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Chapter 7

Resources

Resources are what you have, who you know, and what picks up when you call.

A character isn’t just a list of things they can do. They have a bank balance, or they don’t. They’ve got somewhere to sleep that nobody else knows about, or they’re on a friend’s couch. They can get a lawyer at two in the morning, or they can’t. None of that is a Skill and none of it is a Gift, and all of it decides what’s on the table when things go sideways.

Resources are rated in Levels. You buy them out of the Resources pool at creation and raise them later with XP, at a flat rate per Level. A higher Level isn’t a different Resource - it’s the same one, reaching further.

What a Resource Is

A Resource is something you draw on or lean on - money, contacts, a reputation, somewhere to go to ground. It’s never a bonus on a roll. Every Resource is rated 1-5, and each level is a defined step up in what you can reach, not a bigger number to add to something.

Levels cost a flat 1 point each out of the Resources pool at creation, so a Resource at Level 3 costs you 3 points. Once play begins, each new level costs a flat 3 XP.

Pushing a Resource

Only six Resources can be pushed: Contacts, Debts Owed, Media Contact, Occult Library, System Access, Wealth. Those six have a reach that can be stretched - somebody can be asked for more than they owe, a library can be searched harder, money can be found. Every other Resource is a standing fact. A Safehouse Network is stocked or it isn’t, and there is nothing to roll about it: its Level table says what you have and that is what you have.

Each Resource’s Level table below defines what’s available for free, no roll required. When you want to draw on a Resource for something past that free scope, roll a Resource Check: 2d10 against Resource Level + (10 − Resource Index), roll-under. Critical results apply as normal (a roll of 2 is always a success, a roll of 20 is always a failure, regardless of the target number). No Skill is involved - a flat roll against the Resource itself, the same shape as the Gift Check.

Resource Index is a flat 1-6 rating for how far beyond a Resource’s ordinary reach the request goes - its own scale, not the general Difficulty Chart. It inverts the same way Defense does: a lower Resource Index is easier (Resource Index 1 adds 9 to the target), a higher one is harder (Resource Index 6 adds only 4, the minimum any Resource Check can add).

Success: you get what you were after, at no further cost.

Failure: you still get what you were after - the ask goes through either way - but the Resource’s Level drops by 1, representing it stretched thin: savings drained, favors called in, goodwill spent.

Critical failure: the same, except the Level drops by 2.

The drops are cumulative. A reduced Resource uses its lower Level for everything, including any further Resource Check made while it’s still reduced. At Level 0 it is spent - nothing can be drawn on it at all, free scope or roll - until the start of the next Month, when every Resource returns to its full Level.

Why it works like this. The roll isn’t asking whether you’re rich. It’s asking what you can put your hands on right now. Wealth is liquid assets, not net worth - the money actually available this week, rather than the sum of everything you own.

Which is why the Level drops instead of the ask failing. In college you could buy the pizza, and then you were done buying things for a while. As an adult a decent used car is still well within reach, and it will still flatten you for a month. Neither of those is a failure. You got the pizza. You got the car. You just can’t do it again yet.

That’s the whole model, and it applies to every Resource, not only money. The ask goes through. What it costs you is your ability to make the next one.

Reaching beyond your means: a Resource Index up to 2 higher than the Resource’s current effective Level can be attempted - anything further out of reach can’t be attempted at all. Reaching that far always gets you what you were after, but drops the Resource’s Level to 0 for a Month (not just 1) regardless of whether the roll succeeded or failed - unless the roll is a critical success, which resolves the attempt as an ordinary free success with no cost at all.

Resource Index 6 is always a reach, however high the Resource’s Level, and below Level 4 it can’t be attempted at all, since that’s more than 2 above it. It’s also the one case a critical success can’t save: a Resource Index 6 attempt always drops the Resource to 0 for a Month, full stop, even on a critical success.

Wealth at Character Creation

Buying gear (see Weapons & Equipment) at character creation uses a dedicated procedure, not the general Pushing a Resource rule above.

A character’s creation-Wealth starts at 2, unless they spent Resources Pool points on Wealth, in which case their purchased Level is used instead. The Destitute Flaw overrides both: a Destitute character’s creation-Wealth is 0, and they cannot spend points on Wealth at all during character creation - the Flaw has to be bought off first. This applies only to creation; XP raises Wealth normally once play begins.

Every item carries a Wealth rating. Shopping happens in three steps, in this order.

1. Take your packages

One Everyman Gear Package from every Level up to and including your creation-Wealth - one from each Level, not several from the top. Free, no roll.

2. Take your free items

Money stops being a decision long before it stops mattering. What a character can simply have depends on how far the item sits below them:

A Wealth 3 character therefore walks away with everything they want at Wealth 1, any three items at Wealth 2 or 3, and a decision to make about anything above that. A Wealth 0 character gets a Level 0 package and nothing else free.

3. Roll for the rest

Two things are left: another item from the band you have already spent your free picks on, and anything sitting above your creation-Wealth. They are not the same purchase.

At creation-Wealth or one Level below, past the free allowance - a Wealth Check. Roll 2d10 against creation-Wealth + 10, roll-under, standard critical results apply.

Above your creation-Wealth - no roll. The item can be had, and having it costs everything: creation-Wealth drops straight to 0. Reach that far and you walk away with your Starting Packages, your free items, and that one thing.

The ask always goes through. What it costs is the ability to make the next one.

At creation-Wealth 0 the rolling stops, but the free items don’t. Both free bands are measured against the Level you actually bought, not against whatever is left of the pool - so spending yourself down to nothing still leaves you anything two or more Levels below your Wealth, as many as you can carry and justify, along with any of your free allowance you hadn’t used yet.

The Black Market is not part of this

Nothing on The Black Market is ever free. The steps above do not apply to it: every purchase there is a transaction whatever it costs, and it is gated by Black Market Access as well as by Wealth. Nobody hands you a jammer because you are rich.

Afterwards

Creation-Wealth carries across every purchase in this shopping pass. This pool is temporary bookkeeping only: it has no effect on the character’s actual Wealth Resource once play begins, which stays at whatever Level was actually purchased. Once creation ends this procedure stops applying entirely - every purchase from then on uses the general Pushing a Resource rule above, unaffected by anything that happened while shopping.

The Resources

Base

Somewhere that is yours. A door you control, a lock you picked out, and nobody’s name on the lease that you didn’t want there. It might be a room over a garage or a whole floor nobody else visits. Either way, you can shut the door and breathe.

How developed, defended, or well-equipped the headquarters/safehouse is.

1A dedicated, secure space of your own - a real hideout, workshop, or safehouse beyond an ordinary home; basic, but defensible

2A proper base with solid amenities and dependable security

3Well-equipped, with real security and specialized rooms

4Fortified and staffed, with serious defenses and advanced equipment

5A near-impenetrable, fully self-sufficient stronghold

Black Market Access

There is a version of every store that doesn’t ask, doesn’t record and doesn’t remember you came in. A guy with a van. A back room behind a laundromat. A number you text one word to. You know where those are.

How deep into illegal or off-the-books trade the connections reach.

1A single fence or dealer for common contraband

2A working relationship with a local black-market network - weapons, drugs, stolen goods

3Real standing with a regional network, access to rarer or more dangerous goods

4Deep pull into a national or international smuggling network, most anything can be found for a price

5A name in the black market itself - you don’t just buy from the network, you’re a fixture in it, able to source almost anything that exists

Contacts

You don’t know the answer. You know four people, and one of them does. A cop who owes you. A nurse who works nights. Somebody’s cousin at the airport. It isn’t what you know - it’s who picks up when you call.

How large, capable, or well-placed the network is.

1One reliable contact for small favors or info

2A handful of contacts spanning a couple of fields

3A broad network spanning most of a city

4An extensive network with regional reach, including a few influential names

5A vast network reaching into any relevant field or region, including powerful people

Corporate Backing

Something enormous and entirely legal has decided you are useful. It moves slowly, it moves in writing, and once it moves it is very hard to stop. There is a budget code with your name on it and a lawyer who already knows who you are.

How much a legitimate business entity can move, fund, or cover.

1A small business willing to carry you on the books, light cover and minor funding

2A real company with legitimate revenue, able to fund modest operations and provide solid cover

3A mid-size company with real assets, capable of funding serious operations and absorbing real scrutiny

4A major regional company, resources and cover to match, capable of weathering real investigation

5A multinational corporation’s backing, effectively bottomless resources and cover strong enough to survive nearly anything

Debts Owed

People owe you. Not favors, exactly - the other kind. The kind nobody gets out of by saying they’re busy. You don’t bring it up often. You have never needed to. They remember.

How much real leverage is owed, in favors people can’t easily refuse.

1One person who owes you a real, acknowledged favor

2A small handful of people who owe you, each for something genuinely significant

3A broader circle of real debts, enough to call in meaningful help when it matters

4Debts owed by people with real capability or standing of their own, favors that can move real weight

5A web of serious debts reaching people of real power, the kind of leverage that can bend outcomes that matter

Fame

People know your face. The room changes when you walk into it, and not always in the direction you would like. Strangers are friendly, or they aren’t, and either way they decided something about you before you opened your mouth.

How widely recognized the character is, and how strongly people react to it.

1Known within a small local circle

2Recognized across a city or subculture

3Known regionally or nationally

4Broadly famous - recognized by strangers regularly

5World-renowned, a household name

Followers

You have people who will actually go when you say go. Not fans. Not friends who would think about it and get back to you. People who turn up with a van at four in the morning and ask what it’s for later.

How many, how skilled, or how loyal the group is.

1A single loyal follower or apprentice

2A small handful of modestly capable followers

3A coordinated, reasonably capable crew

4A sizable, well-organized group with real capability

5A substantial, highly capable and loyal organization

Fringe Benefit

A card, a title, a laminated badge, a line on a form. Most people don’t know that door is a door. You have the thing that opens it, and nobody at the desk is going to argue with you about it.

The reach/exclusivity of the license, membership, clearance, or legal right.

1A basic hobbyist license/membership

2A recognized professional credential (licensed trade, press pass)

3Restricted-access clearance - into secured facilities, government-adjacent circles

4High-level clearance - classified access, executive-level standing

5Near-total access - opens virtually any door in its domain

Guild Standing

Inside one trade, your name means something specific. You don’t have to be in the room for it to mean it. People who have never met you know where you rank and behave accordingly.

How much rank and pull the character holds within a specific trade or professional body.

1A dues-paying member in reasonably good standing

2A recognized, respected member, able to call in modest favors

3A senior member with real influence over local guild decisions

4A leadership figure, influence reaching the guild’s regional or national body

5A defining figure within the guild itself, decisions of real consequence run through you

Informant Network

A lot of people see a lot of small things. Doormen, dishwashers, the guy running the newsstand, the kid who is always outside. Not one of them knows anything important. All of them tell you what they saw.

How wide and reliable the web of low-level eyes and ears is.

1A couple of regular tipsters in one neighborhood

2A working network across a city - cabbies, bartenders, doormen - who pass along what they see

3A broad network spanning a whole city’s worth of ordinary people, reliable and reasonably fast

4A network with regional reach, fast enough to catch developing situations as they happen

5An extensive network reaching anywhere relevant, near-real-time awareness of anything worth knowing

Legal Counsel

Somebody whose entire job is standing between you and the consequences, and who is very good at it. They answer at two in the morning. They don’t ask what you did. They ask what you said, and to whom.

How capable and well-connected the lawyer or legal team is.

1A single competent lawyer, reliable for everyday trouble

2A small firm that can handle real charges and knows which favors to call in

3A firm with real courtroom pull and connections into the local justice system

4A firm capable of making serious charges quietly disappear, with reach into regional courts and agencies

5Legal firepower capable of making almost anything short of the worst crimes vanish, nationally

Media Contact

A story runs, or it doesn’t. Somebody decides which, and you know them well enough to call. What ends up in the paper is not the same thing as what happened, and you have a hand in the difference.

How much a story can be shaped, planted, or killed before it runs.

1One sympathetic local journalist willing to hear you out

2A standing relationship with a local outlet - can get a story placed or softened

3Real pull with a regional news network - can plant, spike, or reframe a story reliably

4Influence reaching national media - a story dies or runs the way you want it to, most of the time

5Command of the narrative at a national or international level - what the world believes happened is substantially up to you

Medical Access

Care that happens quietly and competently, with nobody filling out the form asking how this occurred. A clinic that keeps odd hours. A surgeon who owes somebody. You get stitched up and you go home.

How much discreet, high-quality medical care can be called on.

1A single sympathetic nurse or paramedic willing to patch you up off the books

2A private doctor who treats you (and a few others) no questions asked

3A small discreet clinic with real equipment, staffed by people who won’t talk

4A private hospital wing or trauma team on standby, capable of handling serious, unusual injuries

5A world-class covert medical operation, capable of handling anything short of death itself, anywhere you can reach it

Occult Library

Shelves of things most people would find unbearably dull and a few people would burn the building down to reach. Some of it is photocopied. Some of it should never have been photocopied. You know where every piece of it is.

How comprehensive, rare, or dangerous the collection of esoteric material is.

1A modest personal collection - well-thumbed books on folklore and the occult, covering common knowledge

2A solid working library, with enough breadth to research most common supernatural phenomena and a few genuine rarities

3An extensive collection, including forbidden or suppressed texts - enough to dig into obscure or actively dangerous topics

4A renowned archive sought after by scholars and occultists alike, holding material found nowhere else publicly

5A legendary collection - texts thought lost or mythical; knowledge dangerous enough that possessing it alone draws attention

Safehouse Network

Somewhere to go that isn’t home, in more than one direction, already stocked. Cash, a change of clothes, a phone nobody has the number for. You have never needed all of them at once. You keep them all anyway.

How many scattered bolt-holes are maintained, and how well hidden each is.

Every site has power, running water, a way in and out, and basic supplies: food, bedding, a change of clothes, a first aid kit. None of them has anything beyond that. Whatever you need past keeping a person fed, dry and out of sight is whatever you carried in with you. A property that comes properly outfitted is an item, bought like any other.

1One bolt-hole beyond your Base. Somewhere to lie up for a night that nothing on paper connects to you

2A small handful across a city, none of them connected to each other or to you

3A network spanning a region, each site far enough off the road that nobody arrives by accident

4A network reaching into neighboring regions, a few of them hidden well enough to survive a real search

5A network at national scale, any site of which can disappear you completely, indefinitely

Sanctuary Standing

There is one patch of ground where nothing touches you, and everybody standing on it knows why. Get through that door and whatever is chasing you has to stop and think it over.

How protected the character is within one specific safe territory.

1A single establishment where you’re recognized and safe from casual trouble

2A small protected zone - a block, a building complex - where real trouble is unwelcome

3A genuine sanctuary territory, actively enforced, real consequences for violating it

4A significant, well-known sanctuary, respected and enforced across multiple factions

5A sanctuary recognized and honored practically everywhere relevant, violating it carries consequences almost no one is willing to risk

Signature Possession

One object. Yours specifically, known to be yours, and worth something to somebody other than you. A car, a watch, an instrument, a gun with a history. People recognize it before they recognize you.

How significant the one prized item owned actually is.

1A well-made, quality item - reliable, a cut above ordinary

2An item with a real history or reputation of its own, recognized by those who know to look

3A genuinely rare or exceptional item, sought after by serious collectors or rivals

4An item of real renown, recognized on sight by anyone versed in its field

5A legendary item, known even to people who’ve never seen it - and often coveted because of it

Spiritual Standing

Within one faith, your word carries weight that has nothing to do with what you can prove. People listen because of where you stand, not because of the argument you made. That cuts both ways and you know it.

How much weight the character’s name carries within a specific religious or spiritual community.

1A respected member of a local congregation or circle

2A trusted figure within a wider spiritual community, sought out for guidance

3Real authority within the community - your word carries weight in real decisions

4A recognized leader or elder, influence reaching related communities elsewhere

5A figure of real spiritual significance, recognized and deferred to across the faith or tradition broadly

System Access

Doors that aren’t doors, opened with credentials that are genuinely yours. You aren’t breaking in. You are logging in, and the log says you were supposed to be there.

How deep and wide the character’s reach into digital systems and networks already is.

1Access to public records and consumer-level databases and systems

2Real internal access into a specific organization’s systems - a company, a local agency

3Broad access spanning multiple systems and networks, reaching into mid-level corporate or government databases

4Deep access into high-security systems - classified government or corporate networks, real backdoors

5Near-total digital reach - access into almost any system that exists, the kind of reach that alarms anyone who learns of it

Territory

Actual ground that answers to you. Not owned - owned is a different thing, and much easier. Nobody deals on this block, drinks in this bar or parks on this street without it getting back to you.

How much real ground answers to the character specifically.

1A single block or building genuinely under your influence

2A modest neighborhood where your word carries real weight

3A significant district, actively held and defended

4A substantial stretch of a city, real infrastructure and people answering to you

5Territory on the scale of a city or region, genuinely yours in every practical sense

Underworld Reputation

In the parts of town with no signage, people have heard of you, and they have heard something specific. You never have to introduce yourself. You do occasionally have to correct the story.

How known, trusted, or feared the character is within criminal and hidden-world circles.

1A name a few low-level players recognize and treat with mild caution

2Known within a specific city’s criminal scene as someone not worth crossing

3Respected or feared across a city’s underworld broadly, name carries real weight in negotiations

4Known regionally among serious players - crime bosses, cartels, syndicates - as someone to reckon with

5A legend in the underworld nationally or beyond, invoked as a cautionary tale or a name that opens (or closes) any door

Vehicle

It gets you there, and people notice which one it is. That’s the trade. Everybody remembers the car, which is wonderful right up until somebody is describing it to a police sketch artist.

How distinctive, capable, or valuable the vehicle is.

1Reliable but unremarkable

2One standout feature - notably fast, armored, or distinctive

3Significantly customized, high-performance

4Rare and exceptional - armored, military-grade, or famous

5One-of-a-kind, legendary in capability or reputation

Wealth

Money you can actually reach, which is a different thing from money you technically have. Net worth is a number on paper. This is what’s in the account on a Tuesday, and it’s the only one that matters when you need something today.

How much disposable financial resource is available to draw on.

1Financially comfortable - bills, rent, and daily needs covered without stress, plus modest savings and room for the occasional splurge

2Well-off - real disposable income, enough saved to absorb an emergency without real strain

3Wealthy; owns property outright, can make major purchases freely

4Very wealthy; can finance a major undertaking outright

5A fortune large enough to move markets or bankroll entire operations