castle 12,000
Shoes, pair 1
Well, per fathom 5
Surcoat, linen 6
Trousers*, woolen 5 Building Cost

Tunic (short)/doublet 6 Row house 300

Underlinen 3 Craftsman’s house, with shop,
720
workers quarters, and tile roof
Clothing modifiers
Merchant’s house, in large city 1800
Dyed, dear (scarlet, green, black) x1.6
House w/courtyard 5400
" rare (purple, royal blue) x2
Guildhall in large city (hall, 2 chambers,
Fur lining, cheap +20 8150
buttery, pantry, kitchen)
" luxury furs +120-180
Table D.4: Construction and Real Estate
Fine cloth x2
Shoddy (recycled rags) x1/2
Silk x12

Table D.3: Clothing

143
D. P RICES

Item Cost
Basin & ewer 4 Legal Privilege Cost
Blanket, woolen 4
Apprenticeship, guild of carpenters 3
Bottle 8cp
2 company of mercers 12
Bowl, earthenware 1cp
Freedom (of a city) 10-60
Candles, tallow per lb 4cp
Marriage license (for serf) 3-40
" wax, per lb. 2
Membership, guild of carpenters 10
Chair 1
2 company of mercers 60
Chest 2
2 other guilds 20-180
" large, for clothes 6
Nobility, patent of 7500
Coffer (strongbox) 3
Table D.7: Legal Privileges
Cup, earthenware 1cp
" glass 7cp
Ewer, metal 3
Knife, eating 5cp
Mattress, straw 5cp
Livestock Cost
Mirror, silvered 6
Capon 5cp
Padlock 3
Calf, weaned 3
Pillow 3cp
Cow 18
Plate, earthenware 1cp
" good milker 30
Pot, cooking, ceramic 1cp
Duck 2cp
" brass, large 8cp
Donkey or mule* 70
Sheet, linen 2cp
Falcon, trained gerfalcon 12
Stool 8cp
" trained goshawk 15
Towel 1
Fowl (hen) 1cp
Table 1
Goose 7cp
Table D.5: Household Furnishings Horse, riding hack 75+
" pony* 75+
Information and Instruction Cost
" trained for horse-archery 120+
(a pecia is approx. 7,500 words, " draught horse 300+
the Bible is about 100 pecia)
" palfrey 420+
Books, per pecia 2.5
" hunter* 525+
Book rental, per pecia per year 2cp
" trained destrier 2,400+
Fencing instruction, per month 30
Ox 27
Tuition, monastery school, per year 120
Pig (in breeding country) 6
", private schoolmaster 40
" (in a large city) 9
Tuition, University, basic courses 120
Pigeons (4) 3
" fashionable lecturers, etc. 300+
Sheep (in breeding country) 25cp
Parchment, folio, per leaf 1cp
" (in a large city) 4
Vellum 2 3cp
Wax, sealing, per lb. 5cp Table D.8: Livestock

Table D.6: Information

144
Precious Item Cost Service Cost
Necklace, gold 20 Armour, clean & de-rust 12cp
" pearl 70 " overhaul & varnish 4
Ring, gold setting with diamonds 450 Carriage, annual maintenance 3-9
" gold setting with ruby 80 Cesspit, empty out 20
Spoon, silver 7 Courier, 1 horse, per 50 km or day 3
Table D.9: Precious Items ", 2 horses, per 100 km or day 5
Ferry, river crossing for man & horse 2cp
Provisions Cost Guide, for one night 2cp

Ale, per gallon 1cp Milling grain, per quarter 2cp

Bacon, per side 2cp Minstrel, to play at an inn 9

Bread, 2 loaves 1cp " Christmas gig at manor house 1

Cider, per tun 15 Stabling & care, warhorse, per day 4

Cheese, retail, per lb 5cp " foal (2) 4cp

" whole, 80 lb 10 Table D.11: Services

Eggs, per dozen 1
Fish, herrings, per dozen 2
Tools Cost
" Pike, whole, 31 long 20
" Sturgeon, per barrel 99 Anvil 60

Fruit, figs, per 3 lb 1 Armourer1s tools, complete 831

" pears, 10 1 Auger 8cp

" pomegranate 15cp Axe 1

Gingerbread, per lb 15 Barrel 8cp

Grain, barley, per quarter 5 Bellows, large (for forge) 60

" oats, per quarter 4 Bucket 1

" wheat, per quarter 10 Canvas, 25 yards 20

Ham, whole 4 Chisel 1

Onions, 1 bushel 2 Loom and treadle 6

Partridges, per brace 1 Pick* 4

Raisins, per lb 5cp Plow 9

Salt, per bushel 8cp Rope, light, per fathom 1cp

Spices, per lb 42 Sand barrel (for cleaning mail) 2.25

Sugar, per lb 3 Saw, hand* 3

Wine, fine claret, per tun 120 Saw, cross-cut* 8

" best, per gallon 2 Shovel* 4cp

" cheapest, per gallon 5cp Spade 4cp

To feed a lord, per day 2 Spinning wheel (late) 2.25

" a squire 1 Vat 1

" yeoman 2 Vise 40

" groom 5cp Yoke 4

Table D.10: Provisions Table D.12: Tools

145
D. P RICES

Job Cost
Laborer, per day 3cp
Craftsman, per day
Armorer 13cp-15cp
Carpenter 8cp
Mason 1
Weaver 6cp-7cp
Apprentice carpenter 4cp
Apprentice armorer 1
Guide 1
Vehicle Cost
Landowner, per year
Barge 600
Knight 1,800-18,000
Boat 101
Baron or abbot 12,000-30,000
Sailboat 200
Earl/count or bishop 24,000-66,0000
Carrack 225
King (of England) 1,800,000
Carriage 80
Mercenary, per day
Cart (iron bound) 12
Archer 8cp
Cart (wood, unfit for long trips) 6
Archer, mounted 1.5
Cutter 25
Knight banneret 12
Dray/wagon, iron-shod 30
Knight 6
Galley, 40-oared 2,120
Infantryman, armored 1
Galley, 80-oared and masted 3,725
Man-at-arms, mounted 3
Table D.13: Vehicles Squire 4
Priest (in a chantry) per year 280
Servants, per year
(plus bed and board)
Squire 40-60

carter, porter, groom,

15-25
falconer, messenger
indoor and kitchen 6-12
boys and pages 3-9

Table D.14: Wages and Income

146
Weapon Cost
Swords
Dagger 1
Main gauche 2
Short sword 7
Falchion 3
Scimitar 5
Tulwar 5
Rapier 3
Sabre 4
Broadsword 4
Weapon Cost
Estoc 5
Missile weapons
Hand & a Half 8
Sling 3cp
Claymore 8
Short bow 4
Two-handed sword 8
Long bow 5
Hafted weapons
Composite bow 6
Hand axe 1
Giant bow 14
Battle axe 2
Crossbow 15
Great axe 2
Cranequin for above 10
Giant axe 3
Spearthrower 4cp
Crude club 0
Blowgun 5cp
War club 2cp
Ammunition
Torch 2cp
Arrows (longbow), 30 1
Mace 1
Bolts (crossbow), 20 15cp
Giant mace 3
Bullets, lead (sling), 4 1cp
War hammer 1
Entangling weapons
War pick 2
Net 8cp
Flail 1
Bolas 1
Morningstar 1
Whip 2
Mattock 1
Garotte 5cp
Quarterstaff 2cp
Table D.16: Weapons (Missile and Entangling)
Buck-and-a-Quarterstaff 1.25
Sap 1cp
Pole weapons
Javelin 3cp
Spear 1
Giant spear 2
Pike 1
Lance 1.5
Halberd 1
Poleaxe 2
Trident 2
Glaive 1
147
Giant glaive 2.5
Appendix E
Examples
The Barroom Brawl
Hannah the Barbarian is quaffing some ale in the
King’s Head Inn and singing along with the minstrel,
when a neighboring barfly objects to Hannah’s substi-
tuting rude words in the national anthem. He takes a
swing at Hannah with his elbow. He’s a thuggish sort,
so the GM decides that while he’s a normal person
(no powers or shticks), he gets to use a trained Default
Skill (d4) instead of untrained Default Skilled (d2). Han-
nah says she’ll just take the blow since she’s Tough as
Nails (automatic defense, PL 5). The thug rolls a 4 on a
d4, and Hannah rolls a 2 on a (d6, d4)...not very lucky.
The resulting damage is 2 (4-2), which is not greater
than Hannah’s Toughness 4, so she is Hindered but not
out. The GM describes this as a meaty thwack right
to Hannah’s face as she was drinking, causing her to
choke on her ale.
Hannah declares that she coughs and spits out the
ale (spending an Action so she’ll no longer be Hin-
dered), and with her Mighty Thews brings her fist down
on the top of the thug’s head. She could have used
her Warrior Princess, possibly describing it differently,
but Mighty Thews can be used Bare Handed and War-
rior Princess requires equipment, and she’s not sure
she wants to escalate to using weaponry yet. She rolls
d6, d4 for her Mighty Thews vs. the thug’s d4 defense.
She gets a 5 and he gets a 2: she beat his roll by 3,
which exceeds his Toughness (the GM decided it was
2 since he’s somewhat beefy) and he slumps to the
floor unconscious.
Of course, this being a standard fantasy bar, he
has four friends itching for a fight. Since ordinary folks
aren’t much of a match for Hannah and there are
several of them, the GM decides to roll them up into a
single mob, giving them Toughness 2 Stamina 2 Will 1
Actions 2, Dirty Fighting 5 and Beefy (auto def.) 4. All
four go into making this single opponent, and don’t
get any powers or actions of their own, though they
may be narrated as if they’re doing things individu-
ally. The GM begins by saying that several of them try
to tackle Hannah. Their dirty fighting is PL 5, but since
it doesn’t have the Bare Handed Advantage, it’s re-
duced to a single die for not using equipment and
they roll a d6. Hannah says she stiff-arms them with her
Mighty Thews (spending an Action to use her Power in-
148
stead of just relying on her automatic defense). They
roll a 5, and Hannah rolls a 1: this beats Hannah’s roll
by 4... but that’s only equal to her Toughness, and
she’s merely Hindered. The GM says they’ve born her
to the ground. She could spend another Action to
shake them off, but since she only has 2 Actions and
she wants to attack, she elects to let it stand. She’s al-
ready used her Mighty Thews this Round, so she has to
use her Warrior Princess if she wants to attack. Since
that requires using equipment, but she still doesn’t
want to draw steel, she’ll only roll one die...she’s Hin-
dered anyway, so she’d only be rolling one die in any
case, so it’s no loss. She says she’ll grab their heads
and knock them together: She rolls a single d8 for her
Warrior Princess, and they roll a d4, d4 for being Beefy.
She rolls a 5 and they roll a 4: that’s enough to Hinder
them, but not put them out. Since they’re fighting as
a mob, the entire mob is treated as Hindered even
though she’s only described attacking two of them.
Next Round the GM says the mob is attacking by
trying to get some kicks in. Since they’re Hindered,
they’ll roll a single d6 instead of d6, d4. Hannah wants
to save an Action to become Unhindered, so she says
she’ll bear with it since she’s Tough as Nails (d4, d4).
They roll a 3 and she rolls a 3: ties go to the player,
so she doesn’t feel their blows. She says she heaves
the guys off of her and “kips-up” to her feet (spend-
ing an Action to become Unhindered). She says she’ll
do a standing flip over the guys facing her and, in
order to have it count as using equipment, land on
the far end of the bench behind them, causing it to
flip up and smack right into them. Benches are ob-
viously the kind of thing that bars have, so her narra-
tion creates it. Whether such a maneuver is plausible
depends on the tone agreed to before-hand for the
game: in a Xena-esque game, it’s perfectly plausi-
ble; in a game set in a world like Earthsea, it would
be over-the-top and she’d describe some other ma-
neuver instead. She’s no longer Hindered and she’s
using equipment, so she gets to roll her full d8, d6 ver-
sus the mob’s d4, d4. She rolls a 6 and they roll a 3,
that beats their Toughness and they are Out. Since
the bench probably didn’t strike all of the them, the
GM describes how it sends two of them sailing over
the bar with a huge crash, and the rest look at each
other and beat a hasty retreat.
 The Rooftop Chase

The Rooftop Chase

Ailie the Cat is scrambling across the rooftops in hot
pursuit of Sid the Vicious, who has just tried to assassi-
nate the Countess. In a chase, Sid has Acrobatics as a
Movement Power at PL 5, while Ailie has Catlike Grace
at PL 4. The GM announces Sid’s running across the
roof to the rope ladder dangling from the airship wait-
ing for him. Ailie decides to attempt to Counter Sid’s
move, so she uses her Rough and Tumble Fighting to
grab a flower pot and hurl it at the back of his legs to
trip him up; she rolls her d4, d4 and gets a 3...Sid rolls
his d6, d4 and gets a 3 so since ties go to the player
he takes a tumble and can’t get to the ladder this
Round. She spends an Action and closes the distance
between them from Pursuit Range to Combat Range.
He turns and hurls a throwing knife at her with his
Assassin d6, d6 versus Ailie’s Catlike Reflexes PL 6 (d6,
d6) automatic defense: he rolls a 3 and Ailie gets a
4 as she skips nimbly aside. She has an Action left,
so she decides to use her Sneaky as Hell Power to sur-
reptitiously kick the flower pot she had hurled earlier
from where it fell so it rolls right behind his foot where
it can trip him up if he tries to run again (forming an
Obstacle of an equivalent Power Level, PL 4).
On the next Round, Sid again tries to run for it,
and the flower pot Obstacle automatically attempts
to Counter his move; Ailie announces she’s going to
Combine her Sneaky as Hell Power with the Obstacle
by tugging on his cloak right as he’s stepping on the
pot. He rolls his d6, d4 Acrobatics versus the Obsta-
cle’s d4, d4 and the +1 Ailie is giving it by Combin-
ing: he gets a 5 and the pot gets a 3, plus 1 is 4...
not enough to prevent him from moving. Since his
move wasn’t successfully Countered, he gets to use
the power as originally planned and leaps to the rope
ladder, signaling for the airship crew to lift off as he
blows Ailie a mocking kiss.
As the airship is receding, Ailie makes a diving jump
off the edge of the roof, grabbing for the ladder. The
GM declares the Difficulty is 4 (meaning that you have
to be at least a Hero or Adventurer to have a shot
at it); Ailie rolls a 3 on her Catlike Grace d4, d4...not
enough! Ailie declares that Failure is Not an Option,
spending her last Action to change the roll to the max-
imum she could get, in this case 4...just enough. She
describes it as just catching the end of the rope lad-
der with one hand, leaving her Hindered and dan-
gling at the end of the ladder. Sid hurls another throw-
ing knife at her; since her Catlike Reflexes have the
Disadvantage they can be Hindered and she’s cur-
rently Hindered, they’re reduced to a single d6. Sid
rolls a 5 and Ailie rolls a 3; that beats Ailie’s roll by 2,
which is exactly equal to her Toughness, not enough
to put her Out. The GM decides that the knife sliced
the rope ladder, which is now unraveling. Now Ailie is
Hindered twice, and will need to spend two Actions
to become Unhindered.

149
Appendix N
Recommended Reading
Many of these are among my favorites, and all of
them had an influence on Zounds!, if only to con-
sider whether they would present any problems if you
wanted to play something like them using the system.
Alexander, Lloyd The Prydain Chronicles
Anthony, Piers A Spell for Chameleon
Aragones, Sergio and Evanier, Mark Groo
Ariosto, Ludovico Orlando Furioso
Asprin, Robert Myth Adventures
Bramah, Ernest Kai Lung’s Golden Hour
Bujold, Lois McMaster The Curse of Chalion
Byfield, Barbara N. The Book of Weird
Clamp Magic Knight Rayearth
Cook, Glen The Black Company; Garrett, P.I.
Cook, Rick The Wizardry series
de Camp, L. Sprague and Pratt, Fletcher Complete
Enchanter
Dickson, Gordon The Dragon and the George
Eddison, Eric The Worm Oroborus
Friesner, Esther (ed.) Chicks in Chainmail anthologies
Goldman, William The Princess Bride
Hodgell, P.C. God Stalker Chronicles
Howard, Robert E Conan; Kull
Hughart, Barry The Chronicles of Master Li
Jones, Diana Wynne Howl’s Moving Castle; Dark Lord
of Derkholm
Koike, Kazuo and Kojima, Goseki Lone Wolf and Cub
Kuttner, Henry The Dark World; Elak of Atlantis
Le Guin, Ursula Chronicles of Earthsea
Leiber, Fritz Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser
150
Levine, Gail Carson The Two Princesses of Bamarre
Lewis, C.S. The Chronicles of Narnia
Lovecraft, H.P. The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
Mahabharata Indian traditional epic
Malory, Thomas Le Morte d’Arthur
Martinez, A. Lee Too Many Curses; Company of
Ogres; A Nameless Witch
Moon, Elizabeth The Deed of Paksenarrion, etc.
Moorcock, Michael Elric; The Chronicles of Corum
Moore, C.L. The Black God’s Kiss
Moore, John Heroics for Beginners
Novik, Naomi Temeraire series
Pierce, Tamora The Protector of the Small, etc.
Pratchett, Terry Discworld
Rosenberg, Joel The Guardians of the Flame
Sakai, Stan Usagi Yojimbo
Scott, Martin Thraxas
Smith, Clark Ashton Collected Works
Spencer, Wen A Brother’s Price
Stasheff, Christopher A Wizard in Rhyme
Tepper, Sheri The True Game
Tolkien, J.R.R. The Lord of the Rings; The Hobbit
van Gulik, Robert Judge Dee series
Vance, Jack The Dying Earth
Wagner, Karl Edward The Kane series
White, T.H. The Once and Future King
Wu, Cheng-En Journey to the West
Zelazny, Roger The Chronicles of Amber; The Lord of
Light; Creatures of Light and Darkness
Appendix O

Recommended Viewing

The Adventures of Robin Hood Errol Flynn, Olivia de

Havilland
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen John Neville,
Eric Idle
Conan the Barbarian Arnold Schwarzenegger, James
Earl Jones
Dragonslayer Peter MacNicol, Caitlin Clarke
Excalibur Nigel Terry, Helen Mirren
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys Kevin Sorbo,
Michael Hurst
How to Train Your Dragon Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler
Jason and the Argonauts Todd Armstrong, Nancy Ko-
vack
John Carter Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins
Labyrinth David Bowie, Jennifer Connelly
Legend Tom Cruise, Mia Sara, Tim Curry
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe Richard
Dempsey, Sophie Cook
The Lord of the Rings Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen and
Orlando Bloom
Pirates of the Caribbean Johnny Depp, Keira Knight-
ley
The Princess Bride Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad Kerwin Mathews, Kathryn
Grant
Slayers Megumi Hayashibara, Yasunori Matsumoto
The 13th Warrior Antonio Banderas, Diane Venora
Time Bandits Sean Connery, Shelley Duvall
Willow Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley and Warwick Davis
Wizards Jesse Welles, Bob Holt
Xena: Warrior Princess Lucy Lawless, Renée O’Con-
nor and Ted Raimi

151
Index

Abilities Ghoul, 114

Advantages, 21 Giant, 114
Combining Actions, 53 Goblin, 115
Disadvantages, 22 Golem, 115
When to roll uncontested, 46 Griffin, 116
Ability Descriptions, 17 Harpy, 116
Action, 43 Hippogriff, 117
Actions, 27 Hydra, 117
Active Powers, 27 Kobold, 118
Automatic Powers, 28 Manticore, 118
Active Power Mermaid, 119
Actions, 27 Minotaur, 119
Active Powers, 43 Mummy, 120
Advantages, 21 Nightmare, 120
Flexible, 18 Ogre, 121
Advantages and Disadvantages, 21 Orc, 121
All for One, 57 Oread, 121
Animated Object, 106 Pegasus, 121
Ape, 107 Phoenix, 122
Attack Sea Serpent, 122
Automatic Powers and, 18 Shadows, 122
Attributes, 27 Skeletons, 122
Ordinary People, 27 Spider, 123
Automatic, 18 Swamp Creature, 123
Actions and, 18 Troll, 123
Automatic Powers, 43 Unicorn, 123
Combinations and, 18 Vampire, 124
Background, 45, 66, 67, 127 Werewolf, 124
Basilisk, 107 Wyvern, 125
Battle Cry, 57 Zombie, 125
Beast, 108 Zombie Plague, 125
Berserk, 57 Biblical Scope, 9
Bestiary, 106 Blob, 108
Animated Object, 106
Ape, 107 Careful Aim, 57
Basilisk, 107 Carnivorous Plant, 109
Beast, 108 Carouse, 58, 87
Blob, 108 Catoblepas, 109
Carnivorous Plant, 109 Cinematic Scope, 9
Catoblepas, 109 City, 9, 88, 129
Crab, 110 Combinations
Crawler, 110 Automatic Powers and, 18
Demon Type I, 111 Combining Actions, 53
Demon Type II, 111 Complications
Dragon, 112 Note On, 32
Dryad, 112, 121 Continent, 9, 88, 129
Fairy, 113 Cosmic Scope, 9
Fire Elemental, 113 Crab, 110
Gazebo, 113 Crawler, 110
152
 Index

Defense Mythic Scope, 9

Automatic Powers and, 18
Demon, 111 New Initiations, 16, 99
Difficulty, 46 Nightmare, 120
Uncontested Abilities, 45 Normal Scope, 9
Disadvantages, 22
Example, 19 Ogre, 121
Disagreements, 41 Orc, 121
Dragon, 112 Oread, 121
Dryad, 112, 121
Duchy, 9, 88, 129 Pegasus, 121
Phoenix, 122
Empire, 9, 88, 129 Power Categories, 43
Power Level, 19, 42
Failure Is Not An Option, 51, 58 Difficulty, 46
Fairy, 113 Power Up
Fire Elemental, 113 Research and, 20
Flexible, 18 Powers, 40
Active, 43
Gazebo, 113 Automatic, 43
Giant, 114 Categories, 43
Goblin, 115 Disagreements, 41
Golem, 115 Examples, 41
Griffin, 116 Power Levels, 41
Primary Rule, ii
Harpy, 116
All for One, 57
Heroic Scope, 9
Combining Abilities, 53
Hindered, 41, 47, 48
Disagreements, 41
Becoming Unhindered, 49
Powers, 40
Can Be Hindered Disadvantage, 22
Uncontested Abilities, 46
Control Advantage, 21
Disabling Abilities, 55 Research, 15, 20
Down for the Count, 51 When to roll, 20
Fragile Disadvantage, 23 Riposte, 59
Helping the Hindered, 49 Romantic Scope, 9
Restraining, 51 Rounds
Sheer Determination, 59 Actions and, 27
Tired, 51
Ultra-Fragile Disadvantage, 23 Scopes, 9, 88, 129
Hippogriff, 117 Sea Serpent, 122
Homeric Scope, 9 Second Wind, 59
Household, 9, 88, 129 Several Worlds, 9, 88, 129
Hydra, 117 Shadows, 122
Shticks, 42
Information Gained, 66
Actions and, 43
Intimidation, 58
Combining, 43
Kingdom, 9, 88, 129 Information and, 43
Kobold, 118 Interpreting Success, 43
Out of combat, 43
Legendary Scope, 9 Powers, 43
Research, 20
Magic Power, 20 Skills, 42
Customizable, 20 Skeletons, 122
Magic Research Shtick, 20 Spider, 123
Manor, 9, 88, 129 Stamina, 27
Manticore, 118 Supreme Effort, 46, 59, 60
Mermaid, 119 Tired, 51
Minotaur, 119 Swamp Creature, 123
Mishaps, 24
Movement, 18 The Rule of Three, ii
Mummy, 120 Titanic Scope, 9
153
I NDEX

Tone, 10
Toughness, 27
Town, 9, 88, 129
Troll, 123

Uncontested Abilities, 45
Unicorn, 123

Vampire, 124
Village, 9, 88, 129

Werewolf, 124
Will, 27
World, 9, 88, 129
Wyvern, 125

Zombie, 125
Zombie Plague, 125

154