THE DEAD KEEP SECRETS. THE LIVING KEEP GUNS.

Along the telegraph line, somebody is tapping from a station that burned fourteen years ago. The preacher's reflection has horns. The cattle refuse to cross a dry creek, and the deputy found his own grave behind the slaughterhouse. Out here, the law ends at the county line. The older laws do not.

OUT OF COUNTY is a complete tabletop roleplaying game for 2-6 players and a Marshal (game referee). It uses old-school principles: dangerous combat, player ingenuity, reaction rolls, resource accounting, open-ended exploration, factions, strange treasure, and consequences that survive the adventure. It takes place on a fictional North American frontier inspired by 1860-1910, with 1895 as the assumed year. All bloodlines, supernatural beings, and locations are inventions for play, not claims about historical cultures or spiritual traditions.

The promise of play

• People can be heroic, monstrous, dishonest, decent, or a grim mixture of all four.
• A silver bullet is useful, but knowing whose name is written on it may matter more.
• Supernatural player characters are capable, not invincible. Every gift has an exploitable cost.
• Ordinary people, loaded rifles, the law, hunger, and harsh weather are real dangers.
• The Marshal does not invent a required solution. Smart plans can bypass battles and rituals.
• The party stays together by shared obligation: a debt, a badge, an oath, an investigation, or a common enemy.

What you need: a handful of six-sided dice for every player, a set of polyhedral dice (d4, d8, d10, d12, d20) for the tables, pencil, paper, and a few marked tokens for Strikes, ammunition, Dread, and Exposure. Dice notation: 2d6 means roll two six-sided dice and add them. The core roll is 2d6 + an attribute, so the highest roll possible is 18. Advantage means roll three d6 and keep the two highest; disadvantage, the two lowest. They do not stack, and one of each cancels. Double sixes on the two dice you keep is a critical; double ones is a fumble. Each matters only where a rule says so.

1. Buy attributes: every attribute begins at 0. Spend 10 points, one point for each +1, across the nine attributes: Might, Finesse, Endurance, Insight, Resolve, Presence, Faith, Magick, and Luck. No attribute can ever be higher than +6.
2. Choose a bloodline: Human, Werewolf, Vampire, Fae, Demon, Spirit, Werecat, Werebear, Revenant, or Coyote-Blood. Each adds +1 to one attribute (still maximum +6), a gift, and a burden. All are legal player characters, subject to campaign agreements. Only Humans can be Occult Hunters.
3. Choose one of 11 classes. Record its Strikes, combat training, favored save, armor, equipment, and 1st-level features.
4. Choose a background. Take the two fields named there. Each class grants two more fields. If one repeats, choose any different field instead. A character is trained in a maximum of four fields at 1st level (five for a Human).
5. Calculate: Strikes equal your class's Strike count, plus any bloodline or talent bonus. Defense = 6 + Finesse + armor bonus (+1 for a helmet). Your armor's damage reduction range comes from the armor table. You carry 10 + Endurance slots. Initiative is one d6 for the whole table, not an attribute. Dread starts at 0; Exposure is a party track that starts at 0.
6. Take gear, a name, a living contact, an enemy, and one reason to travel with the other characters. Starting classes include weapons and basics. All also receive $15 in loose cash, plain clothing, one week's trail rations, a waterskin, blanket, and bedroll.
7. Decide the secret: what would ruin your character if a newspaper printed it tomorrow?

Attributes

Attributes run from 0 to +6 and are added straight to 2d6. A character with Might +2 rolls 2d6 + 2 to climb a cliff. There are no scores and no modifier table.

• Might: melee attacks, and checks of strength: swimming, climbing, lifting, hauling, and forcing a door. Fields: Athletics, Fisticuffs.
• Finesse: Defense, ranged attacks, stealth, lockpicking, balance, and quick hands. Finesse saves against blasts, falls, and traps. Fields: Riding, Stealth, Sleight (which covers lockpicking).
• Endurance: stamina, wounds, poison, cold, and hunger. You carry 10 + Endurance slots. Endurance saves against poison, disease, and exhaustion. Endurance speeds healing: a safe night's rest restores 1 Strike, 2 at Endurance +3, and 3 at Endurance +6.
• Insight: history, lore, and knowledge: recalling what a brand means, who built a mine, what a symbol was for, how a machine or a body works. At Insight +1 or better you can read and write; at 0 you can't, beyond your own name. Fields: Medicine, Mechanisms, Occult, Trade.
• Resolve: nerve and attention. Resolve saves against fear, morale, domination, temptation, and anything that works on the mind. Searching a room, spotting an ambush, and tracking a quarry. Fields: Inquiry (searching), Wilderness (tracking and trailcraft).
• Presence: force of personality. Added to reaction checks, persuasion, deception, threats, and first impressions. You can keep 1 + Presence hirelings in your service at once. Fields: Society, Deceit, Command.
• Faith: belief that works. Circuit Preachers cast Creed workings with Faith. Faith saves against malevolent forces: possession, curses, and the powers of demons and the dead. Field: Scripture.
• Magick: the knack for the uncanny. Hexworkers and Spirit Mediums cast Hex and Séance workings with Magick, and it sets their Focus. Magick saves against magick: workings, hexes, and spells cast on you.
• Luck: fortune. When chance alone decides something (is there a horse left at the station, does the rotten bridge hold for one more rider, is the bartender the cousin you met in Abilene), the Marshal can call for a Luck roll: 2d6 + Luck against DC 11. Each point of Luck is also one reroll per session: after you roll any check, attack, or save, spend a point to roll it again and keep the second result. Luck refreshes at the start of each session.

Advancement: gain +1 attribute point at levels 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10. The +6 maximum still applies.

Checks, saves, and trained fields

When the outcome is uncertain and failure matters, roll 2d6 + attribute + 1 if trained against a Difficulty Class (DC):

Training applies only when its field is relevant. If a plan clearly succeeds, it succeeds without a die. If it is plainly impossible, no roll makes it possible. Describe and negotiate the fiction before rolling. Double sixes on a check succeeds with a flourish; double ones fails with a complication.

Saving throws resist immediate dangers. Roll 2d6 + attribute, plus 1 if the danger uses your class's favored save, against DC 11 (ordinary), 13 (grave), or 15 (terrible). The saves are Endurance (poison, disease, exhaustion, being knocked down), Finesse (blasts, falls, traps, dodging), and Resolve (fear, morale, domination, temptation, the mind). Against possession, curses, and the powers of demons and the dead, you may roll Faith instead; against workings, hexes, and spells, you may roll Magick instead. For social effects, use a normal Presence or Resolve check unless a power calls for a save. Enemy saves use the monster's listed Save bonus. Double sixes always succeeds on a save and double ones always fails.

Fields: Athletics (Might); Fisticuffs (Might); Riding (Finesse); Stealth (Finesse); Sleight (Finesse); Medicine (Insight); Mechanisms (Insight); Occult (Insight); Trade (Insight); Inquiry (Resolve); Wilderness (Resolve); Society (Presence); Deceit (Presence); Command (Presence); and Scripture (Faith). A field's attribute is a default, not a prison: a convincing player may use another attribute with the Marshal's agreement. Training never adds to attacks, saving throws, or working magic.

Opposed actions: the active character rolls against DC 7 + the defender's relevant attribute + 1 if the defender is trained, or against Defense for physical contests. Don't roll both sides. Helping: one able helper gives advantage if there is enough room and a plausible way to assist. Repeated attempts: a failed check cannot be retried without changing circumstances, spending resources, taking a new risk, or using meaningful additional time.

Backgrounds

Choose one or roll d10. The trade names are also prompts for connections, debts, and first adventures.

Starting languages: all characters speak a shared frontier language. A character can speak one additional ordinary language if the background reasonably supports it. Reading and writing are not universal; decide based on background. Bloodline tongues are described below. Names, accents, ancestry, and nationality are not mechanically tied to morality or intelligence.

A bloodline adds +1 to one attribute (maximum +6), a gift, and a burden. Unless specified, shapechanging uses one action, is available at will, and does not restore Strikes or ammunition. Clothing may survive in hybrid shape; fitted armor, firearms, and bags are dropped or torn in full animal shape. A transformed character keeps their Strikes, Defense (without worn armor), class features, and mind, but cannot speak, fire weapons, or perform rituals while in full animal shape. In hybrid shape, hands and speech work unless the bloodline says otherwise. Natural attacks replace a weapon attack; they do not grant extra attacks. A PC always has only one action per turn unless a feature specifically grants another.

Human

Attribute: +1 to any attribute. Gift, Stubborn Will: once per day, reroll a failed saving throw and keep the second result. This is separate from Luck. Gift, Mortal Ingenuity: learn one extra field at 1st level. Burden: no supernatural darkvision, regeneration, or protective transformation. Humans alone may join the Occult Hunter class, which demands a mortal soul capable of carrying its oldest oaths. Humans are not inherently virtuous; they are simply unfettered by a bloodline compulsion.

Werewolf

Attribute: +1 Might or Endurance. Gift, Wolfskin: become a wolf, human, or wolf-human hybrid. In animal or hybrid shape, your bite deals 1 Strike and is brutal (double fives or double sixes is a critical hit), movement is 40 ft in full wolf form, and tracking by scent has advantage when a trail exists. Burden, Silver: silver weapons deal +1 Strike to you. On nights of the full moon, the first time you lose a Strike, make a DC 11 Resolve save; failure forces an instinctive hunt for 1d4 rounds. You must pursue a visible enemy or immediate threat rather than patiently follow plans. You may never deliberately attack an ally unless an ally attacks you first. A safe enclosure and trusted companions can avert disaster without a roll.

Vampire

Attribute: +1 Presence or Finesse. Gift, Blood Hunger: see in darkness to 60 ft. A successful bite attack against a grappled, willing, or helpless living target deals 1 Strike and restores 1 Strike to you, once per scene. Burden, Day and Thirst: direct sunlight costs you 1 Strike each ten-minute exploration turn and imposes disadvantage on attacks and checks; heavy cover, a roof, and genuine shade prevent the loss. Drink a living creature's blood at least once per 24 hours or reduce your maximum Strikes by 1 per missed day, minimum 1; restore the lost maximum after feeding and completing a safe rest. A consecrated wooden stake through a helpless vampire's heart prevents blood-healing until removed. A vampire needs sleep, not breath.

Fae

Attribute: +1 Presence or Magick. Gift, Glamour: once per scene, as an action, alter your visible face, clothing, voice, and size by one category for ten minutes. You do not gain new equipment or capabilities. Someone handling you or witnessing contradictory evidence can make a DC 11 Resolve save to see through it. You can speak the hidden fae cant. Burden, Cold Iron and Word: weapons forged from untreated cold iron deal +1 Strike to you and break your active glamour on hit. A freely spoken, specific promise made in your true name is binding. To break it deliberately, succeed on a DC 13 Resolve save or lose 1 Strike and gain 1 Dread; even on a success, gain 1 Dread. Vague chatter is not an oath.

Demon

Attribute: +1 Might or Presence. Gift, Hell-Eye: see in darkness to 60 ft and gain advantage on saves against ordinary fire, fear, and smoke inhalation. Once per scene, speak a target's true name or one they have willingly given: a creature hearing it must make a DC 11 Resolve save (or Faith) or gain 1 Dread. Burden, Consecration: blessed weapons deal +1 Strike to you. You cannot cross an unbroken, prepared salt circle without a DC 13 Resolve save, one attempt per scene. In a genuinely consecrated shrine, you have disadvantage on checks and attacks. No demon PC is exempt from mortality or must be evil.

Spirit

Attribute: +1 Resolve or Insight. Gift, Thin as Mist: you manifest a tangible form with ordinary equipment and can be harmed normally. Once per scene, spend an action to pass through up to one foot of unbroken solid material; you cannot carry another creature, attack during that action, or remain within a wall. You need no air, food, or drink. Burden, Anchor: choose a portable physical anchor, such as a locket, tooth, pistol, or bone. You must remain within one mile of it. Salted, silvered, and cold-iron weapons deal +1 Strike to you. Ordinary Medicine and healing rites do not restore your Strikes; resting for eight hours within ten feet of your anchor restores them normally. If it is destroyed, you have three days to bind a new anchor by a one-hour rite costing $50, or you fade forever. A Spirit PC can be killed by losing Strikes like any other PC.

Werecat

Attribute: +1 Finesse or Presence. Gift, Catshape: become human, a cat, or a cat-human hybrid. In either changed shape gain 30 ft darkvision, climb at 20 ft, and claw for 1 Strike with the light feature. In full cat shape you are cat-sized and cannot carry ordinary gear. Burden, Silver and Restlessness: silver deals +1 Strike. After a full day in hiding or confinement, make a DC 11 Resolve save or gain 1 Dread until you have had an hour of unrestrained movement or pursuit. This does not compel reckless violence.

Werebear

Attribute: +1 Might or Endurance. Gift, Bearskin: you have +1 maximum Strike. Become human, bear, or bear-human hybrid; claw for 1 Strike with stagger. In bear or hybrid form your hide counts as armor with damage reduction 5-6 against mundane, nonsilver physical hits. Full bear form moves 30 ft, cannot use human tools, and will not fit ordinary doors or narrow mine shafts. Burden, Silver and Torpor: silver deals +1 Strike and can't be reduced by your hide. You need twice the ordinary trail ration during cold weather; a day without enough food gives 1 Fatigue.

Revenant

Attribute: +1 Endurance or Resolve. Gift, Grave Refusal: once per day, when brought to 0 Strikes but not instantly killed, remain at 1 Strike instead and take a permanent-looking wound or conspicuous mark. You need neither sleep nor breath, but must spend eight quiet hours per night recovering as if resting. Burden, Fire and Funeral Soil: fire deals +1 Strike to you. Conventional Medicine can restore at most 1 Strike to you per day; sanctified or occult healing works normally. An inhabited graveyard rejects you unless you carry a handful of soil from your own burial.

Coyote-Blood

Attribute: +1 Finesse or Insight. Gift, Desert Walker: become human, a coyote, or a coyote-human hybrid. In changed form move 40 ft, bite for 1 Strike, and gain advantage to avoid pursuit in badlands or broken desert. Once per scene you can perfectly mimic a voice you have heard for a full minute; hearing the true voice alongside your imitation reveals the trick. Burden, Silver and the Trap: silver deals +1 Strike. When captured, bound, or tightly enclosed, take disadvantage on Resolve saves until you have a credible escape route. This is an invented frontier shapechanger, not a depiction of any real-world sacred figure.

Bloodline adjudication

Silver, iron, and blessing never stack with themselves. If more than one listed vulnerability applies to the same attack, add only one +1 Strike, chosen by the attacker. Damage reduction (from armor or a hide) is rolled after bonus Strikes are added. Treat ordinary animal attacks as natural weapons. Supernatural gifts are visible when used unless text states otherwise. Their use near witnesses may increase Exposure.

All 11 classes advance from 1st to 10th level. Martial classes gain +1 to attack rolls with weapons. Classes can use any weapon, but wearing armor heavier than their listed allowance causes disadvantage on attacks, checks, and rituals until it is removed. A class's starting gear is free at creation; any replacement is bought normally. Scene means a discrete encounter or meaningful interaction, not an arbitrary six-second reset. A feature saying once per scene refreshes only after circumstances meaningfully change, generally with at least ten minutes and a new situation.

Strikes: each class lists its starting Strike count. Every character gains +1 maximum Strike at levels 3, 6, and 9. There are no level-based attack or save bonuses: characters grow through attribute points, Strikes, class features, and talents. A character makes one weapon attack per attack action, including at 10th level, except when a feature explicitly gives a second attack. Class features arrive at 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9; talents (general or combat) and attribute points at 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10.

Lawman

Strikes: 5. Martial: yes. Favored save: Endurance. Armor: all. Fields: Command, Inquiry. Starting gear: revolver with 18 cartridges, baton, duster armor, handcuffs, badge, $20.

• 1Badge and Bearing: When your legal authority is recognized, roll reaction with +1. Once per scene, declare a target wanted after witnessing a serious offense: gain +1 on one attack, pursuit, or Command check against that target before the scene ends.
• 3Deputize: At the start of an encounter, name up to three willing allies within 30 ft. Until its end, they gain +1 on Resolve saves against fear, and once during the encounter you may reroll the initiative die.
• 5Drop It: On a firearm hit, you may deal no Strike and instead force the target to make a DC 11 Finesse save or drop one held object. Once per scene.
• 7Hard County: Ignore the first point of Fatigue you would gain each day; advantage to resist coercion by threats of imprisonment, torture, or public scandal.
• 9Last Badge Standing: Once per day, when an ally falls to 0 Strikes within 30 ft, immediately move up to 15 ft and make one weapon attack as a free reaction. Resolve this before the fallen ally's death roll.

Occult Hunter (Human only)

Strikes: 4. Martial: yes. Favored save: Resolve. Armor: light or medium. Fields: Occult, Inquiry. Starting gear: revolver with 12 silvered cartridges, hunting knife, cold-iron nails, salt pouch (6 uses), occult ledger, leather coat, $10.

• 1Name the Unclean: After one minute examining tracks, testimony, or remains, ask the Marshal two yes/no questions about a creature's supernatural nature, vulnerability, or anchor. The answers are truthful but limited to observable evidence. Hunter's Ward: spend one salt use and one action to mark a 10-ft doorway or circle; spirits, demons, fae, and the unquiet dead must pass a DC 11 save to enter it, once per creature per scene. Lasts one watch.
• 3True Ammunition: During a short rest, consecrate or prepare up to six bullets or blades; they count as silver, cold iron, or blessed (choose one for the batch) for the next 24 hours. They deal no extra Strike unless a weakness specifies it.
• 5Say the Name: If you know a supernatural foe's true name or anchor, force it to attempt a DC 13 save once per scene when it hears your command. On failure it loses its next movement and cannot use a bloodline escape gift until the end of its next turn.
• 7Circle of Refusal: Your Hunter's Ward may encompass a 20-ft radius and its crossing DC becomes 13. The first ally within it to fail a Resolve save each scene may reroll that save.
• 9Final Severance: When you reduce a supernatural creature to 0 Strikes, its return, regeneration, possession, or escape feature does not trigger unless its master or anchor is already present in the scene and succeeds on a DC 15 save. Against an ordinary mortal you gain no benefit.

The oath: Hunters must be mortal because their wards are built on renunciation rather than supernatural power. Breaking the oath costs access to wards until a dangerous, meaningful act of restitution, not an automatic class loss chosen without warning.

Outlaw

Strikes: 4. Martial: yes. Favored save: Finesse. Armor: light or medium. Fields: Stealth, Deceit. Starting gear: revolver, 24 cartridges, knife, leather coat, lockpicks, false papers, $25.

• 1Dirty Opening: Once per scene, if a foe is unaware of you or you successfully feint (Deceit against DC 7 + the foe's Presence), your next weapon hit against it deals +1 Strike. Fast Hands: drawing or concealing one handheld weapon is free once each round.
• 3Vanishing Act: When you break line of sight, immediately move an extra 10 ft; then make a normal Stealth check to hide. Once per scene.
• 5Ricochet: Once per scene, ignore half or three-quarter cover with one firearm attack if a plausible hard surface allows a banked shot. You still need a physical path for the bullet.
• 7Impossible Alibi: Gain advantage on one Deceit check per scene to pass for someone you have observed; if the lie contradicts clear physical evidence, it cannot succeed.
• 9One Last Round: Once per day, when you miss a firearm attack, fire an immediate second attack against the same target, consuming another cartridge.

Undertaker

Strikes: 4. Martial: no. Favored save: Resolve. Armor: light or medium. Fields: Medicine, Occult. Starting gear: shovel (club), embalming kit (6 uses), six coffin nails, funeral ledger, shotgun with 8 shells, leather apron, $20.

• 1Last Respects: After a ten-minute burial or laying-out and one embalming-kit use, a corpse cannot rise as an ordinary revenant for seven days. Ask the Marshal whether death was from injury, disease, poison, or sorcery; receive the truest answer the body can provide.
• 3Pallbearer's Calm: You and companions within 10 ft who can hear you have +1 on Resolve saves against a dead creature's terror aura. Once per scene reduce your own Dread by 1 after handling a corpse respectfully.
• 5Grave's Weight: Once per scene, strike a spirit or undead with a shovel, stake, or coffin nail; the weapon counts as blessed and deals +1 Strike against that target if it has a blessing weakness.
• 7Mortuary Covenant: One hour preparing a body lets you ask it one yes/no question even without a working. Its answer is a memory, not prophecy; once per corpse.
• 9Closed Casket: Once per day, use a ten-minute rite to prevent one corpse or haunting in a small building from rising or manifesting for one month, unless an intelligent antagonist breaks the seal through a specific action.

Sawbones

Strikes: 3. Martial: no. Favored save: Endurance. Armor: light. Fields: Medicine, Inquiry. Starting gear: doctor's bag (10 uses), bone saw (knife), derringer and 6 rounds, surgical tools, clean shirts, $30.

• 1Field Dressing: Using one kit use and ten minutes, restore 1 Strike (2 if your Insight is +4 or better) to any corporeal patient, including Vampires and Revenants; each patient can benefit once per watch. A Spirit instead needs its anchor. Triage: stabilize a dying person with an action and a DC 9 Medicine check; if successful they remain at 0 Strikes but no longer worsen.
• 3Cut the Rot: During a safe rest, give a patient advantage on one Endurance save against infection, venom, or disease; with proper surgical supplies you can also remove one lingering wound penalty at the cost of 1 Strike.
• 5Anatomist's Aim: After studying a target for one round, your next hit in the scene deals +1 Strike, including against undead with anatomy, or tells you honestly that it has no vulnerable anatomy.
• 7Hard to Kill: Once per day, when a creature within reach fails a death roll, reroll it. It must use the new result.
• 9Miracle of the Knife: Once per week, with a safe table and one hour, save a creature which died no more than one minute ago, provided its head and vital organs are present. It returns at 1 Strike with two lingering wounds and 3 Dread. A creature can benefit only once in its existence.

Circuit Preacher

Strikes: 4. Martial: no. Favored save: Resolve. Armor: light or medium. Fields: Scripture, Society. Starting gear: worn scripture or personal devotional book, lantern, revolver with 12 rounds, wooden staff, simple vestments, $10. Working tradition: Creed, cast with Faith. Known workings: 2 at 1st level.

• 1The Spoken Word: once per scene, use an action to give one ally within 30 ft +1 on their next Resolve save before the scene ends. Creed Worker: use the working rules.
• 3Against the Dark: once per scene, when you show a consecrated symbol and speak a warning, one undead or demon within 30 ft must pass a DC 11 save or retreat 10 ft on its next turn. No creature can be affected twice by this feature in one day.
• 5Congregation: after ten minutes leading a willing group in prayer, up to six listeners each remove 1 Dread. This works once per day for a given person.
• 7Burn Away the Lie: once per scene, after speaking with a creature for one minute, ask whether it has been compelled by sorcery within the past day. The Marshal answers yes/no; you do not learn who did it.
• 9Stand at the Door: once per day, when an ally within 30 ft would take a supernatural hit, take those Strikes instead. You may use your own Defense against the attack if it's better. This can kill you.

Hexworker

Strikes: 3. Martial: no. Favored save: Resolve. Armor: light. Fields: Occult, Trade. Starting gear: pouch of bones, pins and thread, hex charms, knife, 6 candles, a double-barrel shotgun with 6 shells, $10. Working tradition: Hex, cast with Magick. Known workings: 3 at 1st level.

• 1Malice in a Bottle: You know the workings and Focus rules. Once per scene, after a foe within 30 ft rolls double ones, bottle its bad luck; your next attribute check that scene has advantage.
• 3Personal Token: If you possess a target's hair, blood, signature, or treasured item, reduce the DC of one Hex working affecting that target by 2 (minimum 12). Consume or spoil the token.
• 5Nail the Shadow: Once per scene, on a successful action and a DC 11 Magick check, halt one creature you can see within 30 ft for its next movement; it can still act and attack. Supernaturals save at DC 11 to resist.
• 7Debt Collector: When you successfully cast a Hex upon a creature that has freely broken a promise to you, regain 1 Focus. Once per day.
• 9Black Bargain: Once per week, cast one known Hex working without paying its Focus cost. Instead immediately gain 2 Dread and roll once on the backlash table, even on success.

Railway Agent

Strikes: 4. Martial: yes. Favored save: Finesse. Armor: all. Fields: Mechanisms, Inquiry. Starting gear: lever-action carbine with 20 rounds, railroad pass, wrench, hand lantern, leather coat, $20.

• 1Iron Timetable: You automatically know which direction a functioning railway or telegraph route leads after one minute inspecting it. Gain +1 on checks to repair, sabotage, or control rail machinery. Once per scene, use an action to improvise half cover from nearby freight, scrap, or heavy luggage if it is present.
• 3Switchman: once per scene, move yourself and up to one ally 10 ft as a coordinated reposition without provoking a parting strike from a disengaging enemy.
• 5Telegraph Ghost: With ten minutes at a working line and a DC 11 Mechanisms check, intercept one local message or send a convincing false one. Failure alerts a trained operator; this is not supernatural mind reading.
• 7Engine Heart: Gain advantage on Endurance saves against smoke, heat, long hours, and train wrecks. You can drive a locomotive under fire without the normal difficult-check penalty.
• 9The Last Car: Once per day, when you or an ally within 30 ft would be caught by a collapsing structure, vehicle crash, or explosion, grant that ally advantage on the Finesse save and, on a success, they lose no Strikes at all.

Spirit Medium

Strikes: 3. Martial: no. Favored save: Resolve. Armor: light. Fields: Occult, Society. Starting gear: spirit bell, talking board, notebook, mirror, protective salt (4 uses), derringer with 8 rounds, $15. Working tradition: Séance, cast with Magick. Known workings: 2 at 1st level.

• 1Hear the Unburied: You hear nearby willing, manifested spirits and the final emotional impression of one corpse touched for a minute. This conveys no exact words unless the spirit wishes. You can use workings.
• 3Knock Once: Once per scene, pose one brief question to a spirit within 30 ft; it may answer with one sound or sign without needing to manifest. A hostile spirit can refuse.
• 5Borrowed Eyes: During a ten-minute séance you may see a place within one mile that a named dead witness personally knew. You glimpse it as it looked when they last saw it, not its current condition. Once per day.
• 7Unwanted Guest: You have advantage on saves against possession. Once per day, when an ally is possessed within 30 ft, allow them an immediate extra Resolve or Faith save at +1.
• 9Door Ajar: Once per week, speak with any one specific dead person whose name and a genuine personal possession you have. They answer up to three brief questions truthfully as remembered, and then go silent for a month. You gain 2 Dread.

Night Drover

Strikes: 5. Martial: yes. Favored save: Endurance. Armor: light or medium. Fields: Riding, Wilderness. Starting gear: riding horse, saddle, lariat, lever-action carbine with 15 rounds, knife, leather coat, $10.

• 1Never Lose the Herd: Your mount ignores fear of mundane gunfire when you are riding it. Once per scene, lasso one creature within 20 ft using an attack against its Defense; on a hit it is restrained by the rope (movement 0 until freed) instead of losing a Strike. It may use an action and a DC 11 Might check to break free, or cut the rope with a blade.
• 3Night Ride: Travel at an ordinary mounted pace after dark without an extra night-travel danger roll, provided you lead and can actually see or follow a marked trail.
• 5Stampede: Once per scene, as an action while mounted, move up to your mount's speed and make one melee attack at any point in that move; a hit also forces a DC 11 Endurance save or knocks the target prone.
• 7Black-Weather Rider: You and your mount ignore the first point of Fatigue caused by travel each day. Advantage on Riding checks in storms or difficult terrain.
• 9The Long Return: Once per day, lead up to six willing creatures and their mounts in a two-watch ride that normally demands a forced-march save, without anyone needing that save. At the end, you gain 1 Dread as your shadow lags behind you.

Relic Prospector

Strikes: 4. Martial: no. Favored save: Finesse. Armor: light or medium. Fields: Inquiry, Mechanisms. Starting gear: pickaxe (club), mining lamp, dynamite (2 sticks), field compass, surveying kit, shotgun with 8 shells, $15.

• 1Rock and Bone: A ten-minute survey reveals the rough direction of the nearest accessible natural cave, mine working, hidden chamber, or buried chamber in 100 yards, if one exists. Once per scene, recognize one non-obvious sign that an object is cursed, counterfeit, or tampered with; you cannot identify every effect.
• 3Blast Calculation: If you spend ten minutes setting a charge, your placed explosives deal full damage to structures but 1 Strike less (minimum 0) to creatures outside the immediate 10-ft blast. Once per scene, grant one ally +1 on a Finesse save against a trap you've spotted.
• 5Appraiser of the Damned: After handling an artifact for ten minutes, learn one precise property, one activation requirement, or one danger. The Marshal chooses an answer that is useful and true.
• 7Tunnel Rat: Ignore squeezing penalties and gain advantage on checks to navigate unstable mines; falls cost you 1 Strike less, minimum 0.
• 9One More Shovel: Once per expedition, declare a plausible concealed cache, alternate mine passage, or forgotten storeroom in a place with evidence of past human use. The Marshal places a modest find or route and attaches a meaningful danger, cost, or rival claim.

Levels and experience

The party earns 1 XP for every $10 in dangerous, recovered treasure or reward secured for the group: stolen payroll recovered from a monster, a strange coin cache, a bounty actually collected, or a valuable artifact brought out of a haunted mine. Ordinary wages, trading the same property between allies, and preying on defenseless townsfolk do not grant XP. Every participant gains the same full XP, not a divided share. The Marshal also awards 25 XP for solving a dangerous problem without violence; 50 XP for uncovering a substantial secret; and 100-300 XP for fulfilling a major expedition goal or changing a faction's position. XP reflects hazard and accomplishment, not obedience to a predetermined story.

On leveling up: add the Strike or attribute point shown, then the class feature or talent. No attribute can go above +6. Leveling happens after at least one safe night's rest in a settlement or secure refuge. Workers are Circuit Preachers, Hexworkers, and Spirit Mediums; they learn one new working at levels 3, 5, 7, and 9 plus the circle-specific choices at 4 and 8. Occult Hunters have fixed wards and do not gain spellwork automatically.

Talents

At each even-numbered level, choose one talent from either list. You may not take the same talent twice unless it says so. A talent with a requirement can only be taken once you meet it; a level requirement means the level at which you take the talent.

General talents

1. Iron Gut: +1 maximum Strike. You also have advantage on Endurance saves against poison, bad water, and spoiled food.
2. Horse Whisperer: Trained in Riding; if already trained, gain advantage when calming a frightened ordinary mount.
3. Long Shadow: Once per scene reroll a failed Stealth check when you have at least dim light or cover; keep the second result.
4. Hard Bargainer: Once per transaction or audience, reroll a failed Trade or Society check; keep the second result.
5. Good Scout: You cannot be surprised while conscious and keeping watch, unless blinded or magically deceived.
6. Second Opinion: Gain training in two new fields. No field can be trained twice.
7. Cold Nerves: Once per scene, when you would gain Dread, you may bottle it: you gain none now, but when the scene ends you gain all of it, plus 1 more. You can hold only one bottled event at a time, and it comes due at once if you drop to 0 Strikes. Cold Nerves never reduces Dread; it only decides when the bill arrives.
8. Tough as Nails: Advantage on one Endurance save per day, declared before rolling.
9. Book of Warnings: Learn one specific monster type's vulnerability and its typical sign each time you visit an archive for a day; advantage to identify the signs of any one studied type, maximum three at a time.
10. Unusual Apprenticeship: Gain one Circle I working of a tradition you can justify having studied and 2 Focus per day usable only for that working. It is cast with Faith (Creed) or Magick (Hex, Séance) and the normal working rules. This talent may be taken a second time to learn one additional Circle I working and gain 1 more Focus, but never unlocks higher circles. Occult Hunters cannot take this talent while keeping the Hunter's Oath.

Combat talents

Most weapons deal a single Strike, so a fighter's edge comes from how and when they deal it. Combat talents are written for the Strikes rules: they buy position, timing, and control far more often than raw damage. Once-per-scene powers refresh when the situation genuinely changes.

1. Dead-Eye: +1 on firearm attacks beyond 30 ft; this is a permanent attack bonus.
2. Fast Loader: Each firearm reload action inserts two additional cartridges or shells, up to capacity.
3. Scrap Fighter: Your unarmed and improvised melee attacks may be lethal or nonlethal as you choose, and gain stagger.
4. Close-Quarters Gunner: Firing a pistol at a foe within 5 ft does not suffer disadvantage from being threatened.
5. Quick on the Draw: Once per scene, when combat begins and your weapon is holstered, make a single ranged attack before either side acts; this is your attack action for your first turn, which can then only be used to move, reload, or perform a different non-attack action.
6. Fan the Hammer: You can fan any revolver, not only one built for it. Once per scene, a fanned attack doesn't take disadvantage.
7. Two-Gun Work: Requires Finesse +2. With a pistol in each hand, your two-gun flourish can split between two targets within 10 ft of each other: one attack against each, both at disadvantage, 1 Strike each on a hit. Once per scene, a flourish against a single target has no disadvantage.
8. Called Shot: When you Aim, you may call your shot instead of taking the +2. On a hit, deal the weapon's Strikes and choose one: the target drops what it's holding unless it passes a DC 11 Finesse save, its speed is halved until the end of its next turn, or it has disadvantage on its next attack.
9. Long Rifle: Requires Dead-Eye. With a long gun, targets more than 100 ft away get no benefit from half cover against you. Once per scene, a long-gun hit you Aimed for deals +1 Strike.
10. Covering Fire: Requires level 4. Once per scene, as your action, cover one ally you can see. Until your next turn, the first creature that attacks that ally takes a ranged attack from you before its attack resolves. The shot spends ammunition as normal.
11. Hit the Dirt: Half cover counts as three-quarter cover for you against ranged attacks. Once per scene, when a ranged attack hits you, drop prone and make the attacker reroll it; you stay prone either way.
12. Interpose: Once per scene, while you hold a shield or wear medium or heavy armor, take a physical hit meant for a creature within 5 ft of you. You lose the Strikes instead of them, and roll your own armor against it.
13. Armor Wise: Once per scene, reroll a failed damage-reduction die. Heavy armor doesn't slow you.
14. Second Wind: Once per day, as your action in a fight, recover 1 Strike and gain 1 Fatigue. It does nothing at 0 Strikes.
15. Too Mean to Die: Requires level 6. Once per session, when you roll the zero-Strikes die, roll it twice and keep the better result.
16. Knife Fighter: Your light melee weapons gain bleed. Once per scene, when a creature misses you with a melee attack, make one attack against it with a light weapon in your hand, right then.
17. Heavy Hitter: Your two-handed melee weapons gain stagger, and the heavy feature never gives you disadvantage. Once per scene, a two-handed melee hit also throws the target 10 ft back.
18. No Quarter: Requires a martial class. Your attacks against a prone, restrained, stunned, or unconscious creature are brutal: double fives or double sixes is a critical hit.
19. Bushwhacker: In a surprise round, your first hit deals +1 Strike, and after attacking you may move 10 ft without drawing parting strikes. It doesn't stack with an Outlaw's Dirty Opening.
20. Saddle Fighter: Requires training in Riding. You fire from a moving horse without disadvantage, even an untrained one, and your mounted charges have stagger. Once per scene, when your mount is hit, roll your own armor for it.
21. Roper: +1 on attacks with a lariat, bolas, or whip. A creature you rope or tangle is also knocked prone.
22. Powder Monkey: Light and throw dynamite, firebombs, and fuse bombs as one action, and you never fumble a lit charge. Blasts you set or throw call for DC 13 saves instead of 11.
23. Side by Side: +1 on melee attacks against a creature an ally is also fighting in melee. While an ally stands within 5 ft of you, you never take the -1 Defense for being outnumbered.
24. Battlefield Triage: Requires training in Medicine. Once per scene, as your action in a fight, use one use of a doctor's bag or bandages to restore 1 Strike to a creature beside you, or to stabilize a dying one with no check. Each creature can benefit once per day.
25. Hard Case: Suppressing fire doesn't stop you, and ordinary people and animals can't frighten you. You have advantage on saves against being disarmed, shoved, or tripped.

Standing and infamy

Record Law and Underworld standing separately from -3 to +3. At +2 or better, appropriate friendly contacts grant safe introductions and +1 on reaction rolls; at -2 or worse, the relevant faction treats you with suspicion and applies -1. At +3, the faction may offer a significant favor and a significant obligation. At -3, expect pursuit or a public denunciation. An affiliation applies only when it is recognized and relevant. A warrant, land claim, feud, or murder has consequences regardless of standing. The law is not omniscient: sheriffs, deputies, federal officials, private agencies, rail companies, and courts have competing reach and interests.

Time and initiative

A combat round lasts about six seconds. Initiative is one d6 for the whole table, rolled at the top of every round. On a 1-3, the enemies act first; on a 4-6, the players act first. Then the other side acts. Reroll at the start of the next round. Within a side, act in whatever order the players (or the Marshal) like. If one side ambushes the other and the victims fail to notice the warning signs, the ambushers take one free round before initiative is rolled. A conscious lookout with Good Scout cannot be surprised through ordinary means.

On your turn, you may move up to 30 ft (or your form's listed speed) and take one action, in either order, plus brief words and trivial interactions. Actions include attack once, reload, dash an additional move, grapple, help, use an object, administer urgent aid, cast a hasty working, or attempt a stunt. Standing from prone costs half of your movement. A mounted character uses their mount's movement; mount and rider share one action, except a trained horse may move and the rider may fire normally. Leaving melee reach without disengaging gives one adjacent enemy a free parting strike each round. A creature can take only one parting strike per round. Disengaging uses an action and prevents such strikes for your movement.

Attacks and damage

Melee attack: 2d6 + Might + Martial class bonus, against Defense. Ranged attack: 2d6 + Finesse + Martial class bonus, against Defense. A total equal to or higher than the target's Defense hits. With a light weapon you may use Finesse for a melee attack if you declare it before rolling. At 0-5 ft, firing any firearm while an enemy is actively threatening you causes disadvantage unless you have Close-Quarters Gunner. Ranged attacks beyond a weapon's first range, up to its maximum, have disadvantage. Past maximum range, no hit is possible unless a special circumstance changes the distance.

Defense = 6 + Finesse + armor bonus, +1 for a helmet, plus cover. An ordinary person is Defense 9; a gunfighter in a leather coat might be 11 or 12.

Strikes. Every character and creature has a number of Strikes in place of hit points. A hit deals the weapon's Strikes, usually 1. Heavier weapons, explosives, and particularly powerful enemies deal 2 to 6. Damage from other sources (fire, falls, traps, workings) is also counted in Strikes. A weapon's features (bleed, stagger, spread, piercing, and the rest) are what make it different from the next one; they're listed with the weapon tables.

Double sixes: a critical hit, whatever the total. It deals +1 Strike. A brutal weapon also crits on double fives. Double ones: a miss, whatever the total; a firearm also jams and must be cleared with an action before use. An unreliable gun also jams on a 3 or less on the dice (a 1 and a 2). Weakness: a silver, cold-iron, or blessed weapon against a creature vulnerable to it deals +1 Strike, never more than one weakness Strike per attack. Unless specified, a firearm's report can be heard hundreds of yards away in clear open country and may trigger encounter or Exposure checks.

Damage reduction. Each time you lose Strikes to a physical attack, you may roll a d6 for your armor. If the roll falls within your armor's DR range, reduce the incoming damage by 1 Strike. Light armor succeeds on a 6, medium armor on 5-6, and heavy armor on 4-6. Armor does not reduce damage from fire, falls, poison, suffocation, starvation, a building collapsing on you, or workings, unless the armor says otherwise. A weapon with piercing cannot be reduced by armor.

Shields. A shield adds 1 to your DR range (a 6 becomes 5-6; with no armor, a shield alone succeeds on a 6). Once, you may sacrifice the shield to negate all damage from a single physical attack; the shield is destroyed.

Helmets. A helmet gives +1 Defense. When you suffer a critical hit, the helmet turns it into a normal hit and is destroyed. Then make an Endurance check, DC 8, or be stunned.

Cover, conditions, and stunts

Half cover: +1 Defense; three-quarter cover: +2 Defense; total cover: cannot be directly targeted. Prone: melee attackers have advantage; ranged attackers farther than 10 ft have disadvantage. Restrained: movement 0, disadvantage on attacks and Finesse saves, attackers have advantage at melee range. Blind: disadvantage on attacks, checks to navigate, and Finesse saves; attackers have advantage. Frightened: cannot willingly approach the source; disadvantage on checks/attacks against it until a Resolve save at the end of each turn (DC of the original effect, usually 11). Stunned: you lose your next action, move at half speed, and attackers have advantage against you until the end of your next turn. Unconscious: cannot act, Defense 6 plus armor only, melee hits automatically if the assailant has an uninterrupted full action.

Grapple: take an action and roll an unarmed melee attack against Defense. On a hit you hold the target in reach; both move at half speed; it is restrained only if you spend your subsequent action pinning it with a successful opposed Might check (DC 7 + its Might, +1 if trained in Athletics or Fisticuffs). Escape takes an action with the same check in reverse. Large targets cannot be grappled by human-sized creatures unaided. Disarm, shove, trip: attack against Defense, then the target makes a DC 11 Finesse or Endurance save (Marshal chooses based on the stunt); on a failure the effect happens instead of damage. Aim: use your action to gain +1 on your next ranged attack before the end of your following turn if you remain in place. Suppress: fire three rounds at a 10-ft section of open ground; until your next turn, anyone crossing it must make a DC 11 Resolve save or stop before entering, unless behind full cover. Suppression deals no damage by itself.

Outnumbering: a creature attacked in melee by three or more coordinated foes receives -1 Defense. This never stacks. Dual wielding: holding two pistols or knives gives no second action; on your attack you may choose which weapon fires. Two-gun flourish: spend two rounds of ammunition from separate pistols and take disadvantage on the attack to deal +1 Strike if it hits. Reloading: costs an action and refills only as many shots as listed on the weapon table. Partial reloads are allowed. Mount under fire: a gunshot within 10 ft, a bloodline monster, or a supernatural scare demands a DC 11 Riding check to keep a mundane, untrained mount controlled. Failure means it moves away and you spend your next movement hanging on or dismounting.

Dropping to zero and dying

At 0 Strikes you fall and immediately roll d6, unless your bloodline or class says otherwise:

Every subsequent hit while dying or broken causes death unless prevented. Stabilizing with a DC 9 Medicine action or one dose of bandages changes Dying to Broken but does not restore Strikes. A character who is healed from 0 Strikes becomes conscious, prone, and gains a lingering wound if they did not already receive one from that injury. Massive damage: if a single hit deals at least twice your maximum Strikes, immediate death replaces the d6 roll. Player and monster deaths should be telegraphed honestly. A helpless target can be executed with a full action if no one prevents it.

Lingering wound: roll d6 when you gain one: (1) leg, -10 ft speed; (2) shooting arm, disadvantage on firearm attacks; (3) ribs, -1 Defense when dashing; (4) head, disadvantage on Inquiry checks; (5) hand, reload actions load half as many shots, rounded down minimum 1; (6) scarred nerves, +1 Dread immediately and disadvantage on first Resolve save next day. One wound is removed by seven safe days of care, or by a Sawbones feature; wounds stack if different, and repeats add recovery time rather than numerical penalties. Long-term maiming can be chosen collaboratively, never imposed as a joke.

Healing, rest, Fatigue

Breather (ten minutes): bind wounds, count cartridges, tend a fire; once per day, each character may recover 1 Strike if they have water, cover, and at least one unspent ration, regardless of whether a healer is present. No benefit at 0 Strikes. Safe night's rest (eight hours): recover 1 Strike, 2 at Endurance +3, or 3 at Endurance +6, plus 1 more if someone trained in Medicine tends you, plus any applicable Sawbones care; restore class resources and reduce Dread by 1. A night spent under immediate threat restores nothing and does not recover Focus. A full week in real safety restores all Strikes, clears one lingering wound, and reduces Dread to 0 if accompanied by genuine support or ordinary life. Bloodline recovery overrides these rules when explicitly stated.

Fatigue runs 0-4. At 1, -5 ft speed. At 2, disadvantage on physical checks. At 3, attacks have disadvantage. At 4, movement halved and no class once-per-scene feats. A fifth Fatigue causes collapse at 0 Strikes and a d6 death roll (1 is instead Broken, not dead, unless extraordinary exposure). Forced marches, starvation, cold, fever, thirst, and sleeplessness add Fatigue as stated. Each complete safe rest with food and shelter removes 1 Fatigue, or 2 if in a settlement with full care. Starvation: after 24 hours without food, make a DC 11 Endurance save each day or gain 1 Fatigue. Water: after 12 hours without adequate water, make a DC 11 Endurance save every additional 12 hours, gaining 1 Fatigue on a failure. Serious heat and cold can shorten these intervals.

Duels at noon

A public face-to-face pistol duel uses a smaller procedure. Each duelist secretly chooses Draw, Wait, or Yield. Reveal simultaneously. Yield ends the duel unless the other side violates the agreed rules. If one Draws while the other Waits, the Draw shooter fires first, but everyone who sees it knows who broke the terms. If both Draw, each makes a DC 11 Finesse check, then both fire in order of check totals; a tie is simultaneous. If both Wait, tension rises and each makes a DC 11 Resolve save or gains 1 Dread, then choose again. One shot each resolves the first exchange; after that, normal combat or surrender begins. Neither armor nor a bloodline gift stops a witness from judging the duel dishonorable.

Money: $1 = 100 cents. The values below are a playable adventure economy, not a claim of exact period prices; isolated towns, war years, shortages, and monopoly railroads may triple them. A common unskilled laborer may earn $1-2 per day; trained labor $3-5; a deputy's modest retainer $20-40 a month; a high-risk bounty $25-500 or more. Gear has sensible mass, but play uses slots rather than accounting by ounces.

Weapons

Most weapons deal 1 Strike. What sets one apart from another is its range, its rate of fire, and its features.

Features:

• Bleed: on a hit, the target loses 1 more Strike at the end of its next turn unless it, or someone beside it, spends an action binding the wound.
• Blast: hits everything in the radius. A creature outside the exact point of impact makes a DC 11 Finesse save to lose 1 Strike less.
• Concealed: a casual look misses it; a pat-down finds it on a DC 11 Inquiry check.
• Fanning: spend 3 rounds on one attack at disadvantage; on a hit, +1 Strike.
• Light: you may use Finesse instead of Might for the melee attack.
• Nonlethal: a creature reduced to 0 Strikes by it is knocked unconscious and stable, not dying.
• Piercing: armor can't reduce its damage.
• Reach: attacks creatures up to 10 ft away.
• Set: +1 Strike against a creature that charges you.
• Silent: no report; never triggers encounter or Exposure checks by noise.
• Spread: deals its listed Strikes within its first range; beyond that, 1 Strike.
• Stagger: on a hit, the target makes a DC 11 Endurance save or is knocked prone.
• Tool: also does honest work: chopping, digging, prying, climbing.
• Two-handed: needs both hands.

Dynamite: you must light it with an action, then throw with a separate action on your current or next turn, using a ranged attack vs Defense 9 for a location. A miss scatters 1d6 x 5 ft in a direction chosen by d8 compass. It explodes at the end of the round it is thrown. If lit and not thrown, it explodes in your vicinity on the following round. It cannot be used safely in close melee. A creature at the point of impact loses 2 Strikes; elsewhere in the 10-ft radius, a DC 11 Finesse save reduces that to 1. Stone and timber take damage according to the Marshal, not by Strikes alone.

Ammunition: 20 ordinary pistol rounds $1; 20 rifle rounds $2; 10 shotgun shells $1; 10 arrows $0.50. Silvered cartridges cost ten times the ordinary cartridge and count as silver, but deal no extra Strike unless the target is vulnerable. Blessed cartridges cost ten times normal plus one hour from an eligible NPC or ritualist; one blessing grants 10 rounds the blessed tag for one week. Cold-iron melee weapon costs +$5 and must be made of untreated iron, not steel. A weapon is either silvered, cold iron, or blessed for vulnerability purposes, not all three by default. Ammunition is expended on an attempted shot even on a miss or jam.

Armor and defenses

Defense = 6 + Finesse + armor bonus, +1 for a helmet. Armor bonus, Finesse, and cover are additive. Damage reduction: each time you lose Strikes to a physical attack, roll a d6; if it lands within your armor's DR range, reduce the damage by 1 Strike. A shield widens your DR range by 1 (or gives DR 6 on its own), and can be sacrificed to negate all damage from one physical attack. A helmet turns a critical hit into a normal hit and is destroyed; then make a DC 8 Endurance check or be stunned. Armor protects from weapons and claws, not suffocation, starvation, certain rites, or a building collapsing on top of you. Historical frontier people generally dress for their station; obvious armor affects reaction and law enforcement.

Equipment and encumbrance

Encumbrance: carry 10 + Endurance slots without penalty. Every ordinary firearm or bulky weapon uses 1 slot; a heavy rifle, shotgun, or steel vest uses its listed burden rather than 1. Sixteen cartridges use 1 slot; a week's rations use 2 slots; 100 coins use 1 slot; tiny items together may occupy 1 slot. Above capacity: -10 ft movement and disadvantage on Athletics checks and Finesse saves. Above twice capacity: cannot move until some weight is dropped. A saddled horse carries 10 additional slots plus rider, or 16 slots without rider. The Marshal adjudicates obvious awkward loads rather than permitting nonsense by slot accounting.

Dread

Dread is personal and ranges from 0 to 6. It rises when you confront overwhelming horrors, commit an act that fractures your identity, encounter a hostile manifestation, or pay an occult price. Merely being supernatural does not cause Dread to everyone. On witnessing a ghastly scene, the Marshal calls for a Resolve save, DC 11; on failure gain 1 Dread, or 2 if it is uniquely appalling. Successfully confronting something you already know usually grants no new Dread.

At 3 Dread, you cannot gain advantage from Help on Resolve saves. At 5 Dread, you suffer -1 to all checks, attacks, and saves. At 6 Dread, immediately roll d6 for a breaking reaction: 1-2 flee toward plausible safety; 3-4 freeze for one round; 5 lash out at the nearest threat for one action; 6 confess, scream, laugh, or reveal a secret. Then reset Dread to 3 and gain a Scar. The player chooses how that specific reaction looks and the Marshal ensures it cannot be used to arbitrarily force betrayal. A Scar is a lasting roleplaying change: tremor around church bells, fear of closed coaches, compulsion to count empty graves, or refusal to sleep near a mirror. Scars need not impose permanent mechanical penalties.

A safe rest removes 1 Dread; a week of ordinary, supportive life removes all. Earned moments of hope, kindness, triumph, or truth may remove 1 Dread at the Marshal's discretion, maximum once per session. Horror rules should heighten atmosphere, not override player consent or demand acting out real-world trauma.

Exposure: the party's public secret

Exposure is a shared 0-6 track measuring how close the local public is to undeniable supernatural proof. Raise it by 1 for credible eyewitnesses to an obvious supernatural gift, 2 for dramatic public transformations or recorded supernatural violence, and 3 for an event witnessed by a whole train, church, or town square. Discreet use in private adds zero. Once Exposure is raised, the consequences have weight:

• 2Rumors: newspaper whispers, curious neighbors, a deputy asking questions.
• 4Investigation: newspaper sketches, private detectives, church visitations, rival hunters.
• 6Crisis: a public demonstration, mob, official quarantine, hunters or occult factions arriving. Resolve a concrete event, then reset Exposure to 3 in this county; rumors persist.

Reduce Exposure by 1 after a session of convincing cleanup, mundane explanation, bribery, negotiated silence, or discrediting physical evidence. Reduce it by 2 only for a substantial operation that creates a new plausible narrative and risks repercussions. Do not make witnesses stupid: a convincing explanation requires facts. Track separate Exposure by county if the campaign travels widely. There is no universal supernatural police force that magically knows what happened.

An encounter's human response

When the party meets strangers whose reaction is uncertain, the character who speaks first makes a reaction check: roll 2d6 + Presence, then apply local faction standing and any visible threat, never more than +3/-3 from those together. 4 or less: hostile, immediately threatens; 5-7: wary or demands payment; 8-10: uncertain, asks questions; 11-13: open, willing to deal; 14 or more: unusually helpful, offers a lead or concession. A convincing act of kindness, brandished revolver, church badge, known monstrous trait, or apparent wealth can shift reaction by 1-2. Roll when needed, not every time the players say hello.

Loyalty and morale

A hired retainer has a Loyalty score 4-10. When abandoned, underpaid, asked to enter obvious supernatural peril, or offered a better arrangement, roll 2d6; if greater than Loyalty they refuse, flee, renegotiate, or betray as fiction demands. A monster's Morale works identically: roll 2d6 after its first casualty, after losing half its number, or when its leader falls. On a roll greater than Morale, it withdraws, begs, bargains, or flees. Not every hostile creature fights to its death. A named enemy may bargain rather than take a foolish last stand.

Watches, turns, and light

One turn is ten minutes in a mine, ruin, haunted house, or other dangerous site. In one turn the group can cautiously move through about 120 ft of complex interiors, search a room carefully, disarm a trap, make a map, bind wounds, or perform an ordinary Circle I working. Every second turn in a dangerous site, roll d6; on a 1, an encounter or environmental development occurs. Loud shooting, dynamite, an active curse, or a running pursuit adds an immediate roll. The roll represents an event, not automatically a fight. Mark time, oil, torch duration, and guards' shifts.

Outside, one watch lasts four hours. In ordinary country on foot travel 8 miles per watch; mounted 12; wagon 8; rail roughly 80-120 depending on tracks and stops. Two watches are a normal day's travel. Mountains, bogs, thick woods, and deep snow halve distance. A third watch of forced marching calls for a DC 11 Endurance save for each traveler and mount; failure gives 1 Fatigue. At night, roll an extra encounter check unless a class feature averts it. Weather may cut speed or change encounters. A mile is approximately the distance an alert person can cover in twenty to thirty minutes on decent ground.

Wilderness watch procedure

1. The players state destination, route, marching order, mounts, light, and pace.
2. Marshal notes weather, food, water, and distance. Roll d12 each daylight watch: on 1 an encounter appears. At night, an encounter appears on 1-2.
3. On an encounter, roll or choose from regional table, then roll reaction or morale as appropriate. Give signs before danger when plausible.
4. Spend food and water at day's end. Make exposure, fatigue, weather, and rest checks if relevant.
5. Advance rival faction clocks by one tick per day of unchecked activity.

Weather, d8: 1 burning sun; 2 dust storm (vision 30 ft, travel half); 3 dry cold; 4 bitter rain (light fails on d6 roll 1-2); 5 wind and lightning; 6 clear and bright; 7 low fog (vision 60 ft); 8 unseasonably still, tracks remain fresh. Extreme weather may require DC 11 Endurance saves or Fatigue when exposed for a full watch.

Frontier encounter, d12: 1 cattle drive with a missing hand; 2 militia patrol; 3 abandoned wagon and a warm campfire; 4 1d4 hostile thieves (or frightened refugees); 5 black dog (see bestiary); 6 broken telegraph line that still ticks; 7 preacher on foot with a sealed case; 8 hungry wolf pack (1d6 ordinary wolves); 9 stranded railroad worker with a dreadful secret; 10 ghost-light over a dry river; 11 outlaws trying to hide a wounded companion; 12 a procession of silent mourners whose destination is on tomorrow's map. Do not make every eerie encounter hostile.

Searching and traps

A player who asks sensible questions and manipulates the environment discovers ordinary clues without a roll. An Inquiry check is for difficult deductions under time pressure, not a tax on looking beneath a rug. Trap procedure: describe a warning (scraped stone, taut wire, chemical smell, blood in the wrong place), allow investigation and a plan, then check only if danger remains. Typical mechanical trap calls for a DC 11 Finesse save to lose 1 Strike less, deals 1-3 Strikes, and has a bypass mechanism, and an exploitable weakness. A supernatural trap should disclose a logic through clues: a name, pattern of nails, or violated promise. Locks: ordinary DC 9 Mechanisms with picks; quality DC 11; specialized vault DC 13; occult locks need the appropriate clue rather than a high roll alone.

Pursuits and horseback chases

Track Distance in bands: Caught / Near / Far / Lost. Begin Near unless fiction says otherwise. Each chase round each side chooses one approach: Sprint (Athletics or Riding DC 11), Cut Across (Wilderness or Inquiry DC 11), or Risky Shortcut (appropriate DC 13). If pursuer succeeds and quarry fails, close one band; if quarry succeeds and pursuer fails, open one band; if both succeed or both fail, unchanged. On a risky shortcut, success moves two bands, failure costs 1 Strike, loses cargo, or creates an obstruction, Marshal choice. At Caught, combat, grapple, tackle, or a final escape attempt; at Lost, pursuit ends unless trackers find a new lead. After six chase rounds, all participants make DC 11 Endurance saves or gain 1 Fatigue. Horses use Riding, wagons use Mechanisms or Riding, trains use Mechanisms and track control. Cover, roads, and shortcuts matter more than multiplying modifiers.

Magic in Out of County is a working: a rite made of names, breath, signs, blood, prayer, scripture, sympathetic tokens, or bargains. It is never free spectacle. Workers are Circuit Preachers (Creed, cast with Faith), Hexworkers (Hex, cast with Magick), and Spirit Mediums (Seance, cast with Magick). Any worker may learn a working tagged with their tradition. A grimoire, mentor, or recovered scripture may justify learning one at the next eligible level, or a general talent may grant an apprenticeship. The Occult Hunter's class wards are not workings and spend only their described materials.

Focus, circles, and casting

Circuit Preachers cast with Faith; Hexworkers and Spirit Mediums cast with Magick. That attribute is the working attribute. A worker has Focus = 2 + tier + half the working attribute (rounded down), with tier 1 at levels 1-3, tier 2 at 4-6, tier 3 at 7-9, and tier 4 at 10. Minimum Focus is 3. Restore all Focus after eight hours in genuine safety. A working of Circle I costs 1 Focus, Circle II 2, Circle III 3, consumed whether successful or not. A safe ritual takes ten minutes and a free hand, voice, and appropriate $1 reagent kit use (purchased as ten uses for $10); some effects specify longer duration or additional materials. Each working specifies a tradition in brackets. No working is a free answer to all mysteries.

Roll 2d6 + working attribute + tier against DC 11 (Circle I), 13 (Circle II), or 15 (Circle III). On success, the working takes effect. On failure, its Focus and reagent are spent and the worker gains 1 Dread. If the dice show double ones, or the check total fails by 3 or more, roll Occult Backlash, regardless of whether your Dread was already at 6. Double sixes always succeeds on a working, even if the total would fail. A working may only be attempted once per target or location per scene unless fiction changes meaningfully.

Hasty working: if the text does not expressly require more time, the worker can perform it as one combat action at DC +3, gaining 1 Dread automatically (even on success). It still costs Focus and a reagent. Circle III cannot be hasty. Overdraw: if you lack Focus, you may pay 1 Strike per missing Focus, gain 1 Dread, and roll Backlash automatically before making the check. A caster who dies paying Strikes does not complete the working. Magic cannot restore the Strikes paid for that same casting within the same scene.

Magic saves: a resisting creature makes the save listed in the working against DC 11 for Circle I, DC 13 for Circle II, DC 15 for Circle III. This is distinct from the caster's own success roll. Unless explicitly specified, monsters cannot have their memories rewritten, be ordered to die, or be instantly destroyed by a Circle I or II working.

Circle I workings

1. Salt Threshold [Creed, Hex, Seance]. Range: touch. Effect: one ordinary door or a 10-ft diameter salt circle becomes warded for one watch. Spirits, demons, malicious fae, and undead must make Resolve DC 11 to cross; each creature rolls once per ward. A deliberate mortal hand breaking the salt ends the ward.
2. Lantern of Honesty [Hex, Seance]. Range: 30 ft. Duration: ten minutes. Hidden glyphs, glamours, recently moved objects, and manifest spirits throw a faint second shadow. It reveals that something is wrong, not all of its nature. A resisting fae or illusionist can make Resolve DC 11 to preserve a disguise.
3. Three Questions for the Dead [Seance]. Range: corpse touched. Effect: ask a dead person's lingering impression up to three brief questions about things it knew alive. It cannot know events after death. A destroyed mind, reluctant soul, or sealed corpse gives fragmentary impressions or silence; this is still a successful working, not license to lie to players.
4. Mercy's Stitch [Creed, Hex]. Range: touch. Effect: restore 1 Strike (2 Strikes at tier 3 or higher) and stabilize the dying. A target can benefit from this working once per day regardless of caster. Does not work on Spirits, whose anchor rules still apply.
5. Witness Mark [Hex]. Range: personal token. Duration: one day. Mark a known individual within one mile. For the duration, you know their approximate compass direction while they remain within one mile, but not precise range or obstacles. Resolve DC 11 resists. A personal token is consumed.
6. Quiet Earth [Creed, Seance]. Range: one grave or 10-ft radius. Duration: one night. Ordinary restless dead cannot arise in the warded ground. Intelligent undead save Resolve DC 11 to ignore it; the working does not destroy them.
7. Borrowed Luck [Hex]. Range: touch. Duration: one hour. One creature gets +1 on checks and attacks (not saves); only one instance can affect it. The next day the recipient suffers -1 on its first check, whether or not the boon helped.
8. Ashen Oath [Creed]. Range: 30 ft. Duration: one watch. Up to four willing allies gain +1 on their next Resolve save against fear during that watch; the blessing then ends for each recipient.
9. Whispering Wire [Seance, Hex]. Range: a telegraph or telephone wire. Effect: hear one conversation or message carried along that line within the next ten minutes. The worker must be physically touching an exposed wire and cannot choose a specific remote destination with certainty. A trained operator might detect interference.
10. Candle of the Lost [Creed, Seance]. Range: a personal belonging. Duration: ten minutes. A flame leans toward a living missing person within 500 yards, if their belongings were truly theirs. It gives direction, not route or certainty of life beyond range.

Circle II workings

1. The Silver Road [Creed, Hex]. Effect: six ordinary cartridges, arrows, or one melee weapon count as silvered or blessed, worker's choice, for one watch. Deals no extra Strike against foes without that vulnerability.
2. Binding Nail [Hex, Seance]. Range: 30 ft. Duration: one scene. A manifested spirit or demon saves Resolve DC 13 or becomes unable to move beyond 30 ft of an iron nail the caster drives into earth or timber. It may attack, bargain, and attempt one new save if the nail is disturbed.
3. Blood Mirror [Hex]. Range: sympathetic token. Duration: one minute. See and hear the immediate surroundings of a known creature within ten miles. Resolve DC 13 resists. The token is consumed; the reflection may contain a witness who sees you looking back.
4. Drive Out the Guest [Creed, Seance]. Range: touch. Effect: force a possessing creature to make Resolve DC 13. On failure it is cast out, manifests within 10 ft for one round, and cannot repossess the same host for one day. On success it remains but the host can immediately make another Resolve save against its influence.
5. Folded Shadow [Hex, Seance]. Range: touch. Duration: ten minutes. One willing creature becomes nearly invisible while still. While moving, it has advantage on Stealth checks but is not truly invisible; bright lamps and dogs can still expose it. Attacking ends the effect.
6. Grave's Mercy [Creed, Seance]. Range: touch. Effect: restore 2 Strikes and remove 2 Dread, or heal a Spirit when cast at its anchor. Each creature can benefit only once per week. Does not remove scars, curses, or bloodline burdens.
7. Speak the True Road [Seance, Creed]. Range: one named destination within 20 miles. Duration: one day. Find a safe, plausible path toward that place, revealing the nearest known bridge, trail, or passage. It cannot create roads or bypass a deliberate supernatural enclosure without offering clues.
8. The Black Pin [Hex]. Range: 30 ft. Duration: one scene. One visible creature saves Resolve DC 13 or has -1 to all attacks and cannot benefit from magical healing for the scene. The pin breaks if its maker is killed or willingly ends the curse.

Circle III workings

1. Seal the Crossing [Creed, Seance]. Time: one hour, cannot be hasty. Cost: $100 of silver, salt, and inscription. Effect: seal a named portal, haunted breach, or infernal threshold for one year. A specific counter-rite or destruction of the marked physical seal can reopen it. This prevents passage, not the existence of the other world.
2. Call the Witness [Seance]. Time: one hour. Effect: summon a specific dead witness who has a genuine connection to a crime or place, ask up to five brief questions, and let it be seen by all for ten minutes. Its memories may be partial and it may accuse the wrong person; it cannot deliberately fabricate what it truly remembers.
3. Black Noon [Hex]. Duration: one hour. Effect: in a 100-ft radius around a stationary marked object, noon appears as deep twilight. Ordinary human sight drops to 60 ft; no true direct sunlight touches the area. The working visibly unnerves bystanders and adds 2 Exposure if witnessed publicly.
4. Unmake the Debt [Hex, Creed]. Time: one hour. Cost: a freely offered true confession from the subject. Effect: transfer one specific ongoing magical curse or oath penalty from a willing subject into an object. The object becomes an occult item, remains dangerous, and must be guarded or destroyed through a discovered method. It cannot undo a lifetime's deeds or revive the dead.
5. The Last Bell [Creed, Seance]. Time: one hour, cannot be hasty. Cost: $200, 3 Dread to caster, plus a binding promise or sacrifice determined in advance by the Marshal. Effect: make one attempt to recall a person dead within 24 hours. A named gatekeeper of the beyond may demand a quest or refuse if the soul is destroyed. The soul must freely return. The restored character has 1 Strike, 2 lingering wounds, and a permanent Scar; each soul can be called back only once. A failed or refused recall still spends resources but never forces a soul back.

Occult Backlash, d12

Mystery rule: successful magic must do what it says. It can reveal a clue, but the Marshal may not arbitrarily make every useful result useless. Similarly, a ritual does not automatically settle disputes about truth, guilt, motives, or the morality of a decision.

The Black Meridian is a fictional borderland of river towns, badlands, pine mountains, rail junctions, cattle ranges, new cities, and abandoned forts. The nation printed maps across it, but ownership and belief have not caught up with the ink. Telegraph offices carry secrets more quickly than their senders can ride. Rail corporations employ armed men and surveyors. Bankers finance mines at the edges of burial grounds. Ordinary families, workers, migrants, merchants, and farmers do their best to survive; most have never seen proof of the supernatural, and most have no wish to.

The Quiet Compact: a century ago, a few human occult hunters and certain supernatural powers agreed that open revelation would bring war and catastrophe. The Compact is not a universal law or magical shield. It is a brittle, informal arrangement that different people interpret differently. Hunters preserve secrecy; some supernatural beings see it as a protection, others as a cage. Public hauntings, missing persons, and occult crime are the campaign's tinder.

The year is a dial, not a cage. In 1860-1875 emphasize black powder, disrupted supply, military occupation, sparse telegraph lines, and frontier forts. In 1876-1895 emphasize repeating arms, cattle drives, rail expansion, robber barons, booming towns, and professional bounty work. In 1896-1910 bring in a few automobiles, improved photography, electric streets in large cities, greater bureaucratic reach, rail monopoly, telephone exchanges, and a world that fears being modern more than being haunted. In any era, firearms available in the equipment list are permitted if appropriate to the table's chosen technology; when playing an early year, replace repeaters with slower-loading equivalents using the single-shot rifle rules. History provides texture and conflict, not an excuse to make real-world peoples into monsters.

Six places that demand a story

Mercy Crossing: rail junction and market town (1,400 people). Its freight shed is haunted by something that calls departing passengers by names used in their childhood. Sheriff Ada Vale tries to stop a panic without telling lies she cannot defend.

Cinder Creek: coal town (700 people). A miners' cooperative found an underground chapel lined in glass, and the company wants the shaft reopened by Monday. Foreman Silas Rook has three weeks to pay wages or lose every worker.

Saint Bracken: affluent river city (24,000 people). Newspapers, telephones, funeral parlors, private clubs, docks, organized crime, and a magnificent opera house hiding a door to nowhere. Madam Hester Bell owns half the land claimed by the dead.

Dagger's Rest: arid stage stop (230 people). Three families feud over a well whose water offers a single true memory to whoever drinks it, then forgets something else. Doctor Bellamy Crowe records the trade in a locked ledger.

Whitebarrow: high mountain settlement (170 people), accessible by timber tram and a treacherous switchback road. Every winter its church bell rings after the rope is cut. Reverend Lenora Pike wants the bell melted before the snow returns.

Red Glass Station: a disused survey depot and old prison beside an alkaline lake. No one lives there. Its telegraph still receives the last words of people who have not died yet. A free Spirit PC may have an anchor buried in its cellar.

Factions and six-tick clocks

Faction clocks begin at 0 and advance when their agents have time, resources, and no interference. A tick is usually earned after one meaningful day, a public scandal, an expedition missed, or a successful opposing faction operation. At 6, the announced consequence becomes real. Clear or replace the clock, not the consequences.

Who is right? None of these factions is required to be entirely good, nor completely evil. Give each an innocent dependent, internal disagreement, and credible reason for its worst decision. Supernatural bloodlines do not form monolithic political blocs. A werewolf banker, human witch, decent demon, and cruel church official all fit the world.

Relics and terrible payments

Relics are unusual treasure, not a catalogue of predictable magic bonuses. A relic's power is specific, its method of discovery tangible, and its price knowable through clues. Unless stated, a relic works once per day and requires one action.

Appraising a relic takes an Insight check (+1 if trained in Occult or Inquiry), DC 11 for a rough identification or 13 for a precise operational detail. Failure uncovers one real clue but misses the price. Relics can be melted, buried, bargained for, purchased, stolen, or exorcised; treasure is never automatically safe.

How to read a creature

A creature has Defense, Strikes, Attack bonus and the Strikes its attack deals, Save bonus, Morale (on 2d6), movement, traits, and weaknesses. Some creatures have DR, rolled like a character's armor. It attacks once per action unless stated; abilities that say action replace its normal attack. A monster without a listed special save defaults to DC 11 (lesser) or DC 13 (major), as appropriate. It adds its Save bonus to 2d6 against character powers. A character hitting a vulnerable monster with silver, iron, or blessing deals +1 Strike, never more than one weakness Strike per attack. At 0 Strikes an ordinary monster falls dead or inert; intelligent named enemies may roll on the PC zero-Strikes table if they are important. Monsters suffer conditions and cover normally. Not all are malicious or interested in fighting.

Mortal adversaries

Desperate Thief Defense 9; Strikes 1; Attack +1, knife or revolver, 1 Strike; Save +0; Morale 6; Speed 30. Wants money or safe passage, flees after losing an ally. Carries $1d6, a loaded revolver with 1d6 cartridges, and a stolen token.

Hired Gun Defense 9; Strikes 2; Attack +2, revolver or carbine, 1 Strike; Save +1; Morale 8; Speed 30. Will take cover (+1 Defense) if available. Carries $2d6 and 2d6 rounds.

Deputy Marshal Defense 10; Strikes 3; Attack +3, revolver 1 Strike or shotgun 2 Strikes (spread); Save +2; Morale 9; Speed 30; DR 6 (duster). Once per scene shouts Take Them Alive: two allies within 30 ft get +1 on their next attack this round. Carries warrant, cuffs, $2d10.

Ordinary Wolf Defense 9; Strikes 1; Attack +2, bite 1 Strike; Save +0; Morale 7; Speed 40. Its bite deals +1 Strike against a prone target. Hunts in packs; often avoids armed humans.

Haunts, predators, and things under the tracks

1. Witch-Light Defense 10; Strikes 1; Attack +2, spectral burn 1 Strike; Save +1; Morale 9; Fly 30. A floating lamp-glow that leads travelers into water, mines, or graveyards. Action, Lure: one creature within 30 ft must make a DC 11 Resolve save or spend its next movement approaching the light. Weakness: cold iron +1 Strike; darkness extinguishes it for a round if a Salt Threshold surrounds it. Want: unburied keepsake, a proper name.

2. Black Road Dog Defense 10; Strikes 2; Attack +3, bite 1 Strike; Save +2; Morale 9; Speed 50. Appears before accidents. Its eyes reflect tomorrow's sky. Once per scene, its howl makes listeners within 30 ft make a DC 11 Resolve save or gain 1 Dread. Weakness: blessed +1 Strike. Want: avert an approaching death, or recover its master's coat.

3. Drowned Man Defense 9; Strikes 3; Attack +2, grasp 1 Strike; Save +1; Morale 12; Speed 20, swim 30. On a hit, can pull a target 5 ft toward deep water. If it starts a turn grappling a victim underwater, the victim makes a DC 11 Endurance save or loses its next action coughing. Weakness: salt +1 Strike if applied to a melee weapon as one use, or blessed. Want: return the name sewn inside his boots.

4. Gallows Revenant Defense 9; Strikes 3; Attack +3, rope 1 Strike; Save +2; Morale 10; Speed 30. A hanged dead person burdened with an unfulfilled testimony. Action, Hanging Word: a creature within 20 ft makes a DC 11 Resolve save or is restrained for one round by phantom cord. The cord can be severed by an attack vs Defense 10. Weakness: blessed +1 Strike. Want: hear the true verdict.

5. Hollow-Faced Deputy Defense 10; Strikes 3; Attack +3, revolver 1 Strike; Save +2; Morale 9; Speed 30. Stolen badge, stolen memories. Once per scene its apparent face becomes someone the target trusts; a victim seeing this must make a DC 11 Resolve save or hesitate, losing 10 ft of movement next turn. Weakness: silver +1 Strike. Want: a proper warrant written in living ink.

6. Rail Widow Defense 10; Strikes 4; Attack +4, cold embrace 1 Strike; Save +3; Morale 10; Speed 30. Her dress trails soot and passenger tickets. Action, Last Departure: one person within 30 ft who hears the whistle must make a DC 13 Resolve save or be drawn 20 ft toward her; a target already at her reach instead loses 1 Strike. Weakness: cold iron +1 Strike; presenting her original ticket suspends attacks for one round. Want: board the train she missed.

7. Coal-Eater Defense 9; Strikes 4; Attack +4, iron jaws 2 Strikes; Save +2; Morale 8; Speed 25; DR 5-6 (hide). Blind, follows smoke and heat. Fire restores 1 Strike to it rather than hurting it, up to its maximum. Weakness: running water costs it 1 Strike per round and prevents healing. Want: heat, furnace doors, a live boiler.

8. Fae Tollkeeper Defense 10; Strikes 3; Attack +3, thorn blade 1 Strike (bleed); Save +3; Morale 7; Speed 30. It will accept a secret, memory, song, or fair payment instead of violence. Once per scene it speaks a bargain; acceptance is voluntary. Weakness: cold iron +1 Strike and breaks glamour; its own precisely spoken oath binds it. Want: fair payment, though its idea of fair is old.

9. Hunger Vampire Defense 10; Strikes 5; Attack +4, bite or revolver 1 Strike; Save +3; Morale 8; Speed 35. Its bite against a grappled, willing, or helpless victim restores 1 Strike to it, once per scene. Darkvision 60 ft. Weakness: sunlight costs it 1 Strike per exploration turn and gives disadvantage while exposed; blessed +1 Strike; a stake pins it if helpless. Want: concealed food supply, freedom from a sire.

10. Moon-Mad Werewolf Defense 10; Strikes 5; Attack +4, bite 2 Strikes; Save +3; Morale 9; Speed 40. Scent tracking with advantage. If wounded, moves toward the nearest perceived threat. Weakness: silver +1 Strike. Want: retreat to woods, recover a stolen pup, or sate a cursed appetite.

11. Ash-Crowned Demon Defense 10; Strikes 7; Attack +5, charred blade 2 Strikes or ember 1 Strike at 30 ft; Save +4; Morale 10; Speed 30. Once per scene, Offer: one character hearing a promise must make a DC 13 Resolve save (or Faith) or gain 1 Dread. It cannot compel acceptance. Weakness: blessed +1 Strike; blocked by prepared salt wards. Want: signatures, authority, public invitations.

12. Bone Choir Defense 9; Strikes 4; Attack +3, rattling hands 1 Strike; Save +2; Morale 12; Speed 20. A mound of six skeletons acting as one. Action, Chorus: targets within 15 ft make a DC 11 Resolve save or gain 1 Dread and drop one held, non-worn object. Weakness: blunt weapons deal +1 Strike. Want: a voice that can finish its hymn.

13. Iron-Hide Werebear Defense 10; Strikes 7; Attack +5, claws 2 Strikes (stagger); Save +4; Morale 9; Speed 30; DR 3-6 against mundane, nonsilver physical hits. Weakness: silver deals +1 Strike and ignores its DR. Want: territory protected, cubs returned, food in winter.

14. Mirror Passenger Defense 10; Strikes 3; Attack +3, shard 1 Strike (bleed); Save +3; Morale 8; Speed 30. Can travel between two mirrors it has touched within 30 ft as its movement. When a mirror breaks, it loses 1 Strike. Weakness: salt +1 Strike when thrown directly at it in melee; it cannot enter a mirror draped in black cloth. Want: a living person's face for an hour.

15. Funeral Locomotive Defense 10; Strikes 12; Attack +6, ram 4 Strikes or cinder spray 2 Strikes in a 15-ft cone (DC 13 Finesse save for 1 less); Save +5; Morale 12; Speed 70 on tracks only; DR 4-6. A possessed engine or collective haunting, not a creature that fights in empty fields. It cannot leave rails. Track switching and demolishing a bridge can redirect it; a successfully applied Seal the Crossing can halt it at a marked gate. Weakness: destroy its nameplate (Defense 10, 3 Strikes, accessible only when stopped or aboard) to force the spirit out and end the possession; silver weapons do not help. Want: complete its impossible route. For level 1 parties this is a hazard and puzzle, never a mandatory stand-up combat.

16. Grave-Sewn Colossus Defense 10; Strikes 8; Attack +5, fist 2 Strikes (stagger); Save +4; Morale 10; Speed 25. Built from several bodies. Grabbing the harness takes a DC 11 Athletics check from an adjacent creature; then it may sever one binding with an action and a knife. After three bindings are cut, it collapses. Weakness: fire +1 Strike; every severed binding reduces its Defense by 1. Want: find its original heart.

Monster numbers and scaling

To make a new creature quickly, choose minor (Defense 9, Strikes 1-2, Attack +1-2, deals 1 Strike), dangerous (Defense 10-11, Strikes 3-5, Attack +3-4, deals 1-2 Strikes), or terrible (Defense 11-13, Strikes 6-12, Attack +5-6, deals 2-4 Strikes). A Defense point matters more on 2d6 than it looks: against an attacker at +3, Defense 9 is hit about 72% of the time, Defense 11 about 42%, and Defense 13 about 17%. Saves are generally +1, +3, or +5, with Morale 6-12. Tough hides and plating get a DR range like armor. Give it a desire, one clue the party can discover before contact, one decisive environmental vulnerability, and one way to negotiate. Do not increase every monster's Strikes to match the party's level. Higher-level characters should be able to outwit or overwhelm formerly terrifying threats.

The six virtues of a hard but fair game

1. Telegraph the stakes. A smoking mine and dead mule warn about fumes; a silver knife in a vampire's room warns about weakness. Do not disguise unavoidable death as an ordinary doorknob.
2. Roll openly for risk. Announce DC and likely consequence when the characters could judge it, especially for lethal choices. Let planning, caution, and bribery beat skill checks.
3. Make the world react. A sheriff has a jurisdiction, a ranch has wages to pay, a vampire may sincerely love their family, and a monster may run away.
4. Pay off a clue. A discovered birth certificate, oath, anchor, or rail timetable should matter to an actual decision.
5. Keep horror playable. Agree on topics to omit or fade to black. Treat possession and lost control as brief, signaled risks, not excuses to take someone's character for an entire session.
6. Do not punish creativity with endless new obstacles. A clever plan that solves the apparent central problem should be allowed to work. Consequences create future stories, not retroactive failure.

Preparing a frontier sandbox

Prepare one settlement, three nearby dangers, three active NPCs, two rival factions, and six rumors. For each dangerous site, key five to eight locations, place at least two alternate entrances, and identify at least one thing that can be obtained without fighting. Mark who cares about every valuable object. Put two clocks on the table. Start the session with a concrete provocation: missing train, stolen corpse, condemned ranch, funeral without a body, or telegraph message from the future. Ask each player what their character believes and what they will risk to find out.

Rumors, d10: 1 the missing conductor was seen at the cemetery; 2 every horse returned from the northern mine blind; 3 a bank clerk sells maps of grave plots; 4 the river speaks names before floods; 5 a preacher's sermon appears in tomorrow's newspaper; 6 the railroad pays for old coffin nails; 7 a bear walks upright only when nobody watches; 8 the richest family's portraits age in reverse; 9 three victims have the same wedding ring; 10 the last saloon train departed with twice as many passengers as tickets.

NPCs in one sentence and three numbers

For an improvised human NPC, record desire, fear, secret, plus Defense 9, Strikes 1, Attack +1. Raise one number if exceptional: Defense or Attack by 1, or Strikes by 1. A civilian rarely chooses a suicidal fight. A trained adversary uses Hired Gun or Deputy Marshal statistics. A named supernatural character may begin from an applicable bestiary entry, swapping powers for player-bloodline gifts when useful. Let important NPCs have independent goals that may conflict with the party's assumptions.

Hazard and treasure generators

Environmental hazard, d8: 1 unstable trestle (Finesse DC 11, or fall for 2 Strikes); 2 cave-in (Endurance DC 11, or trapped and 1 Strike); 3 poisoned water (Endurance DC 11, or 1 Fatigue); 4 black ice (Finesse DC 11, or prone near danger); 5 smoky passage (Endurance DC 11, or 1 Strike and coughing); 6 electrified telegraph coil (Finesse DC 11, or 1 Strike); 7 explosive gas (a flame sets off 2 Strikes to everything within 10 ft, Finesse DC 11 for 1 less); 8 hypnotic bell (Resolve DC 11, or 1 Dread). Always place at least one perceptible warning.

Recovered cache, d12: 1 $1d10 and a family photograph; 2 2d10 silver cartridges; 3 a ledger worth $50 to someone named; 4 a tin of 1d6 gold coins, worth $10 each; 5 an intact cold-iron blade; 6 a witness's sworn affidavit; 7 a pawn ticket for a $75 item; 8 one random relic from the table; 9 a small strongbox with $2d100; 10 a parcel of old bonds worth $300 if lawfully claimed; 11 a coffin with a false bottom and $150; 12 a deed to property occupied by somebody who will not willingly leave. Every interesting cache has a claimant or story.

Legal consequences: a wanted character must face actual people with imperfect evidence, procedural delays, and political pressure. Lawmen can be corrupt, decent, exhausted, or in over their heads. Never treat the badge as a supernatural mind-reading power. Surrender can lead to transport, trial, debt, bribery, escape, or a new patron, not automatically character retirement. Violence in a crowded town should have witnesses and repercussions, not gratuitously amplified punishments that remove player agency.

For: four to five 1st-level characters; two sessions of roughly three hours or one extended session. Location: Mercy Crossing and the Red Glass Cut, a twelve-mile abandoned rail spur. Premise: a train that was destroyed fourteen years earlier has begun arriving again, always at 11:47 p.m. Its conductor is collecting people whose names appear in an old ledger. The real railroad wants the incident hidden; the dead want an old promise fulfilled.

The truth the Marshal knows

In 1881, Conductor Elias Venn halted a passenger train because a bridge ahead was unsafe. Railway directors ordered the engineer forward to protect an expensive schedule. The train fell into the cut. An investigator changed the record to blame Venn. Marta Quill, a telegraph operator, witnessed the order, saved the true dispatch, and hid it in a signal box. She died the next winter. At 11:47 each night, the Rail Widow, an apparition created from the passengers' unfinished journey, returns and demands its named conductor. It is not trying to destroy Mercy Crossing: it wants the false record corrected and its passengers remembered. But the Westbound Rail Syndicate is preparing to blow up the old cut to bury evidence, which will release the larger haunting into town.

Hooks, each with a reason to act

• Sheriff Ada Vale pays the party $300 to investigate three missing townsfolk before another person vanishes; she grants temporary permission to carry weapons in the rail yard.
• The Spirit Medium hears the name of a loved one on a dead telegraph wire. The dead speaker asks for the original dispatch, not revenge.
• An Outlaw has a former partner on the missing-person list; the railroad offers $150 to return the stolen ledger unopened.
• An Occult Hunter finds three cold-iron coffin nails planted along the tracks and recognizes an old barrier deliberately broken.
• A Vampire or Fae is mistaken for the town's hidden culprit and must find evidence to escape a growing public panic.

The countdown

Begin the Syndicate's Demolition clock at 2 of 6. Advance it by one each day, or immediately if the party publicly accuses its director without proof. At 4, armed guards close the cut. At 6, explosives are detonated at midnight; the Rail Widow manifests in the town instead of the cut and 1d6 civilians disappear. This is a changed problem, not automatic failure. Parties can delay the clock by stealing the dynamite, securing a court injunction, bribing foreman Rook, or exposing the dispatch.

Rumors at Mercy Crossing

Roll or offer three: (1) the whistle is heard precisely 13 minutes before the church clock strikes midnight; (2) the station register says Venn was drunk, but the handwriting changes halfway through; (3) Marta Quill's telegraph key taps six dots whenever the train approaches; (4) a Syndicate guard has a ticket dated fourteen years in the past; (5) the last missing person bought a bouquet before boarding; (6) a child saw a woman in a white dress step off the train, carrying the conductor's watch.

Keyed locations

A. The station office. Public. The register falsely blames Venn for the wreck. Inquiry DC 9 reveals two inks and different pressure; the page was rewritten. A successful DC 11 Society or Command check persuades the stationmaster to identify the former investigator: Director Gideon Marsh. On failure he still admits the investigator's initials, but sends notice to Syndicate guards. Treasure: $40 in a locked cash drawer (Mechanisms DC 9); taking it creates a civilian victim and no treasure XP. Alternative: copying or legally requisitioning the register is enough evidence.

B. Marta's shuttered telegraph house. A sagging door, one broken window, dust with three sets of recent boots. The telegraph key responds to a living hand with ...- (V). Any Spirit or Medium hears a voice: "I did not send him forward." The true dispatch was hidden in the third signal box north, not inside this house. A Witch-Light appears at dusk and tries to lure intruders to a flooded cellar, but will bargain for Marta's silver thimble rather than fight. Treasure: Marta's unsent apology letter and a pouch of 12 silvered rounds behind the hearth. Trap: the cellar's rotten stair drops anyone who runs on it 10 ft for 1 Strike; a DC 11 Finesse save avoids it; obvious rotten boards are visible by lamplight.

C. The abandoned signal boxes. Three rusting cabinets spaced along a dry track. The first has a sleeping Hired Gun; the second has a dead snake and the initials MQ; the third is locked (Mechanisms DC 11, or iron bar and ten noisy minutes). Inside is the true dispatch, stamped with Gideon Marsh's authorization to proceed despite a bridge warning, and a sealed tin holding Marta's last signed testimony. Hazard: an electrical coil is still live when the nightly phantom train approaches (Finesse DC 11, or lose 1 Strike); a buzzing wire telegraphs the danger. Treasure: an old tin of bonds worth $200 to the rightful estate or negotiable as evidence, and the dispatch worth a $400 investigative reward. No fight is necessary.

D. Syndicate demolition camp. Two tents, a wagon, eight dynamite sticks, and a lockbox. Two Hired Guns work for Marsh. They are paid $5 each and will not die for him. Reaction rolls matter. A spare 1881 route map reveals a service path behind the cut. The lockbox has $90 payroll and letters implicating the director; stealing the wages creates a hostile claimant. The guards can be bought, threatened with exposure, lured away, ambushed, or persuaded the demolition is cursed. Two successful DC 11 relevant checks, or one convincing document, stop the demolition clock for one day; a clear legal order or destruction of the charges stops it permanently.

E. The Red Glass Cut. Rails end above a black ravine. Old bridge supports can be climbed (Athletics DC 11); failure means hanging by a hand, not an unavoidable fall, if a rope is secured. Without a rope, a fall costs 2 Strikes. The Rail Widow (bestiary) appears at 11:47, asking: "Where is the record of the stopped train?" If the party presents the dispatch, testimony, and names Elias Venn and Marta Quill aloud, she ceases attacking and opens the phantom carriage for one minute. Someone inside reads the names of the dead. She accepts the corrected story and leaves. If attacked, she fights defensively and retreats once she is down to half her Strikes, only to return the next night unless the false record is corrected. Alternate solution: a Circle II spirit binding or Hunter's Ward can protect the party long enough to escape; a Circle III seal (unlikely for beginners) can stop the return without uncovering the truth.

F. Ghost carriage. Accessible only while the Rail Widow opens it or by boarding the train at 11:47 after a successful DC 11 Resolve save. The carriage holds passenger shades, lost parcels, and an iron-bound conductor's cashbox: $600 in old lawful company bonds. Taking everything without hearing the passengers provokes a Bone Choir in the aisle. Sitting quietly for one turn and recording the names lays the choir to rest. Elias Venn's watch inside the box is worth $60, or can become a Spirit PC's anchor. The train vanishes after one turn. Anything carried out is real.

Three endings, no prescribed winner

Public truth: the dispatch is published, the rail company is forced into a hearing, and the haunting ends. Sheriff Vale pays $300. The Syndicate's attitude shifts -2 and the Ash Covenant gains respect for a quiet resolution if Exposure remained under 4.

Private bargain: the party gives the dispatch to the Rail Widow and forces the company to commemorate the dead privately. Haunting ends for now, Syndicate pays up to $500, and the original lie remains partly concealed. The party inherits a secret and a future obligation.

Blood and dynamite: the cut is blasted or the Rail Widow violently driven away. The train moves elsewhere, the damaged witness evidence becomes precious, and the Hollow Choir's clock advances by 2. This is a living campaign consequence, not a punishment for playing boldly.

Adventure rewards: distribute XP using the normal rules. Recovering the bonds and valid reward can yield around 100-170 XP per PC if the named goods are genuinely secured, plus 50 XP for establishing the true cause and 100 XP for resolving the haunting. Ordinary player looting of innocent townsfolk is excluded. A party that negotiates, publishes records, or rescues passengers without firing a shot is fully rewarded.

Before play: agree whether everyone starts supernatural, everyone starts human, or it is a mixed posse. State how supernatural secrecy works, what transformations are visible, and whether player-versus-player conflict is allowed (the default is no, unless every affected player opts in). Choose the date on the 1860-1910 dial and draw a circle around the first town. Ask the players for one mutual obligation and one rumor none of them completely believes.

At the table: set a six-tick faction clock in view, describe Mercy Crossing at dusk, and ask what the players do. Use the d6 wandering-event checks inside dangerous sites, d12 on the trail, 2d6 for uncertain reactions, and always show signs of lethal dangers. Have the sheriff offer the case, then follow player choices. They might choose to interrogate, rob, preach, prowl as beasts, bargain with the dead, or tear up the rails. Every one of those is a valid game plan.

Example of play

Marshal: "The station safe is open. The telegraph key is moving, though the wires were cut years ago. A voice whispers your mother's name from inside the receiver." The Medium's player touches the key and asks who is sending.

Player: "I listen first. I am not casting anything yet."

Marshal: "You hear a grief-stricken presence. That's your Hear the Unburied feature, so no check. It can tell you it watched a conductor refuse a dangerous order, but cannot recall the sender's name."

Player: "Then I'll use Three Questions for the Dead on Marta's remains, if we find them."

Marshal: "Good. That will take a reagent, one Focus, ten minutes, and a DC 11 working check with her Magick. You can also search the office for her testimony without spending anything."

The rule makes magic powerful without replacing investigation. The clues remain true whichever path the players choose.

One-page character record

The builder fills in this record for you and keeps it playable.Open the builder

Name: ___ Alias: __ Player: ___

Bloodline: __ Class: __ Level: __ XP: ______

Background: __ Contact: ___ Enemy: ____

Strikes: _ / _ Defense: _ (6 + Finesse + armor + helmet) Armor DR: _ Shield: _ Helmet: _ Move: _ ft Martial +1? _

Saves (2d6 vs 11): Endurance _; Finesse _; Resolve _; Faith _ (demons, curses, possession, the dead); Magick _ (workings, hexes); favored save +1: ___.

Luck rerolls this session: ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ Carry: _ / 10 + Endurance Rest heals: _ Hirelings: _ (1 + Presence) Reads (Insight +1)? _

Dread: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Fatigue: 0 1 2 3 4 Exposure (party): 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Trained fields: _________

Weapons / Strikes / features / ammunition: ________

Worn armor / carried slots: __________

Bloodline gift and burden: _________

Class features / talents: _________

Focus: _ / _ Known workings: ________

Lingering wounds / scars: __________

Gear, cash, strange items: __________

Oath, secret, or unfinished business: ______

Example ready-to-play character

Sable Mercer, Human Lawman 1, former rail laborer. Her 10 points buy Might +1, Finesse +3, Endurance +2, Insight +1, Resolve +1, Presence +1, and Luck +1; Human +1 goes to Finesse, making it +4. Strikes 5. Wearing the duster: Defense 10 (6 + Finesse 4 + duster 0), DR 6. Move 30 ft; carries 12 slots. Revolver attack 2d6+5 (Finesse 4, Martial 1) for 1 Strike, with fanning. Baton attack 2d6+2 (Might 1, Martial 1) for 1 Strike with stagger. Saves: Endurance +3 (Endurance 2, favored 1); Finesse +4; Resolve +1; Faith +0; Magick +0. One Luck reroll each session, and Luck rolls at +1. She reads (Insight +1), heals 1 Strike a night, and can keep 2 hirelings. Fields from class: Command, Inquiry; background: Mechanisms, Athletics; Human bonus: Medicine. Wears a deputy's badge and owes her father a favor he does not remember asking for. Her first encounter with a vampire is not a guaranteed victory, but she can investigate, arrest a human accomplice, and survive a quick-draw if she is smart.

Marshal's rapid reference

Optional campaign switches

The Merciless Frontier: at 0 Strikes a 1-2 on the death die means immediate death, 3-4 Dying, 5 Broken, 6 Still Standing. Keep the base die for new groups.

Human First: initially permit only Human characters. At a campaign milestone, a consenting character can enter a supernatural bloodline through an actual story event, replacing Human bonuses and enduring the new burden. The class restriction on Occult Hunters remains: they lose Hunter-specific abilities if they become supernatural, but retain their Strikes, training, talents, and ordinary equipment until they choose another class or seek a cure. Never impose involuntary transformation without advance table agreement.

No Resurrection: remove The Last Bell and Sawbones' Miracle of the Knife. Replace The Last Bell with a rite that preserves a soul's final testimony; replace the Sawbones 9th-level feature with 2 Strikes of emergency healing, once per week. This makes death final and common in a particularly uncompromising campaign.

Winter of 1905: start during deep winter instead of 1895. Half travel speeds in heavy snowfall, winter rations cost double, and rail schedules matter more. The underlying rules do not change.