Debilities

As you suffer hardships and setbacks in your quests, you may need to mark debilities as a result of moves or narrative events. Moves will tell you which debility to mark, or give you a choice. Debilities represent temporary, long-term, and permanent disadvantages. Some can be easily cleared through an appropriate move. Others will forever become a part of your character.

Debilities should have a narrative impact on how you envision your character’s actions and how others react to you. They also have a mechanical impact by reducing your momentum track.

Each marked debility reduces your max momentum by 1.

• If you have one marked debility, your momentum reset is +1 instead of +2.
• If you have more than one marked debility, your momentum reset is 0.

Conditions

• Wounded may be marked when you are at 0 health and fail to Endure Harm (page 91). You are severely injured and need treatment to recover. 
• Shaken may be marked when you are at 0 spirit and fail to Endure Stress (page 95). You are despairing or distraught, and need comfort to recover.
• Unprepared is marked when you are at 0 supply and are Out of Supply (page 97). You and your allies share the same supply value, and will mark unprepared together.
• Encumbered is marked as appropriate to the circumstances when you are carrying excessive or cumbersome weight.

As with all debilities, conditions impact your max momentum and momentum reset. In addition, if you are wounded, shaken, or unprepared, you cannot increase the associated track.

• If you are wounded, you cannot increase health.
• If you are shaken, you cannot increase spirit.
• If you are unprepared, you cannot increase supply.

If a move gives you an opportunity to raise your health, spirit, or supply while the associated condition is marked, you can’t take that option. You must clear the condition before improving the related status track.

Wounded, shaken, and unprepared can be cleared when you succeed on appropriate moves. For example, scoring a hit on the Heal move (page 63) can clear the wounded condition. The shaken and unprepared conditions can generally only be cleared as you find fellowship and gather provisions in a community through the Sojourn move (page 71). Once you clear a condition, you restore your max momentum and momentum reset, and you can once again increase the associated track through moves.

Unlike other conditions, encumbered is not specifically triggered or resolved by a move. Instead, it should be marked when appropriate to the circumstances. For example, you would mark encumbered if you are carrying an unconscious ally to safety in a perilous situation. Encumbered can also be triggered by the Ironclad asset, which allows you to gain an advantage for heavy armor in exchange for marking the condition. Encumbered is cleared when you lighten your load.

Banes

• Maimed may be marked when you are at 0 health and fail to Endure Harm (page 91). You have suffered a wound which causes you ongoing physical challenges, such as the loss of an eye or hand. Or, you bear horrific scars which serve as a constant reminder of your failures. 
• Corrupted may be marked when you are at 0 spirit and fail to Endure Stress (page 95). Your experiences have left you emotionally scarred. You are at the threshold of losing yourself to darkness.

Banes are permanent. They forever impact your character through the momentum penalty and—more importantly—through the narrative impact of being maimed or corrupted. You should factor this debility into how you perform moves and how you interact with the world. You may have physical or emotional limitations you must cope with. Your outlook may change. Your goals and methods may change. How others behave toward you may change.

If you are maimed, envision the injury and make note of it. Consider how this impacts your approach when facing physical challenges, and weave it into your roleplaying and the narrative of your moves.

When you are corrupted, envision how this impacts your personality and motivations. You might struggle with a new compulsion, quirk, or fear. You might even bear a physical, supernatural sign of the corruption. If so, what is it?

Burdens

• Cursed is marked when you Face Death (page 93) and return with a soul-bound quest. This burden can only be cleared by completing the quest.
• Tormented is marked when you Face Desolation (page 96) and undertake a quest to prevent a dire future.

Burdens are a result of life-changing experiences that leave you bound to quests. Clearing a burden can only be accomplished by resolving the quest.

When you are cursed or tormented, you should consider the physical or emotional manifestations of these conditions. You have walked the lands beyond death or suffered visions of your greatest fears. What signs do you bear? How do these experiences affect your relationships?

Start with no debilities

When you create your character, all debilities should be unmarked.