The Gamecrafters Guild Presents

Saga
A Universal Role-Playing System
By Brian Engard





















Version Beta 2

What is Saga?
Saga is a role-playing system. Its a set of rules, devoid of setting, that you can
use to create and run your own games. Saga is designed to be a universal system. That
is, there is no implied setting or even implied genre within Saga, though there are ways
for you to customize it to your needs, tying the mechanics to the setting as you see fit.

Version Beta?
While this book represents a reasonably final product, Saga is still, to some
extent, a work in progress. At this point, major changes to the mechanics are unlikely.
However, this system is still undergoing playtesting, and some of the mechanics may
change in relatively minor ways. Thus, this is version beta of the Saga system. As with a
video game or piece of software, while Saga is in beta, I encourage feedback from you,
the reader and user. If you think something needs tweaking, or needs changing in some
way, feel free to contact me. You can find contact information at my website, the
Gamecrafters Guild (http://www.gamecrafters.net).

Open Source?
Yes, Saga is an open source role-playing system. The entirety of this book is free,
and falls under the following Creative Commons license:
You are Free:
to Share to copy, distribute and transmit the work
to Remix to adapt the work
Under the following conditions:
Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or
licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the
work).
For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of
this work. The best way to do this is with a link to this web page.
Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the
copyright holder.
Nothing in this license impairs or restricts the author's moral rights.













Table of Contents

Anatomy of a Character . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Rules Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Running the Game . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Appendix 1: Perks . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Appendix 2: 50 Traits . . . . . . . . . . . . 29





















Note: You can find a Saga character sheet at the Gamecrafters Guild
(http://www.gamecrafters.net).
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Chapter 1: Anatomy of a Character
Your character is really two things. First (and most importantly), your character
is the imaginary projection of yourself in the fictional world of the game. This doesnt
necessarily mean that your character should resemble you, even a little (though it is often
difficult not to put at least a little of yourself into your character). You might, for
example, be a mild-mannered school teacher in real life, but you might want to play a
cold-blooded gunslinger with so many notches on his guns that he might need to get new
ones soon.
The thing to remember, despite whats about to be discussed in this section of this
text, is that your character is not merely a collection of statistics. Your character should
feel like a living, thinking, feeling person to youat least eventuallyand should have
desires, friends, family, goals, enemies, fears, and all those other things that most normal
folk have. This is a long-term goal, though, and wont necessarily come immediately; in
fact, it probably wont come immediately. Some of it might, but more likely than not,
your characters personality and history will be revealed to you over time, as you play.
And thats exactly as it should be.
Now that weve discussed that, lets get right down to it: the mechanics of a
character. Your character, rules-wise, is going to be made up of a number of stats and
token pools, each of which serves a distinct purpose. Your skills are the things that
you're good at, in a general sense. Are you athletic? Do you tend to notice things? Do
you have skill with arms? Skills cover these kinds of questions. Skills, in turn, have
specialties associated with them; specialties serve to focus skills, allowing you to excel in
specific areas of that skill. You might be pretty good at hitting things from a ways away,
for example, but you might be a crack shot with a high-powered sniper rifle. Skills are
the broad strokes, while specialties are the details.
Also very important are assets. Assets are used to power your skills (among other
things), and they generally represent your favored approaches to solving problems, rather
than natural aptitude. Do you tend to push your way through problems, or do you handle
them with finesse? Tied to assets are perks, special mechanical benefits that allow you to
use your assets in new ways. Theres an implied analogy here, to some extent; perks are
to assets what specialties are to skills. They serve to focus the generalities.
Next, youve got traits. Traits are what really set you apart from every other
person with the same skills and assets as you. They represent elements of your
background, natural talents, virtues, vices, social status, group affiliations, magical
powers, cybernetic implants or any number of other things. Theyre double-edged,
though, so they can be used against you just as you can use them to your advantage.
A character wouldnt be much without things that were important to her, right?
Those are your drives. Drives are goals, ambitions, philosophies, religions, concepts,
people, or anything else that might be important to you. They guide how your character
should act, and theyre also going to (more likely than not) be your primary source of
Spark (see below).
Youve also got gear. While every character is pretty much assumed to have the
basics implied by their skills, traits, and assets, gear represents those extra-special pieces
of equipment, things with a personal attachment or superior quality.
All these things help you overcome challenges, but what happens when the
challenges threaten to overcome you? Thats where damage pools come in. Damage
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pools are based on your assets, and they represent how much punishment you can take
before bad things start happening to you. They could represent physical trauma, damage
to your reputation, or any number of other things. When you take to much damage, you
start to suffer consequences, which are persistent negative qualities that you have to deal
with. Youve also got your Doom Track, which essentially represents your mortality;
when this thing fills up, its game over.
Finally, theres Spark. Spark represents that something special that makes a hero
a heroor a villain a villain. It acts as a way for you to develop your character
mechanically over time, as well as a way for you to affect the game world in potentially
significant ways. Its a reward mechanic, but its also a vehicle by which you are able to
be the GM for short periods of time.

Skills

Skill Ranks
All skills are based on ranks. Ranks are a mechanical way of measuring how
competent you are with a particular skill; each rank that you have in a skill allows you to
roll one die on a roll utilizing that skill.

Specialties
In addition to your skills ranks, each skill can have one or more specialties. A
specialty is a specific area of expertise within a particular skill, an area in which you
excel. There is no limit to the number of specialties that you can have in a particular
skill, and its possible that more than one specialty could apply to a single roll. In
mechanical terms, any time you make a roll in which one or more of your specialties
applies, each applicable specialty grants you a +2 bonus. You do not have to spend
additional tokens in order to activate specialties; they are activated when their parent skill
is activated, provided they apply to the action being performed.
It is possible for a specialty to apply to a roll made with a skill other than the
parent skill. For example, you might have a Marksmanship specialty with pistols, and
that specialty would likely apply to a Weaponry roll made using a pistol. In such a case,
the specialty applies, but it only confers a +1 bonus.

The Skill List

Academia
Academia represents your accumulated knowledge and learning. With a high
Academia skill, you have gleaned significant amounts of knowledge from books and
theoretical learning. Most of the time, an Academia roll is used to determine what you do
and do not know; however, theoretical knowledge often has practical applications, and
creative uses of this skill can spell the difference between success and failure in some
situations.
When you spend tokens on Academia, youre most likely spending acuity tokens.
Spending an acuity token on an Academia roll generally means that youre using a
combination of knowledge, perception, and deductive reasoning to puzzle out the
problem in front of you. When you spend a grace token on Academia, it could mean that
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youre combining your knowledge with flashy turns of phrase and fast-talk in order to
convince others that you know what youre talking about, even if you dont. When you
spend force tokens on Academia, it could represent using sheer willpower to recall
information that you need, or forcing yourself to pour over musty old tomes in order to
find the answer you seek.
Areas of specialty include, but are not limited to: occult, theology, linguistics,
history, natural sciences, earth sciences, literature, philosophy, music, or any other area of
theoretical study conceivable.

Athletics
Athletics represents a combination of physical fitness, strength, agility, and pure
athletic ability. Those with high Athletics skills are both strong and physically fit, and
may even be more resistant to damage, extreme temperatures, diseases, poisons, and
other such things. You can also use Athletics in physical combat to represent your degree
of skill with unarmed attacks and the martial arts.
Tokens spent on Athletics are usually either force or grace tokens. Spending a
force token on Athletics generally represents using brute strength or a very direct
approach to overcoming a physical obstacle or attaining a specific goal, or to defeating an
opponent unarmed. When you spend a grace token on Athletics, youre probably using
speed and agility rather than raw power, whether youre dodging blows, making quick
attacks, or even running away. If you spend acuity tokens on Athletics, you might be
using a combination of perception and training instead of raw physical ability, perhaps
fighting smart instead of fighting hard.
Areas of specialty include, but are not limited to: lifting, running, jumping,
physical resistance, hand-to-hand combat, tumbling, or any other type of similar physical
activity.

Awareness
Awareness allows you to keep track of whats going on around you. The skill
represents your physical senses, as well as less physical senses like intuition or
kinesthetic memory. Awareness also covers things like reflexes and reaction time, and
even social empathy.
Nine times out of ten, youre going to be spending acuity tokens on Awareness
rolls. This doesnt mean that you cant spend force or grace tokens on Awareness, just
that the skill isnt particularly well-suited to those token types. You could, for example,
spend a force token to represent the fact that youre keeping yourself awake and alert
through sheer willpower. Similarly, you could spend a grace token to represent
performing an action that requires extreme attention to detail as well as hand-eye
coordination.
Areas of specialty include, but are not limited to: sight, smell, touch, hearing,
taste, intuition, empathy, kinesthetic memory, reflexes, or other things that require being
aware of your environment.

Influence
The Influence skill is primarily social in nature, representing your ability to
convince others to do what you want them to do. It does not just represent a skill with
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social manipulation, however; Influence also encompasses your social status and even
your wealth, as well as other things that might impact how influential you are.
When you spend a force token on Influence, it generally represents dealing with
someone in an honest and straightforward manner, though not necessarily a friendly
manner; it could range from simple diplomacy to intimidation and brow-beating. If you
spend a grace token on Influence, it can mean that youre pulling on flowery words,
double-talk, or even outright lying, and might even mean that youre drawing on your
social status or using bribes or other methods of subtle coercion. When you use acuity
tokens, youre generally trying to appeal to a persons sense of reason. It could mean that
youre being honest, but honesty is not a requirement; just that youre using intellect as
opposed to pure charisma or force of personality to get what you want.
Areas of specialty include, but are not limited to: bartering, diplomacy,
intimidation, interrogation, or other methods of convincing people to do what you want
them to do.

Legerdemain
This skill represents your ability to execute acts of fine manipulation, generally
with a bent toward trickery. Sleight-of-hand, picking pockets, jury-rigging devices,
palming small objects, picking locks, and other such feats of manual manipulation are all
uses of the Legerdemain skill.
Grace is easily the most commonly used type of token when it comes to
Legerdemain, though this is followed closely by acuity. When you spend a grace token
on Legerdemain, it generally means that youre relying primarily on manual dexterity and
muscle-memory to perform the act. If you spend an acuity token, youre drawing more
on your senses of sight, tough, and hearing and on your training and learned skill. Force
tokens generally represent a last resort, using a direct, ungentle method to do what you
want, though this usually means that youre not performing the action with any particular
subtlety.
Areas of specialty include, but are not limited to: picking pockets, picking locks,
sleight-of-hand, concealing items, shoplifting, jury-rigging, and other such methods of
fine (and, usually, underhanded) manipulation.

Marksmanship
Marksmanship allows you to shoot things. Bows, guns, slingshots, thrown
daggers; if youre more than twenty feet or so away, youre probably using
Marksmanship. Closer than that, and youre usually using the Weaponry skill instead.
When you use a force token with Marksmanship, youre effectively shooting from
your hip. It represents a quick, direct shot with little finesse or accuracy behind it, but
such a shot can be deadly effective nonetheless. When you use a grace token, youre
firing a shot thats meant to cripple more than kill. Youre lining up a shot, targeting a
specific part of your targets anatomy to inflict a very specific injury. When you use
acumen, you take your time aiming before shooting. It may not have the style or
machismo of other types of shots, but you drastically increase your chance of hitting your
target.
Areas of specialty include, but are not limited to: bows, crossbows, pistols, rifles,
scatterguns, thrown weapons, and any other weapon that can be used at long range.
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Subterfuge
Subterfuge is the skill of deceit. It covers things like lying, but it also covers
using disguises, concealing large objects, hiding, sneaking around, and setting ambushes.
Force tokens are very rarely used with the Subterfuge skill, though such a thing is
not impossible. It could, for example, represent a straightforward, simple lie or simply
hiding quickly behind a large object. When you use grace tokens, youre using agility to
keep yourself hidden or silent, or you are using elaborate falsehoods to cover your true
intentions. When you use acuity, youre utilizing your environment or the weaknesses of
others to remain undetected.
Areas of specialty include, but are not limited to: lying, cheating, disguises,
sneaking, hiding, shadowing, ambushing, dirty fighting, or other activities that mask your
intentions or presence.

Weaponry
While Athletics can be used to fight unarmed, it takes the Weaponry skill to
execute armed, close-quarters combat. Whether youre using a sword, an axe, a stout
club, or even firing a gun at point-blank range, Weaponry is the skill for using weapons
in melee combat.
Using a force token with Weaponry usually represents using brute strength,
attacking with the intent to inflict maximum pain and physical trauma. If you use a grace
token, youre attacking with finesse rather than might, using quick, flashy moves to
distract your opponent while you attack vital areas. When you use an acumen token,
youre fighting with your brain, using your senses and your intuition to find an opening in
your opponents defenses.
Areas of specialty include, but are not limited to: swords, axes, clubs, knives,
spears, and other close-quarters implements of destruction, but you could also have a
specialty in pistols or some other ranged weapon, to represent skill at point-blank
shooting.

Skill X
Skill X is a special case, and is going to be different in every setting.
Mechanically, it works the same as the other eight skills, but it will probably be
thematically tied to the setting more strongly than the other skills. More on Skill X will
be discussed later in this book, in the chapter entitled Running the Game.

Asset Pools
Actions are accomplished using skills and asset pools. Each character has nine
skills, each with a number of ranks assigned to it. There are also four basic asset pools
that all characters have: force, grace, acuity, and fortune. When you attempt an action in
which the outcome is in doubt, you make a skill roll with dice equal to your ranks.
During a conflict, you must spend a token from one of your various asset pools on a skill
roll in order to activate the skill that youre using; the type of token that you spend
determines what situational bonuses apply to your roll. Outside of a conflict you burn
tokens. Burning a token is mechanically similar to spending a token in a conflict, in that
you remove the token from your pool. Since time outside of a conflict is not broken
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down into rounds, though, burned tokens dont recover at a fixed rate as spent tokens do
(see Regaining Tokens, below). The asset pools are as follows:
Force: Force tokens represent your ability to accomplish tasks in the most
straightforward manner possible. They are used to succeed through brute strength,
overwhelming personality, or sheer willpower. When you activate a skill with force, that
skills effective ranks are doubled (with a minimum benefit of +1 rank, and a maximum
benefit equal to twice your current number of force tokens, including any spent on the
current roll). Thus, you would have 1 effective rank in a skill with 0 ranks, or 8 effective
ranks in a skill with 4 ranks (provided you had at least 4 force tokens before making the
roll).
Grace: Grace tokens represent a combination of finesse and subtlety. They are
used to accomplish tasks through charm, agility, speed, or sheer panache. When you use
grace, youre drawing on your own strengths or your opponents weaknesses, or utilizing
the environment in some way. When you activate a skill with grace, you may invoke or
invert one trait (either your own, that of another player, or a conflict trait) per grace token
that you had before making the roll, gaining an appropriate bonus for each one depending
on the traits relevance to the roll. For example, if you have 4 grace tokens and activate a
skill with grace, you would be able to invoke or invert up to 4 different traits. When you
invoke or invert a trait with grace, it stays invoked for one roll only, then goes back to
whatever state it was in previously. If you choose to invoke a trait that is already in that
state, it grants you an additional +1 bonus.
Acuity: Acuity tokens are used to represent training and focus. They are used to
draw upon your knowledge, intelligence, aptitude, and perceptiveness. When you
activate a skill with acuity, any applicable parent skill specialties provide a bonus equal
to your current number of acuity tokens (including any spent on the current roll, with a
minimum specialty bonus of +3), while any cross-skill specialties provide half that
benefit (rounded up). For example, if you have 5 acuity tokens and activate a skill with
acuity, each parent skill specialty would grant you a +5 bonus, while each cross-skill
specialty would provide you a +3 bonus.
Fortune: Fortune tokens represent luck, fate, divine providence, and other such
intangible, ephemeral forces. When you activate a skill with fortune, you make your roll
as normal. After youve made your roll and tallied your marks, but before youve
compared the roll to the opposing roll, you may choose to re-roll a number of dice equal
to your current number of fortune tokens (including any spent on the roll), taking the new
roll. In addition, fortune tokens can be used for any of the following purposes:
You may burn a fortune token in order to invoke a traiteither yours or another
playersfor one scene (see below).
You may burn a fortune token in order to invert a traiteither a conflict trait or
another playersfor one scene (see below). If you invert another players trait,
that player gets a fortune token.
You may burn one fortune token in order to re-roll a single die of your choice and
take whichever result you want, including a kismet die (see below).
You may burn one fortune token in order to eliminate points of temporary
consequences equal to your current fortune tokens (including the one just spent).
You may burn one or more fortune tokens in order to have a stroke of luck. This,
in effect, allows you to briefly take control of the narrative, steering it in a
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direction that might benefit your character or his allies. For example, you might
burn fortune tokens to decide that a subway trains emergency kit has an air horn
in it, or to establish the fact that youre good friends with a local bartender and
information broker, or even to remember that you hid a wad of cash under a
loose floorboard in your house, just in case. The cost of a stroke of luck varies
depending on how potent it is, and should be handled on a case-by-case basis and
agreed upon by both players and the GM. By way of example, the
aforementioned air horn might cost only 1 token, while the wad of cash might
cost 2 or 3, or even more if cash plays a major role in the current game. Note that
its possible, through a stroke of luck, to add traits to a conflict, which you can
then use to your advantage. In this case, the act of adding the trait also activates it
for one round.
Unlike other asset pools, you have a starting value for your fortune pool, which your pool
defaults to at the beginning of every chapter. However, you can (and probably will) hold
more fortune tokens than your starting value. You do not automatically regain all of your
spent fortune tokens at the end of the scene as with other asset pools (see below); instead,
fortune tokens are always effectively burned, recovering in the following ways:
The GM or another player may invert one of your traits for one scene (see below)
by giving you a fortune token. In addition, any time the GM invokes a conflict
trait for a scene, all players gain one fortune token.
Your fortune tokens reset to their starting value at the beginning of every chapter.

Regaining Tokens
During a conflict, you regain spent force, grace, and acuity tokens at a rate of one
token of your choice per round. At your option, you can spend an entire round
recovering, taking no actions and making no rolls. If you do so, you recover all spent
tokens for one of your asset pools. At the end of the conflict, you regain all spent force,
grace, and acuity tokens.
The GM tells you when you recover a burned token. Typically this is in response
to a specific action or event, something that would allow you to regain some of your
spent effort; for example, learning some tidbit of information might allow you to recover
a burned acuity token, while overcoming an obstacle in your way might recover a burned
force token. In addition, you recover all burned tokens at the end of the scene, or at the
beginning of a conflict (whichever comes first), representing either rest during down-time
or the surge of adrenaline you get from entering a conflict.

Reflexive Rolls
A reflexive roll is a roll that takes almost no conscious effort on your part to
make. Examples of an action represented by a reflexive roll could be noticing something
small but in plain view, resisting the effects of a poison, determining initiative order in a
player-versus-player conflict, or something similar.
When you make a reflexive roll outside of a conflict, the GM chooses which skill
you get to use (Make a reflexive Awareness roll), while you get to choose the asset that
powers the skill as normal. You can spend fortune tokens to power traits, and other
aspects of your character such as drives and skill specialties apply as normal.
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When you make a reflexive roll inside a conflict, the GM chooses which skill you
get to use and you can decide which tokens you want to spend on the roll; however, you
neednt spend any tokens at all on a reflexive roll if you dont want to. If you choose not
to spend any tokens on the roll, you simply roll dice equal to your skills ranks, and apply
any appropriate specialties; you get no asset-specific benefit on the roll.

Pushing a Roll
Whenever you make a skill roll, you have the option to push the roll. Pushing a
roll allows you to accomplish the task with certain special effects, dependant on the asset
or assets used to push.
In a conflict, you can push a skill by spending tokens of the same type that you
used to activate the skill; that is, if you spent a force token to make the roll, you can
spend additional force tokens to push. Each token spent allows you one push; the effects
of that push vary by asset (more on that below). Outside of a conflict, you can push a
skill by burning a token.
It is also possible to push a roll with an asset that you didnt use to actually make
the roll. Doing so is less efficient, though it can be useful. Effectively, it costs twice as
much, both in and out of a conflict.

Effects of Pushing
Now, that all makes sense, but what does pushing actually do? In game terms, it
can either give you a mechanical bonus or a story- or role-playing-related benefit. When
you declare a push, you first have to describe how youre pushing. Use the following as
guidelines:
When you push with force, youre usually hitting harder, fighting back, or
otherwise simply adding extra effort to the attempt. For example, you might push
an Athletics roll by describing how youre swinging your fist as hard as you can,
or slamming into the door without regard to your own physical well-being. The
effects of a force push are usually that you accomplish what you want to, but
more so. If youre trying to break down a door, maybe you send it flying off of its
hinges, into the thugs on the other side. If youre swinging your fist, maybe you
send your opponent sprawling on the floor, stunning him with the force of your
blow.
When you push with grace, youre accomplishing your task with an extra bit of
speed, subtlety, or panache. Maybe you push a Legerdemain roll to open a lock
without leaving a trace of your passage behind, or maybe you use Subterfuge to
not only talk your way past the guard at the gate, but convince him to give you a
heads-up about the locations of his friends.
When you push with acuity, you generally learn a little something extra or hit a
little closer to the mark. If youre pushing an Academia roll, you might learn the
general history of an area, as well as the names of a few important people and
where they can be found. If youre pushing a Marksmanship roll, maybe you hit
your target with such precision that he falls without making a sound.
Note that you cant push with fortune.
If youre going for a role-playing benefit, you can use the above examples as
guidelines. Sometimes its just a matter of style and description, but at other times (such
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as throwing the door of its hinges into your enemy), it might allow you a reflexive
follow-on action. If all youre going for is a mechanical bonus, youll generally get a
bonus of +1 to +3 on your roll, depending on how well you describe and justify your
push.

Perks
Perks are special abilities that you pick up along the way, tied to one of your four
asset pools. They are usually learned, though some perks are inborn abilities that can
manifest later in life. The thing that separates perks from other some other aspects of
your character is that they are specifically defined rather than being open-ended. Some,
like other qualities, are activated by spending tokens, while others are always active.
There is a list of perks later on in this book, though you should not consider this list
exhaustive. The perks list canand shouldchange and grow based on the needs of the
setting and the specific game.

Traits
Traits are things that make your character special. Each trait represents
something unique about your character, though it does not always represent something
that your character is good at. When you create a trait, you come up with a phrase that
says something about your character. For instance, you might have a trait called mean
right hook, or another one called criminal. Ideally, traits should be double-edged
swords, rather than being wholly positive or wholly negative. Though there is no specific
rule against making a trait that is completely positive or completely negative, consider
what traits are used for.
You can invoke one of your traits by spending a fortune token; if the trait is
clearly very relevant to the action being performed (such as activating your mean right
hook trait while punching someone), you get a +3 bonus on the roll. If its only
moderately appropriate (such as using the same trait while fighting with a baseball bat),
you get a +2 bonus. If its only tangentially appropriate (such as using the strength
implied by that trait to throw a baseball), you only add a +1 bonus. Further, the GM can
invert one of your traits by giving you a fortune token. Similar guidelines apply for
appropriateness of the trait to the situation, except that an inverted trait imposes a penalty.
Thus you should keep in mind that, if you have a trait that is only positive (such as
strong), it cant be used against you, but you wont get any fortune tokens from it,
either. Similarly, if you have a trait that is only negative (such as weak), you will
probably get a lot of fortune tokens from it, but it will impede you frequently and you
wont usually be able to use it to your advantage.
Scenes can have traits, as well; these operate in the opposite manner as your own
traits. The GM can invoke a scene trait by giving a fortune token to every player
involved in the scene, and doing so invokes it for the rest of the scene. In addition, you
can invert a scene trait for the rest of the scene by spending a fortune token. An invoked
scene trait imposes a penalty on your rolls, while an inverted scene trait grants you a
bonus. Note that, when you invert a scene trait, its only inverted for you; it remains
invoked for everyone else.

Drives
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All characters have things that are important to them, and these are represented by
drives. A drive could be anything from fame and glory to my little sister to
Catholicism to doing the right thing; all that matters is that it is something that is
important to your character.
At the start of a chapter, you can put one token on one of your drives. When you
act in a manner that furthers or is in accordance with one of your drives, the GM may
reward you with a drive token, which you then put on that drive. Any time you perform
an action in which one or more of your drives is a significant factor, you can spend any
number of tokens on that drive in order to increase your chances of success; each token
that you spend grants you a +2 bonus to the roll. In addition, if the action is successful,
you gain one Spark as a result (you never gain more than one Spark per roll). However,
if you act contrary to one of your drives, you immediately lose one token from that drive.
Also note that you cant gain a drive token from a roll that you spend drive tokens on;
you have to either gain one or spend one or more, not both.
Sometimes drives change. Given sufficient justification, you can change the
nature of one of your drives at any time. Doing so can be advantageous, allowing you to
accumulate drive tokens more quickly and reap their rewards more often. However, any
tokens built up on the discarded drive are lost.
In addition, its entirely possible for you to complete a goal represented by one of
your drives. When this happens, any drive tokens on that drive are immediately
converted into Spark, on a one-for-one basis. Furthermore, you get a new drive to
replace the old drive, with a free drive token automatically allocated to it.
Finally, at the end of the chapter, any remaining drive tokens that youve built up
but not spent get pooled with your remaining fortune tokens and are converted into Spark
at a rate of 1 Spark per 2 fortune/drive tokens. As mentioned above, you start every
chapter with 1 drive token, placed in the drive of your choice.

Gear
Most of the time, you shouldnt worry too much about the stuff you carry around.
Youre assumed to have just about everything you need in order to get the job done; if
youve got ranks in Legerdemain and a lockpicking specialty, chances are youve got
lockpicks. If youre good at fighting with Weaponry, you probably have a sharp sword at
your side. When youre talking about gear as a character quality, though, it means really
special equipment, stuff that can really help you out in a pinch. A piece of gear has a
rating, from 1 to 3. This rating means different things, depending on what kind of gear it
is, as follows.
A buff is a piece of gear that provides a static bonus to appropriate dice pools.
Whenever you make a roll using the gear for its intended purposeusing a gun to
shoot someone, or using a fancy suit to impress someoneyou gain a bonus on
the roll equal to its rating. So a rating 2 sword would give you a +2 bonus on
attack rolls or block rolls using that sword, but it wouldnt give you that same
bonus if you were using it to threaten someone, or to pry open a door.
A lucky charm grants you a pool of dice instead of a static bonus, equal to two
times its rating. You can use these dice on whatever rolls you want (assuming
sufficient justification exists), but once you use a die from the gears pool, its
gone for the rest of the scene (the pool replenishes at the beginning of the next
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scene, though). A good example of this would be a lucky coin, which could
influence just about any roll, but its luck wont hold out forever. In addition, you
can voluntarily limit the influence of a lucky charm in order to increase its dice
pool. For every skill that you exclude from its influence at creation, you can add
1 die to its total number of dice. For example, if you decided that your rating 3
lucky coin didnt help at all with Academia, it would grant 7 dice per scene, but
you wouldnt be able to use it on any Academia rolls.
A font of healing is gear that grants you a pool of points that you can use to
eliminate damage tokens that youre currently suffering from, or even temporary
consequences. A font of healing grants you points equal to twice its rating. Each
point can be spent to remove one token from your fear, doubt, or pain pools, while
two points can be spent to remove a kismet token. These points must last you the
whole chapter, though; they replenish at the start of every chapter, not every scene
(as with a lucky charm). A first aid kit might be a font of healing, as could a
magical pendant or bag of herbs. In addition, you can restrict the gears effects in
order to increase your pool of points; excluding fear, doubt, or pain from its area
of influence increases the point total by 1 each, while excluding kismet increases
it by 2. For example, you might have a flask of whisky that can dull pain and
steady your nerves (allowing you to heal pain and fear), but does nothing to
overcome doubt or to treat real, lasting damage (kismet). At rating 2, that flask of
whisky would grant you 7 points, each of which could be used to heal either pain
or fear. You can also use a font of healing to eliminate a temporary consequence
(with sufficient justification); you can spend 3 points to overcome 1 point of
temporary consequences.

Damage
When you take damage, damage tokens go into one or more of four damage
pools; the damage pools are pain, doubt, fear, and kismet. Each damage pool (except for
kismet) has a threshold determined by two of your assets; this threshold represents the
amount of that type of damage that you can take safely, before it starts to affect you.
Once youve put tokens equal to your threshold in a damage pool, you can continue to do
so, but each additional token that you put in that damage pool forces you to take a
consequence appropriate to the type of damage suffered. Kismet damage is unlike fear,
pain, or doubt (see below).
Whenever you take damage tokens, the GM tells you which type or types of
damage you take, and how many of each. Usually the type youre risking taking will be
obvious; if someone is attacking you physically, youll probably take pain, while if
someone is browbeating you with insults and threats, youll usually take doubt. You can,
at your option, spend a fortune token to decide for yourself what kind of damage you take
(though you have to justify the change), and you can always put damage in your kismet
pool instead.
You can also, at your option, willingly take damage tokens independent of an
attack in order to gain the benefit of having spent one of the corresponding types of asset
tokens. For example, you could take a fear token when performing an action in order to
gain the benefits of having spent a force token or an acuity token. Note that you can take
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Anatomy of a Character
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kismet tokens voluntarily, as well; doing so immediately provokes a kismet roll (see
below), but also grants you one fortune token.
Pain: When you take pain damage, you are usually suffering some form of
physical trauma. Pain usually has overt symptomscuts and bruises, for example
though this is not always the case. Pain is usually inflicted in physical conflicts, where
physical injuries are possible. Consequences gained from pain usually take the form of
physical injuries, such as a broken leg or punctured lung. Your pain threshold is equal to
your force plus grace, divided by two (rounded down).
Doubt: Doubt is almost the opposite of pain, representing damage that you deal to
yourself, as a result of failure or perceived failure, or a lack of confidence in your own
abilities due to the words or actions of others. Doubt most often arises in social conflicts,
where words are exchanged and social status is paramount. Consequences gained from
doubt usually include lingering feelings of inadequacy, inferiority or superiority
complexes, constant, paralyzing anxiety, or other forms of semi-self-inflicted
impairment. Your doubt threshold is equal to your grace plus acuity, divided by two
(rounded down).
Fear: When you take fear tokens, your self-preservation instincts are kicking into
full gear, often to your detriment. Fear can be a powerful and paralyzing force, and can
represent fear of injury or death, fear of finding out a horrible truth, or fear of becoming a
pariah or social outcast. Fear most often comes from mental sources (and can represent
the simple fear of failure), but is the easiest type of damage to justify for any type of
conflict. Consequences gained through fear often manifest as phobias or other types of
potent, lingering aversions. Your fear threshold is equal to your force plus acuity,
divided by two (rounded down).
Kismet: Kismet works differently from the other damage pools. Kismet tokens
represent your mortality, your fate, and the forces that conspire against you. They are a
combination of external forces working against you, as well as your desire to simply let
them win. Any time you take damage tokens, you can choose to put them in your kismet
pool. In addition, there is no limit applied to your kismet pool, and you do not gain
consequences from kismet damage. Every time you gain one or more kismet tokens from
a single attack, you must roll one die for every kismet token you currently have
(including the ones you just gained). These dice are chance dice; every mark you roll
grants you a fate token, symbolizing the fact that youve learned from your failures and
come closer to your destiny. However, every hitch that you roll forces you to mark off
one step on your Doom Track, bringing you that much closer to your eventual end.

Healing
At the end of the scene, all pain, doubt, and fear tokens are removed from your
character. However, your kismet tokens are removed at a much slower rate. At the end
of every scene, you may remove one kismet token from your character; at the end of the
chapter, any remaining kismet tokens are removed. Kismet represents much more lasting
damage than do the other damage pools.

The Doom Track
The Doom Track represents the path that brings you to your ultimate end. Your
Doom Track has a maximum of 24 steps on it (though in reality, youll probably be using
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far fewer); at character creation, underline the number on your Doom Track equal to
twice your fortune rating (or 24, whichever is lower); this is the end of your Doom Track.
Every time you roll a hitch on a kismet roll, you mark off the lowest unmarked number
on your Doom Track. When you mark off the space at the end of your Doom Track, your
character has met his doom and is no longer playable. For example, if you have a fortune
rating of 4 (as most starting player characters do), your character meets his doom when
the 8
th
step on his Doom Track is marked off. This doom may not necessarily be death
(though it often is); it may be permanent insanity, crippling fear, permanent incarceration,
or even old age; it depends on the circumstances.
At the end of every chapter, you can clear the highest marked off step on your
Doom Track. With each passing day that you do not meet your doom, it gets just a little
bit further away.
In addition, you can use your drives and spend Spark to clear off steps on your
Doom Track. Any time you would normally gain a drive token, you can instead clear the
highest marked off step on your Doom Track, representing the surge of confidence that
you get from getting that much closer to your goals, and the distance that it puts between
you and eventuality. At the end of the chapter, you can also spend Spark to clear marked
off Doom Track steps (always starting with the highest marked off step), with each token
spent clearing a single step. You are a heroan extraordinary individualafter all, and
fate looks out for you to some extent.

Consequences
Consequences are bad things that happen to you when you take too much
punishment. Consequences can represent physical trauma, social stigma, or any other
kind of disadvantage. The GM decides what your specific consequences are when you
receive them; however, you can spend one fortune token any time you suffer a
consequence in order to decide its nature, yourself. Each consequence that you suffer
imposes a penalty on any relevant rolls. For example, if you have a consequence of
injured leg, youd suffer a -1 penalty to any rolls that require you to use your leg, such
as running, jumping, or climbing. In addition, its possible to suffer the same
consequence multiple times, with the penalty being additive. For example, if you suffer
the injured leg consequence three times, you would suffer a -3 penalty to appropriate
rolls; it effectively increases the severity of the existing consequence. Each point of
severity for that consequence counts as a separate consequence for the purposes of
recovery. There are four different levels of consequences.
Temporary consequences are fleeting impairments, not lasting injuries. They go
away at the end of the scene.
Lasting consequences are slightly more persistent. You lose all lasting
consequences at the end of the chapter.
Permanent consequences are almost always the result of barely escaping your
doom. They do not go away on their own; the only way to get rid of permanent
consequences is to buy them off with Spark (more on that later).

Spark
Throughout the game, you will earn Spark for furthering your characters goals,
for overcoming adversity, and for other things. Spark is, put simply, Sagas reward
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mechanic, though its a bit more than that, too. You can spend Spark to increase your
characters statistics at the end of a chapter, as well as to diminish those aspects of your
character that are working against you (like consequences, or your Doom Track).
However, character advancement is not the only use for Spark. You can also
spend Spark in order to gain narrative control, effectively taking on the roll of the GM
briefly. The scope of this aspect of Spark is not governed by any form of rules mechanic;
instead, it isand should begoverned by you and your gaming group, and by what
you, the GM, and the other players feel is just right. Simply put, you can spend a Spark
in order to make up a fact about the world, or describe a scene, or otherwise become the
GM for a minute or two.
Gaining narrative control consists of two parts; while these are rough mechanical
guidelines, they are just that: guidelines. You and your group can feel free to ignore or
change them as you see fit. First, you make an offer. Similar to making an offer in
improvisational theater, you push one of your Spark tokens into the middle of the table
and describe the fact or scene that youre making up. You might offer up the fact that
your cousin is the mayor of the town youre currently in, or you might say that magic
works more strongly at night, under the full moon. You have to direct your offer at
someone, and that someone has to be the person that your offer most affects. In most
cases, when youre changing things about the game world, that person will be the GM.
In some cases, however, it might be one of the other players; for example, you might
make an offer to another player that changes some aspect of his history or personal goals.
The second part is acceptance, when the person you make your offer to either
accepts your offer or does not. If youre making your offer to the GM and he accepts, he
simply takes your Spark and allows your offer to become part of the game. If he rejects
it, you get your Spark back. If hes particularly pleased with your offer, he might allow it
and also allow you to keep your Spark, effectively allowing you narrative control for
free.
If another player accepts your offer, that player allows the offer to affect her
character and takes your Spark, placing it in her own Spark pool. If the GM thinks that
the offer was particularly good, he may reward you with a Spark, as well (allowing you to
effectively break even).

Character Creation
When you create a new character, you follow the following steps:
1. Character Concept: First and foremost, you come up with a character concept.
Whether youre a grizzled gunslinger or a smooth-talking politician, you need to
know what kind of character you want to play before you start picking priorities
and assigning ranks.
2. Prioritize Assets or Assign Asset Points: Then you assign priority to your force,
grace, and acuity asset pools: one as primary, one secondary, and one tertiary.
Your primary asset has a rating of 5, your secondary has a rating of 3, and your
tertiary asset has a rating of 1. Regardless of these choices, all players start with a
fortune pool value of 4. In addition, you may choose a perk for either your
primary asset or for fortune. At your option, you can instead assign a number of
points to your assets, buying them a la carte. When you do so, each of your four
assets starts with a rating of 1. You then have 9 points to distribute amongst
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Anatomy of a Character
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them, with one caveat: to increase one of your assets beyond a rating of 5 costs an
extra point (so a rating of 8 would cost you 8 points rather than the normal 7).
You still gain one perk for free, though it must be assigned to an asset with a
rating of at least 4. This option allows for more customization, but it tends to take
longer, and it can create characters who suffer from generalist syndrome, or who
are over-specialized.
3. Prioritize Skills or Assign Skill Points: Next, you assign priority to your skills,
choosing which are important to you and which are not. You may choose two
primary skills, three secondary skills, and all other skills are rated as tertiary.
Your two primary skills start with 4 ranks while your secondary skills have 2
ranks each; all of your tertiary skills start with 0 ranks. In addition, you may
choose one specialty for each of your primary skills. At your option, you can
instead assign a number of points to your skills, similar to the a la carte option for
asset generation. When you use this method, all of your skills start at 0 ranks, and
you have a pool of 14 points to distribute amongst them. Note that your sixth or
eleventh rank in a skill costs an extra point (so 11 ranks would cost you 13
points). In addition, you can assign a specialty to two of your skills, provided you
have at least 4 ranks in that skill. Its possible to create a jack-of-all trades
character with this option, but that character will truly be a master of none.
4. Determine Traits: The fourth step is to come up with traits for your character.
Each character starts with five traits, which you come up with on your own. Bear
in mind that traits should be double-edged. If a trait is entirely positive, you
wont gain any fortune tokens from it, while if its entirely negative, you wont be
able to gain any bonuses from it.
5. Determine Drives: Every character gets three drives, three things that are
important to him or her above all else. Players should come up with drives that
are likely to come into play from time to time, and that are likely to generate
interesting role-playing opportunities.
6. Determine Gear: You also start with one or more pieces of gear. The only limit is
that no single piece of gear can have a rating higher than 3, and the combined
rating of all of your starting gear cannot be higher than 5.
7. Spend Finishing Points: Finally, you get 12 finishing points to spend as you wish,
as follows:
You may increase one of your assets by 1 point for 4 finishing points.
Doing so increases the threshold of its corresponding damage pools, as
well; increasing fortune increases your Doom Track as appropriate.
You may purchase skill ranks at a rate of 1 rank for 3 finishing points.
You may purchase skill specialties for 1 finishing point each, provided
you have at least 1 rank in the parent skill.
You may purchase a new trait for 3 finishing points.
You may purchase perks for 2 finishing points each.
You may purchase gear for finishing points equal to twice its rating.

Character Advancement
As you play, you will earn Spark that you can use to improve your character at the
end of the chapter. Spark is earned in the following ways:
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Anatomy of a Character
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Whenever you make a kismet roll, any marks rolled grant you one Spark each.
This represents the lessons you learn from overcoming adversity.
Any time you spend a drive token on a roll that succeeds, you gain one Spark.
This represents the confidence that you gain from furthering your goals. Note,
however, that you cant get more than one Spark from a single action in this
manner, regardless of how many drive tokens you spend on the action.
Whenever one of your drives is completed or attained, any tokens on that drive
are immediately converted to Spark on a one-for-one basis, and you gain a new
drive with 1 drive token allocated to it. This represents the surge of confidence
that you gain from attaining a goal or completing an important task.
At the end of the chapter, all of your fortune tokens and remaining drive tokens
are pooled and are traded in for Spark at a rate of 1 Spark for 2 fortune/drive
tokens (rounded up). This represents the fact that you are a hero (or villain), an
exceptional individual.
You can then spend this Spark in order to improve your characters abilities. You can
spend Spark in the following ways:
You can increase the rating of one of your assets by one point by spending Spark
equal to your current rating plus 1. This also increases your corresponding
damage pool (or Doom Track, in the case of fortune).
You can increase the ranks of one of your skills by spending 3 Spark, +1 Spark
per 5 full ranks you have in that skill.
You can purchase a skill specialty by spending 2 Spark, provided you have at
least 1 rank in the parent skill.
You can purchase one trait by spending 5 Spark.
You can eliminate one point of severity from a consequence by spending 2 Spark.
You can purchase one perk for 3 Spark.
You can purchase gear for Spark equal to twice the gears rating.
You clear off the highest marked off space on your Doom Track by spending 1
Spark.

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Chapter 2: Rules Systems
All role-playing games have various systems of rules used to adjudicate various
situations, and Saga is no different in that regard. By now, youre already familiar with
some of thesethose governing what your character can do and what can be done to
himbut there are other rules that are used to govern the world at large.

Game Time
For the sake of being able to keep track of discrete chunks of your game, time in
Saga is broken down into a number of pieces. Perhaps predictably, perhaps
appropriately, the largest unit of time is called the saga. A saga is, put simply, an entire
story arc, from beginning to end, or even a collection of related story arcs. To put it in
terms of literature, an entire book would be a saga, but an entire trilogy (or larger series
of books) could also be considered a single saga. In television terms, you could designate
one season as a saga, but you could also make a saga that consisted of the entire series as
a whole. Like many things in Saga, game time is fluid and flexible.
A saga, in turn, is broken down into chapters. A chapter is a smaller story arc or
segment of a story arc that is part of the greater whole. To continue the above analogy, a
chapter in Saga is equivalent to a chapter in a book, or a single episode of a television
series. A chapter is oftenbut not necessarilya single game session.
Chapters are further broken down into scenes. Each scene is a segment of time
that revolves around a specific event or set of related events, such as a town meeting, a
car chase, or a bank holdup.
Sometimes, but not always, a scene will contain a conflict. A conflict is simply
when theres an extended event where the outcome is in question. A fight might be a
conflict, or a game of chess, or even the process of doing research in a library. Conflicts
can be physical, social, mental, or any combination of the three.
Finally, conflicts are divided into rounds. A round is a variable amount of time; it
could be three seconds, it could be an hour, depending on the scope of the conflict.
During any given round, the characters get to perform their actions and spend their
resources, and they get to recover some of their resources each round, as well.

Basic Mechanics
All tasks in Saga utilize the same resolution system: you roll one or more six-sided dice,
and each die that comes up a five or six generates a mark. Your roll is then compared to
the roll of another set of dice, called an opposing roll, rolled by either the game master or
another player. If your roll generates more marks than the opposing roll, your action is
successful.
When you perform a task that isnt specifically opposed by another character
such as breaking down a door, picking a lock, or shooting a bottle at long rangethe roll
is called a challenge. Every challenge has a rating, a number of dice (called challenge
dice) rolled by the GM in opposition to your roll. Should you roll more marks than the
GM rolls on his challenge dice, your action is successful. If you roll fewer, your action
fails. A tie generally goes to the player, indicating success, though this is usually
considered a qualified success. When you roll a qualified success, you succeed in your
action, but something negativeand relatedbefalls you as well. For example, you
might break your lock picks in the process of opening a lock, or injure your shoulder
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while breaking down the door. Normally the GM describes what happens, though you
can spend a fortune token in order to describe the negative side-effect yourself.
When your roll is opposed by that of another character, this is called a contest.
Both parties roll the appropriate number of dice, and the character with more marks is
successful. For example, if you swing a sword at another character, you would roll for
your sword swing while the other character rolls for her defense. If you succeed, your
sword connects, while if she succeeds it does not. A tie generally goes to the defender,
though if there is no clear defender it could result in a neutral outcome.
In any given successful roll, your number of net marks is important. Your net
marks are determined by subtracting the opposing rolls marks from your own. A single
net mark is enough for a definitive success, though each additional net mark may
improve the final result of the roll. Typically the GM will take into account the margin of
successor the margin of failurewhen describing the outcome of an action.

Challenge Dice and Ally Dice
Any given task (unless it is opposed by another player) is opposed by a number of
challenge dice. As previously explained, if you get more marks than the GMs challenge
dice, you succeed; if you tie, you get a qualified success. The number of challenge dice
varies by task; typically, 1-2 challenge dice represents something easy to overcome, like
vaulting over a low wall, while a very difficult challenge like leaping over a twenty-foot
chasm might carry a challenge rating of 10-15 dice. For very difficult challenges, its
possible for players to cooperate, pooling their skills. When you do so, you and your
friends should describe whos doing what and how youre each contributing to the overall
task. The GM then divides the tasks challenge dice amongst all participating player
characters, as appropriate. Everyone should make their rolls at more-or-less the same
time, but if even a single roll fails, its possible that the whole task could fail (this
depends largely upon what the task is, and which rolls failed; it should be judged by the
GM on a case-by-case basis).
Sometimes the players might have allies, non-player characters who can help with
the completion of a task. Rather than making up a separate character for each NPC that
might be useful in a given situation (which could bog down play if some of these NPCs
were created on the fly), the GM can simply represent their assistance as ally dice, bonus
dice that are added to appropriate rolls made by the player characters. Ally dice can be
seen as a mirror to challenge dice; 1-2 ally dice might represent a single ally with few
skills, while a whole group of highly skilled allies might provide 10-15 ally dice.
Similarly to challenge dice, ally dice can be divided amongst multiple player characters,
when you and your friends are cooperating on a single task or trying to accomplish
multiple tasks simultaneously.

Bonuses and Penalties
Your dice pool can be affected in two ways: with a bonus or a penalty. A bonus
comes from something good, like a skill specialty, a trait, a well-crafted weapon, or
something similar. A bonus adds dice to your roll, which act the same as the other dice
that you already had. For instance, if you have three ranks in Academia and youre using
a book that adds a +2 bonus on Academia rolls, youd roll five dice and count any marks.
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A penalty subtracts dice from your roll. These usually come from consequences,
though traits can cause penalties, as well. Note that your dice pool can never be reduced
below a single die as a result of penalties. However, if a penalty would logically give
you zero or fewer dice, your roll becomes a chance roll. You can score a mark as usual
with a chance roll; however, if you roll a 1 or 2 on a chance roll, you suffer a dramatic
failure of some sort. Usually this translates into either damage or a temporary
consequence that lasts until the end of the scene, though GMs are encouraged to be
creative.

Conflicts
Whenever an extended or complicated action or event has an outcome that is in
doubt, youre talking about a conflict. Most simple actions (breaking down a door,
picking a lock, jumping from one rooftop to another) can be resolved with a simple
challenge, but anything more complicated should become a conflict.

Round Sequence
In most conflicts, the players will all take the same side while the GM takes the
side of the opposition. In conflicts such as this, the order of phases is as follows:
1. Setup
2. Player Actions
3. GM Actions
4. Token Recovery
Setup: During this phase, the GM determines which elements of a conflict will be
used against which players. The GM need not use all of a conflicts elements in a single
round, though nothing prevents him from doing so either. While allocating elements, the
GM describes the scene in ways suggested by where the elements are being allocated and
what (if any) traits are being activated.
Player Actions: The players can declare their actions in whatever order they wish, and
this order can change from round to round; the person who acted first last turn need not
act first in every subsequent turn. Generally, players will be planning on making
launching their own attacks to defeat their opponents, though players are not limited to
attacking opponents that are attacking them. Depending on how an action is described,
its entirely possible that a player could attack an element allocated to another player, or
even an element not being used. Players may perform as many actions as they want to
during a single round, but each action has to be activated by the expenditure of an asset
token. Any given action can be declared as an attack, a block, or as neither.
GM Actions: Once the players have acted, the GMs conflict elements get their turn to
act. Each conflict element can make a single attack and a single block, or can make two
attacks. At the GMs option, this phase can come before the players actions; however, if
this happens, each player gains one fortune token. This can be decided on a round-by-
round basis. During this round, players can spend tokens to take block actions opposing
the GMs attacks.
Token Recovery: At the end of the round, all players regain one spent token of their
choice. If a player takes no actions during a round, he regains all spent tokens for a
single asset pool. If there is a pool of ally dice available, and any of them have been
used, the pool refreshes completely during this phase of a conflict.
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Player vs. Player Conflicts
In the case of a conflict involving players on more than one side, the Player
Actions phase is broken down into multiple sub-phases, one for each player. In addition,
each player should make an Athletics or Awareness roll (reflexive; no token expenditure
is required) to determine turn order, with the highest number of marks going first, the
second-highest second, and so on. In the case of a tie, use the number of ranks in the
given skill as a tie-breaker. If its still a tie, re-roll.
If there are ally dice available in a player-versus-player conflict, its usually
necessary to divide them amongst the sides in the conflict, as different allies take
different sides.

Conflict Elements
Each conflict has a number of components, called elements, associated with it.
Elements are used to represent individual opponents or even groups of opponents, or
major obstacles in the players way. Each element has three dice pools: physical, social,
and mental. These dice pools are effectively challenge dice, used to oppose player rolls
and make the appropriate types of attacks. A physical attackshooting a gun, for
examplewould require a roll with the elements physical dice, while an attempt at
intimidation would require either social or mental dice. In any given round, an element
can take two actions. These actions can be attacks, blocks, or neither, just as with
character actions, and they follow the same rules.
Any time damage is dealt to an element, each point of damage reduces the
appropriate dice pool by one. Having a dice pool reduced to zero can have differing
results, from provoking incoherent rage in an enemy to knocking him unconscious or
terrifying him into submission. Having a particular dice pool reduced to zero does not
necessarily remove that element from the conflict, but it usually does.
Some elements may also have traits tied to them; these function in the same way
as conflict traits, but they specifically affect that element, rather than the entire conflict.
For example, a zombie might have a trait called Undead Horror that, once invoked by
the GM, might add bonuses to appropriate rolls. Some even have conditions (see below)
attached to them, giving them special attacks or abilities that can be used from time to
time.

Conditions
Sometimes a conflict is more difficult (or less difficult) as a result of some
constant or intermittent effect, something that is more than a simple penalty, as is the case
with conflict traits. Sometimes there are ways to end a conflict other than one side being
completely defeated. Such things are represented by conditions. Conditions can take two
basic forms.
Some conditions are constant or intermittent effects, or even one-time effects, that
do things that traits simply cant. For example, perhaps the player characters are facing
off against a creature of pure nightmare, something so horrible and ancient that it
threatens to break their minds. Such a thing might be represented by the following
condition:
Creeping Fear: Once per round, each player character must make a reflexive roll
to resist the fear (challenge 3), or spend one force token. Failure indicates that the player
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Rules Systems
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takes one fear token of damage immediately. Ally dice must make a similar roll each
round, or lose one die to damage.
Other conditions might be alternate paths to victory, other ways to end a conflict
rather than defeating the opposing conflict elements. As an example, perhaps the player
characters are running away from the law, and if they get far enough away they manage
to give their pursuers the slip. An alternate victory condition like that could be
represented by the following condition:
Hot Pursuit: Every round, each player can make a single Athletics roll, opposed
by their pursuers physical dice pools. Each player should keep track of his total net
marks over the course of the conflict; all net marks for these rolls are cumulative. Once
the player characters get a cumulative total of at least 10 net marks between them,
theyve managed to escape their pursuers, and the conflict ends in victory. If their
pursuers accumulate an equivalent total of net marks, they catch up to the player
characters and the conflicts nature changes.

Allies in a Conflict
NPC allies in a conflict can be represented in one of two ways. Extremely
important allies (those who the GM wants to have their own turns in the round) can be
represented as elements of the conflict, and are handled in much the same way as
standard elements. They have the same components: a pool of dice, an attack rating, and
a defense rating, as well as any applicable traits. They act at the same time as the rest of
the GMs characters, and they can attack and be attacked by other elements of the
conflict. Unless theres a compelling reason for them not to, allies represented in this
way should start each conflict with a full dice pool. Long-term allies might even get
additional dice over time.
Less important allies, or allies who are only with the PCs for a short time, can
instead be represented as a pool of ally dice that you and your friends can draw from.
The pool is communal, so if there are six ally dice in the pool and you take three of them
for your roll, your friends only have three more to draw upon that round (the pool
refreshes at the same time that you get back a token). In addition, its possible for
conflict elements to attack ally dice. When this happens, the GM rolls the dice for the
attacking conflict element, while you or one of your friends rolls the ally dice in
opposition. Any damage inflicted upon the ally dice reduces the total pool for the
duration of the conflict by one die per point of damage.

Attacking and Defending
When you declare an action, you can declare it as either an attack or a block, or as
neither. If an action is an attack, it has the potential to deal damage to the opposition. If
it is a block, it has the potential to prevent damage to the player.
When you declare an action as an attack, you roll it as normal and determine its
success or failure. If an attack succeeds, you deal damage according to your net marks:
one point per net mark. Each point of damage that you deal reduces the attacked conflict
elements challenge dice by one. If you fail, you simply fail to deal any damage and any
tokens spent are effectively wasted.
If you declare an action as a block, you can use it to oppose attacks directed
against you. A block roll effectively grants you a pool of marks (provided you actually
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Rules Systems
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roll marks) that you can use to cancel out points of damage directed against you on a one-
for-one basis. Note that, if you block, you dont necessarily have to block your own
damage; you can block someone elses damage, provided that you declare that youre
doing so when you describe your actions.
You cant declare a single action as both an attack and a block, but you can
perform both an attack and a block in a single round, and you can make a roll that is
neither an attack nor a block (such as a challenge or contest of some sort). However,
each roll that you make in a round requires you to spend at least one token in order to
activate the skill being used. There is no prohibition against activating a single skill
multiple times in order to do different actions with it.

Stakes
All conflicts have stakes. The stakes of a conflict represent what youre risking
by entering that conflict, and what kinds of consequences you suffer as a result of that
conflict.
Minor Conflict: A minor conflict will have little in the way of lasting
consequences for either side. Wounded pride, bruised egos, and slightly tarnished
reputations might be about the extent of it. Many social conflicts or duels of wits are
minor conflicts. All consequences gained from a minor conflict are temporary
consequences.
Serious Conflict: A serious conflict might involve somewhat more than harsh
words. While a social conflict can certainly be serious, the consequences are more
lasting. A debate in front of a large group, a fist fight, or something of similar severity
could be a serious conflict. All consequences gained from a serious conflict are lasting
consequences.
Severe Conflict: Severe conflicts often involve dangerous weapons or potent
accusations, and the consequences of such a conflict last for quite a while (though time
still allows them to fade, if slowly). All consequences gained from a severe conflict are
permanent consequences.
Deadly Conflict: The highest of stakes, a deadly conflict could very well end in a
persons death. Pistol duels, sword fights, and other such confrontations are all deadly
conflicts. All consequences gained from a deadly conflict are permanent consequences.
In addition, any time you take consequences during a deadly conflict, you have to make a
kismet roll with at least one die, even if you have no kismet tokens; theres always the
threat of doom in a deadly conflict.

Conflict Escalation
If you and your friends are in the middle of a conflict and things dont seem to be
going your way, you (or the GM) can choose to escalate the conflict to the next set of
stakes. When a conflict is escalated, each player regains all spent force, grace, and acuity
tokens, and may remove all damage from either fear, doubt, or pain, or a single kismet
token.
Sometimes conflict escalation can cause more harm than good for you and your
friends, though. As appropriate to the stakes and nature of the new conflict, the GM
might decide that a specific dice pool of a conflict elementone that youve reduced
significantlyno longer has any bearing on the conflict. After all, if youre arguing with
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Rules Systems
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an officer of the law whos not very good with words, and you decide to escalate it to a
gunfight, its entirely possible that hes considerably more dangerous in such a situation.

Giving In
At any point in time, you may attempt to give in, removing yourself from a
conflict and admitting defeat. The advantage of doing so is that you stop accruing
damage and, therefore, consequences, and you wont have to make any kismet rolls. In
effect, you live to fight another day. However, youve got to be able to come up with a
way for your character to be removed from the conflict, and the GM has to approve it.
You may give in during a fist fight by being knocked unconscious, or you may simply
cede the point to your opponent in a debate.

Conflict Rewards
Not all conflicts have, or even need, rewards associated with them, but those that
do should have rewards commensurate with the stakes of the conflict. Rewards can take
a number of forms, from gear to temporary (or even permanent) traits to more story-
oriented rewards, like access to certain locations or the gratitude of important people.
Generally speaking, these rewards should last roughly as long as the consequences
associated with the stakes of the conflict would have. That is, the reward for a minor
conflict should only last for the rest of the scene, while the reward for a deadly conflict
should be more permanent.

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Running the Game
- 24 -
Chapter 3: Running the Game
Up until this point, Ive been talking to the players and referring to the GM in
third person. This chapter, however, is aimed directly at the GM, so when I say you,
thats who I mean.
So, your players have characters in mind and you want to start playing, but youve
never run a Saga game before. What do you do? This chapter contains some advice to
the fledgling GM, or to more seasoned GMs who simply want to learn the nuances of the
Saga system. Im going to go ahead and assume that youve run a game in another
system before; as such, I wont be explaining what a role-playing game is, or how to craft
a compelling story. Instead, Im going to focus on how running a game in Saga differs
from running a game in other systems.

Keep it Loose
Sagas strength lies in the vagueness of the rules. Characters stats are defined in
broad strokes, and things like assets and skills deal in generalities rather than specifics.
This allows youand the playersa great deal of flexibility while playing. It also
allows the playersand youto improvise somewhat. After all, if youve got a skill
called Daggers and there are no daggers on hand, youve got a problem on your hands.
However, if youve got a skill called Weaponry, a number of options open up to your
players.
Similarly, you have flexibility when it comes to creating opposition for your
players characters, a flexibility born of the simplicity of the rules governing non-player
characters. Its easy for you to improvise when you dont need full statistics for each of
the six thugs that the players pick a fight with in the local bar. All you have to do is come
up with physical, mental, and social dice pools, and maybe a few traits to spice things up.
Because Saga is intentionally general and vague, it helps to approach scenario
creation in the same way. Come up with the generalities, some of the back storythose
same broad strokes that define the charactersrather than getting bogged down in every
character or every potential conflict. Design a situation rather than a set storyline; after
all, with the flexibility and power that the players have in Saga, its pretty likely that
theyll do something you dont expect them to do, again and again. If you keep things
vague and create the specifics on the fly, in reaction to what your players do, youll find
that playing a Saga game is easy and intuitive.

Power to the Players
Saga is designed to give the players a great deal of power and freedom. They can
fully stat-out their characters before play even starts, and still have a lot of wiggle room
when it comes to defining the specifics of their characters. In addition, players can affect
the game world in ways that range from relatively minorlike spending a fortune token
to make sure that theres a fire extinguisher handy when its neededto pretty major
like making an offer with Spark in order to completely change the nature of the town
theyre about to visit. This can seem scary to a GM whos not used to his players having
that much control over the story. Your initial instinct might be to rein the players in, to
make them adhere to the story in your head. Try to overcome this instinct.
Remember that this is their story just as much as it is yours. You may be the
narrator, but theyre the main characters. This ties into the philosophy of reactionary
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Running the Game
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story-telling that I just explained above. If a player makes you an offer thats really cool,
and has the potential of making the story even better, run with it. Itll probably help
everyone have a good time, and itll make the players feel like their decisions affect the
world in meaningful ways. And really, they should.
That said; keep in mind that sometimes the world doesnt revolve around the
players, great heroes that they may be. Sometimes the main characters make up plot as
they go, but sometimes they have plot thrust upon them. Reactionary story-telling is
great, and it is a strength of Saga, but you also have the power to make offers to your
players, and you have the freedom of being able to do so as often as you want, without
spending resources like Spark. You shouldnt see this as a license to run roughshod over
your players and railroad them into doing what you want them to do, but if it doesnt
seem like theyre getting anywhere, theres nothing wrong with steering them in the right
direction by dropping plot into their midst.

Dealing with Motivations
In an ideal world, role-playing is its own reward. Sometimes you can attain this.
A lot of the time, though, you might need a little help and the players might need a little
enticing. Thats where things like drives and traits can be your best friend.
Whenever a player does something thats particularly in keeping with his
characters drives, give him a drive token. Your players should be rewarded for staying
in character and for contributing to the game in meaningful ways, and thats really what
drives are all about. Remember, though, that you can use them, too. Theres nothing
wrong with offering a player a drive token in order to entice him to act in a certain way,
and if he seems leery, theres nothing wrong with sweetening the deal by offering him
one or two more. Drives are not there simply for the players convenience, after all, and
they arent Spark-filled bubble-gum machines, either. Sometimes their drives will pull
on them at the worst times, and if they go along with that, and it helps the narrative, they
should definitely be rewarded for it.
You can use traits in a similar way. The players are probably going to use traits a
lot to get bonuses, and you might occasionally use them to make things harder on the
players (and to give them much-needed fortune tokens). However, dont be afraid to
bribe your players with fortune tokens. If youre going to do this, approach it as an offer,
similar to what you can do with drives, rather than simply inverting a trait in order to
create a role-playing effect. Think of what a trait means, what it implies. If someones
got a trait called Cop, you can feel free to hold out a fortune token to her while asking
her to act like one; after all, you might need someone to chase down that mugger. As
with drives, you can feel free to offer more than one token if you think its necessary.

Making it Your Own: Skill X
Eight of the nine skills in Saga are specifically defined, but are broad enough to
cover most actions that a character might want to take. However, when you create your
own setting, theres almost always going to be something that you want your players to
be able to do that simply doesnt have a perfect mechanical corollary in this system. To
that end, Skill X is a setting-specific skill, meant to be defined along with the setting, and
meant to be unique to the setting, or at least to the genre.
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Running the Game
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Skill X can be virtually anything you want it to be. In a dark horror game, it
might be Mettle or Courage. In a high fantasy game, it could be Magic. It might be
something like Cyberspace for a futuristic cyberpunk game, or Survival for a post-
apocalyptic wastelands game. Its even conceivable that, in your setting, Skill X might
be character-specific, defined by each player when she makes her character. Its really
just a way for you to tweak Saga and make it your own, for your own setting.

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Perks
- 27 -
Appendix 1: Perks
Perks are specifically defined mechanical aspects of your character, but they can
very from setting to setting and game to game. Below is a short list of perks that would
work well in most games. This should not be considered exhaustive; you can, and
should, add more perks when you create your own game with Saga.

Agile (Grace)
You have a graceful stance that helps you avoid attacks. When block, you can
spend any number of grace tokens on the roll; each one grants you a +3 bonus to the roll
(including the one you use to activate the skill, if applicable).

Better Lucky than Good (Fortune)
You have an uncanny knack with a particular skill, allowing you to rely on luck
rather than actual ability from time to time. You can spend fortune tokens on your
chosen skill, just as youd spend other types of tokens. Each fortune token that you spend
can emulate the effects of one other type of token of your choice. Note that this perk, in
effect, allows you to push with fortune.

Brave (Force)
You have a deep reservoir of courage from which to draw. Once per scene, you
can spend 1 force or acuity token in order to reduce your total number of fear tokens by a
number equal to your current number of tokens in that asset pool (including the one just
spent).

Confident (Acuity)
You do not allow your doubts to inhibit you. Once per scene, you can spend 1
acuity or grace token in order to reduce your total number of doubt tokens by a number
equal your current number of tokens in that asset pool (including the one just spent).

Deliberate (Acuity)
You act with such deliberate precision that you succeed more often than not.
After making a roll (but before determining its success or failure), you can spend acuity
tokens to roll additional dice, adding any marks to the roll, at a rate of +2 dice per 1
acuity token spent.

Destined (Fortune)
You have a greater destiny, and it sometimes intervenes when you are in trouble.
Once per scene, you may ignore a single hitch rolled on a kismet roll.



Expert (Acuity)
You have a preternatural affinity for a particular skill. Choose one skill. From
now on, if you make a roll with that skill using acuity, you gain a +1 bonus on the roll for
each applicable specialty (this is in addition to the normal specialty bonus). You can take
this perk multiple times; each time it must be applied to a different skill.
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Perks
- 28 -

Heavy-Handed (Force)
You take straightforwardness and unstubtleness to extremes, often to devastating
effect. After making an attack roll that scores at least one mark, you can spend force
tokens in order to get additional marks at a rate of one mark per force token spent.

Lucky (Fortune)
Fate seems to smile upon you more often than usual. You start every scene with
at least 2 fortune tokens, regardless of how many you spent in the previous scene.

Relentless (Force)
You are a force that cannot be denied. Whenever you activate a skill with force,
you get one free force push on that skill (even if you normally would not get any).

Sharp (Acuity)
You have a knack for accuracy and knowledge. Whenever you activate a skill
with acuity, you get one free acuity push on that skill (even if you normally would not get
any).

Smooth (Grace)
You always seem able to accomplish tasks with added style. Whenever you
activate a skill with grace, you get one free grace push on that skill (even if you normally
would not get any).

Tough (Grace)
You can withstand more punishment than normal. Once per scene, you can spend
1 grace or force token in order to reduce your total number of pain tokens by a number
equal your current number of tokens in that asset pool (including the one just spent).

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50 Traits
- 29 -
Appendix 2: 50 Traits
Traits are one of the more flexible things about characters in Saga, and they can
really help you to define your character in ways that skills and assets simply cant. Traits
allow you to narrow your focus, and they often imply things about your characters
background, appearance, or personality. However, sometimes it can be daunting to come
up with five traits right off the bat. A generous GM might allow you to define some of
your traits during play, once youve figured out what kind of character you really want to
play. For a little more help, though, below is a list of 50 example traits (in no particular
order).

1. Swagger
2. Lawman
3. Man about Town
4. World Traveler
5. Two Steps Ahead
6. Trick up my Sleeve
7. Winning Smile
8. Face in the Crowd
9. Unpredictable
10. Fastidious
11. Psychic Sensitivity
12. Quiet Grace
13. Perceptive
14. Cold Blue Eyes
15. Quick on the Draw
16. Faith
17. Killer with a Conscience
18. Noblemans Son
19. Fatalist
20. Charm School Graduate
21. Magical Talent
22. Stubborn
23. Hypocrite
24. Press Pas
25. Trivia Maven











26. First-Person Shooter
27. Quick Reflexes
28. Paranoid
29. Caffeinated Reflexes
30. Mean Right Hook
31. Friends in Low Places
32. Criminal Record
33. Badass
34. Authority
35. I Need a Drink
36. Quick Temper
37. People Person
38. Gamer Geek
39. Movie Buff
40. Old-Fashioned
41. Self-Preservationist
42. Im a Lover, Not a Fighter
43. Connected
44. 1337
45. Curiosity
46. Skeptic
47. Cybernetic Arm
48. Speed Demon
49. Thrill-Seeker
50. I See Dead People