Core Rulebook

by W YTHE MARSCHALL
and the Stillfleet Studio
 Dwelling in a maze does not make it home…
—Nicola Masciandaro

Stillfleet
Core Rulebook
Version 1.2, 2024

by Wythe Marschall and the Stillfleet Studio

Writing by Wythe Marschall

Art by Ethan Gould
Design by Erich Lazar
Layout by Erich Lazar and Sunaree Paiwong
Editing by Stephen Aubrey
Digital tools by Aaron H.

Additional art by:

Amanda Lee Franck
Anthony Grasso
Hodag
Aibrahim Zx
Hyperdrive Fleet
Masami Kiyono
Gabriela Lopes Tores
Kimberly Diestro/Orange Arcana
Erich Lazar
Wythe Marschall
Sunaree Paiwong

Stillfleet © 2024 Wythe Marschall

Stillfleet.com | Support Stillfleet on Patreon | Play the game on Discord | Stillfleet on DTRPG | Stillfleet on Itch
Twitter/X | Instagram | Twitch | YouTube | Facebook | Mailing list | Bluesky | Reddit

Thanks to all our patrons and playtesters!

For examples of real Stillfleet play, check out the amazing podcast Float City

Land acknowledgement:
Stillfleet was created by settlers living on the unceded ancestral lands of the Munsee Lenape, Canarsie, Matinecock,
Schaghticoke, Wappinger, Gabrieleño, Ventureño, Fernandeño, Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk), Ho-de-no-sau-nee-ga
(Haudenosaunee), and other Indigenous peoples who stewarded Terra long before we arrived. We are uninvited visitors
who have benefited from the specific dispossession of these sovereign peoples. (Some of us have also benefited
from white privilege and generational wealth.) Processes of Indigenous dispossession began before we, or the capitalist
class whom we create art in opposition against, were born, and unfortunately these processes are ongoing. We remain
committed to dismantling settler colonialism, and we work in support of the sovereignty of independent Indigenous
nations everywhere.

002 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook

Contents
CREDITS 002 CH 07 ☉ S CRE AMS 193
PL AYING STILLFLEET
PREFACE 004
VENTURING FORTH 194
COMING BACK 208
C H 01 ☉ WORKS 007 COMPANY POLICIES 214
INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION 008 CH 08 ☉ PRO FITS 217

PL AYIN G AND GMING STILLFLEET 015 LIFE ON SPINDLE

SPINDLE 218
C H 02 ☉ GEARS 025 THE DIRECTORATE 220
CORE RULES THE ARCHIVE 227
CORE RULES 026 THE CANTEEN AND POINTS BELOW 234
WETAN LIFE 241

C H 03 ☉ WAYFARERS 039
DESIGNING VOIDMINERS CH 09 ☉ PAT T E RN S 247
THE COSMOS
CL ASSES 040
VOIDBORN(E) SPECIES 067 THRONES 248
FINISHING UP 082 NIGHTMARES 284

C H 04 ☉ ED G ES 089 CH 10 ☉ WH IS PE RS 309
ADVANCEMENT GMING STILLFLEET

LEVELING UP 090 MANAGING THE GAME 310

ADVANCED POWERS 096 BEHIND THE SCENES 319
NON- CO. CL ASSES 113 FANGS 325

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 346
C H 05 ☉ ECHOES 119
THE HELL SCIENCE
INDEX 348
THE HELL SCIENCE 120
HELL SCIENCE POWERS 125 COLOPHON 349

C H 06 ☉ WIRES 145 CHARACTER SHEET 350

MARKET TECH, ARCHAETECH, & NANOTECH

USING TECH 146

MARKET TECH 149
ARCHAETECH 170
NANOTECH 185

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook 003

 PREFACE

The wounded
goddess of the
mangroves
The luxury of an earth cathedral (or Akihabara mall) designed neither for nor
by humans. We had not been invited, and yet—as if
Stillfleet’s meaning for me has changed over time. The because we were moving respectfully, taking with us
game was originally—and will always be, in part—both only photos—we were allowed deeper and deeper into
a tool for creating moments of memorable fun with this secret temple.
my friends as well as an excuse to engage in, and weave The boat put in at a rickety wooden landing connected
together, the crafts of game design and future-oriented to a 2-M-high walkway that crossed the interior of the
literature. That is, at heart, Stillfleet is simply a tabletop mangrove forest, parallel with the water. We walked and
roleplaying game that is also a work of science fiction. walked, our guide telling us about the trees, my phone
But, from the beginning, Stillfleet has also been an capturing image after image of green and black, woven
attempt to think deeply about the politics of the future— together by gray roots. Finally the walkway petered out
the effects of climate disruption, evolutions both natural and down, onto a relatively thick floor of roots over mud.
and directed by humans, encounters with aliens and We were encouraged to walk around and take photos
human groups that appear “alien,” the nature of societies while the guide returned to the boat to drag it over a dry
in a period of post-post-apocalypse, and so on. In this patch and into the bayou closer to us. We took pictures,
way, the game has never been only a game or a fiction. slowly coming to recognize a keening sound that was at
It is also an experiment in collective thought and once very loud and very easy to ignore: cicadas. High
creativity, one that seeks to challenge all of our versions above us, they roared vigorously to a crescendo and then
of humanity’s future—whether complacent, utopian, quieted and built back their intensity again, all without a
apocalyptic, hopeless, or lost. human conductor, unseen, angelic.
And yet, while I may have had a certain purpose All at once, I felt overcome with a twinned emotion
for the game in my head since its inception, in an and idea so powerful that I wept. I was not apart from
intellectual sense, I don’t think I truly felt the depth of its these woods, on the other side of Terra from our home
role as a collective thought experiment until I traveled by in New York, because I am, like the mangrove trees
boat through the mangroves near Trat, Thailand, which and black crabs, one minuscule aspect of a vast system
is the hometown of my partner and Stillfleet Studio of living and non-living exchanges of chemicals, rays
member, Sunaree Paiwong (Kae). The luscious, salt- of radiation, gasses, fluids, signals. Each organism on
tolerant trees that populate these wetlands produce this rock—the only one like it in the whole of known
incredible flying road networks of roots, all tangled threespace (at least at +0 million years in the future; that
over a rich black mud in which thousands of tiny black is, today)—will die and pass the nutrients comprising it
crabs tunnel out their homes. From the small boat at back into the greater system, and from the system, new
low tide—with sunlight flitting down in patches through life will emerge, and die, and emerge again. The rainbow
the thin green canopy high above and the walls of pale of existence stretches on through the billions of years
gray trees and mud pressing in mere centimeters to our (yes, that far back, as far back as science can probe), and
right and left—traveling through this forest felt like the cicadas sing, and the trees construct and dam and
ambling through the closed exterior arcade of some dike and canalize.

004 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook

 All of my life, I have been acutely aware that humans purpose, ordinary souls forced into action, or even
are, collectively, the villains fucking up this beautiful villains (though we very much hope everyone gets the
rainbow system—chainsawing it, polluting it, mining it, joke here that the Co. is bad!). In my humble opinion,
and finally melting it with methane and carbon dioxide the best way to play Stillfleet or any such game is to
into an unrecognizable new Venus. And yet, out in the embrace the middle option: you are not special. You will
mangroves, I felt the intense, tear-inducing calm of die, and your nutrients will be upcycled, somehow, by
the rightfully religious sublime—that affect under whose something. And yet, you are not without agency.
spell one is paradoxically acutely aware of their own You are part of a vast, complex system, and even if
cosmic insignificance and yet completely at ease with it has taken a collective beating—e.g., 5 of Terra’s 9
this fact, celebrating it as cosmically right, even good. critically important planetary boundaries have already
And, just as I felt the sublime, the idea hit me: we may been crossed, according to the Stockholm Resilience
be the villains of Terra’s history to date, but Terra is a rich Centre—it is still operating, evolving. You may not have
and powerful meta-entity, as close to a goddess as we will much time. The great enemies may have gathered their
likely ever know, and she is not. Dead. Yet. armies (or spewed their carbon), but that is no cause
for hopelessness, laziness, or nihilism. You may be a

The responsibility of a mere picaro—Quixote, lance aimed at quotidian and yet

alien technologies; or Marlon James’s Tracker or Moon

meta-picaro Witch, close on the heels of a quarry whom you know

from the start you cannot save—but you are not nothing.
When we got back in the boat, Kae smiled and pointed Your training, your weapons, your instincts, your
at a large tree with pipe-like roots flying away and desires, your secrets, your pet potted demi-celerioid
down from its trunk at nearly right angles. “Stillfleet!” (ready to hatch into a vaguely lupine adult form), your
she said, invoking the game’s mix of alien and familiar, last rejiggered Wonderlandism grenade—these are not
verdant and machinic. I smiled through my tears, nothing, but are instead the hammer and anvil of hope.
because I felt she was exactly right: this, this tree, is at Hope for what strange new future, we cannot say. This
once just like a product of our game design practice (we game is, after all, not a work of futurology (much less
wish we could design as well as the earth itself!) as well science), but a fiction and a means of whiling away a fun
as a reason to engage in this work at all, a reason to afternoon with your friends. I sincerely hope that you
experiment in collectively imagining-otherwise about enjoy it as such.
humans, machines, trees, worlds, ethics, atmospheres, Even so. I hope you also dare to explore the void-
systems… picaresque in the register of hope-smithing, mangrove-
As we slowly exited the tide-flooded woods, my sense weeping, and praying to our wounded-but-not-dead-yet
of awe remained, but the truly sublime dissolution of rock. I invite every reader to join us in the experimental
subject and object faded, as it always does, and in its aspect of the game. It is my responsibility as one of
place swept back the tide of little neuroses, the ego. the meta-picaros to offer this experiment in earnest,
And yet I still carried in me a calm sense of hope, and thinking through its constraints as thoroughly as I can—
an all-rightness with my place, and by proxy our game’s and with the help of an unparalleled community.
place in the universe. Thus, with all my heart, happy experimenting, and
I know that a game will never be enough: it cannot do happy gaming!
for us the hard work of creating a more humane politics,
—Wythe Marschall, Trat, Thailand, May, 2022.
in which each receives according to their need, and each
gives according to their ability, and the workers hold the
power, and all of the mangroves are conserved, and no
more fossils are extracted and burned in order to melt
the sky, and no billionaires exist, and healthcare and
clean water are human rights. But a game can be, just
as a visit to the woods can be, a small act of forging
hope. A small prayer, a tribute to a wounded goddess.
A cybernetic refusal to see humans and machines as
merely, only, ever villains. A quest, however strange in
seeming.
Stillfleet, like all successful TTRPGs, allows players
to imagine themselves as epic heroes called to a higher

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook 005

 CH01 ☉ INTRODUCTION

The tome you now cradle with tremulous hands

This book—the product of ten years of playtesting, writing, and sketching—contains everything you need to
play Stillfleet—a bizarre, sometimes-zany, always-intrigue-packed roleplaying game about the superfuture.
Inside, you’ll find simple but versatile rules for playing space-bears in exosuits, giant bugs who work
as anthropologists for an early modern corporation, and quantum-physics-hacking hell scientists.
You’ll find character powers ranging from disarm to fray (two-dimensionalize), xenofauna (“monsters”),
Rules for genius octopodes
in steam-powered land-diving

ray-guns, maps, random generators, long lists of ancient ultra-technologies, plot hooks, optional rules,
notes on how to run RPGs safely and respectfully, and concepts drawn from different genres of science
fiction, science fantasy, and postapocalyptic storytelling. You’ll find a setting rife with tax forms, whis-
pering cactus-sages, voidmad time travelers, weary bureaucrats, and existentially anxious Archivists.
What you will not find are judgments or tedious obligate number-crunching. (Yeah, some hell
suits to come.

science powers have wacky formulae: that’s the price you pay for playing someone with a noetically
active ultracortex!) Stillfleet is a game for all sapients living at +0 million years in the future, regardless
of their class, race, gender, religion, ethnic identity, height, beliefs about the promise and peril of
biotechnology, knowledge of basic science, or aptitude for simple maths.
We really hope you enjoy it!

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH01 ☉ INTRODUCTION 007

 INTRODUCTION

Humanity is sacrificing itself to an experimental destiny

unknown to the other species, which have hitherto been left to meet
their natural fates.
—Jean Baudrillard, Impossible Exchange, 2001.

Stiffworks
What is Fleeters share a sing-song, pun-driven cant: at some

Stillfleet?
point, “Worshipful Company of Stillfleeters” became
Workstill, then Stillworks, then stiffworks (lower-
case)… The name stuck not to the Company, but to the
mysterious gates that link the various “reefed” stillfleets
to the empty and living provinces on the planets below

The Co. them and—most importantly—to Spindle.

The prevailing theory is that stiffworks are
Stillfleet is a game about exploring ruined spacecraft— humanoid- or ship-sized “pinched” areas of timespace
“hulks”—as well as habitable earth-like planets long-ago where two or more loci coexist: i.e., permanent doors
explored by Terrans but then cut off from contact with between sites that can be theoretically infinitely far
the greater galaxy for centuries or even millions of apart from one another in time and/or space. Most
years—“rocks.” stiffworks must be tacked back to the Co.’s headquarters
Thus Stillfleet is really two different games, one on Spindle to be of use to scavenging entrepreneurs.
hulkside—a series of grimdark explorations of advanced The tacking process is harder or easier depending on the
technical structures, hanging in the void—and the other kind of ‘works.
rockside—a political game about managing a venal early Stiffworks come in a few kinds: most seem to have been
modern company distributed across space. A third game made relatively recently, in cosmo-geological terms, by
is played out across time… an advanced (post)human civilization or civilizations
Players take the roles of various explorers working (or by one from the relatively soon-to-come future…).
as part of the Worshipful Company of Stillfleeters, Some seem to have always existed; some look like clumsy
more often known simply as “the Company,” or the imitations of the most ancient gates. Fleeters class them
Co. Theoretically, the players are working together… by their creator–civilization.
In practice, this is not always the case.
The term “stillfleet” comes from the fact that many Types of stiffworks
planets were once populated by humans, and that most
of these planets (or all of them?) are orbited even today ҂ Ancient – Some of the very ancient humans (i.e.,
by massive, “dead” ships. However advanced, these ships we) attained stiffworks technology. This category
never work as originally designed. Their tachyon drives covers the warpgates of mad scientists, Cold-War
are unpowered, their dimension mills broken. The prolif- experiments, NASA skunkworks projects, Chinese
eration of hulks and paradoxical absence of FTL-capable state inquiries into dimension-folding, the startups of
civilizations “today” (on-Spin, entangled with Terrasol tomorrow, Virgin Dimenzion™, and so on.
time) points to the correctness of the Dark Forest hy- ҂ Tephnian – At their height, fifty centuries ago,
pothesis… Something out there is hunting the victors of the decadent posthumans of Great Tephnii (pron.
planetary evolution as we know it. To reach these hulks, “TEFF-knee-eye”) who ruled earth also stretched
fleeters use not other ships but the timespace gates their dominion through the stars, netting dozens
called stiffworks. or perhaps even thousands of habitable worlds and

008 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WORKS

 leaving behind on them the great blood-colored metal before the founding of the Co., or ten centuries

Our prepositional concepts of

the Escheresque are inadequate.
shards that today function as stiffworks and markers before the present. These Carvolian provinces
of ghostly technoscientific hegemony. served as the primary markets of the Co. before the
҂ Snakeman – The horrific altars dubbed “Snakeman” Groot Tachquake (see “The Recent Past”).
stiffworks by the Co. seem to have been built in the ҂ Escheresque – Finally, there exist various higher-
near future. At least one blood-wytch of Janoosh, order dimensional sapients—called extradimension-
Empire-to-Come, knows already of the existence of als (who may simply be the final cohort of humans)—
Spindle. They are difficult to look at (they shouldn't who “inhabit” an articulation of the universe in which
exist yet), counterintuitive to tack, and painful to pass the laws of physics are radically different from
through, typically involving ritual sacrifice. our experience of them. “In” the Escheresque, real-
҂ Heechee – Based on scant data and much conjecture, ity appears as an infinite series of twisting, intestinal
the so-called “final civilization of earth” is thought corridors; each twist intersecting with some point(s)
to be that of the bee-people of the distant future, in threespace as well as other X-spaces; each or-
colloquially known as the heechee. Fortunately, gan-like chamber–city has its own unique physics.
when the sun is bloated red, Janoosh will fall to the Stiffworks leading [up?] “to” the Escheresque are rare.
Manymothers, who have guided us here.
No one really knows what most stiffworks are,
҂ The most extensive known heechee stiffworks is
who or what made them, or how or why they work.
the Heechee Tombs, stably connecting Spindle to
That said, we fleeters know em when we find em.*
Terra at a point in the central-northern mountains nausea they
*[An Archival footnote reads:] In part, this is due to the
of the larger supercontinent, Pala. From the Tombs, induce in humanoids, the tachyonic “spikes” or “kicks” they
induce in
several small groups of humans from the nation of ic beings, and the havoc they visit upon Co. equipme nt.
informat
Carvolia settled habitable worlds seven centuries

Figure: A Malkovich tunnel, the type of stiffworks found on Spindle. Each tunnel connects a point A (set destination) to another point B
(set destination) and cannot be retacked.

Observable structure
of the tunnel

A B

Theorized manifold of
the tunnel when “open”

Figure: Late Tephnian shards. Their “doors” open thanks to the action of trillions of nano-scale robots. Each shard is tacked from a point
A to another point B, but these points can (in theory) be retacked. Archival estimates vary regarding the number of remaining functional
nodes in the network.

Late Tephnian “redsteel shards”

(quantum topological ceramic menhirs)

“Shardcasting” makes the

interiors of shards co-terminus

A B

The Late Tephnian

shardcaster network
linked many points
in timespace

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH01 ☉ INTRODUCTION 009

 Spindle different colors, have kept the inhabitants of Spindle
alive for twenty years.
The Co.’s home is a black cylinder of alien design ҂ The Flats – Radiating around the Canteen are
that spins on the edge of a beautiful pink nebula at variously techno-sumptuous and dieselpunk living
an unknown distance from earth. quarters. The directors have their choice. Recruits do
Along its vertical
Technically called the Arkheion by not. You begin the game with a room-blob that acts as
axis, Spindle
the Co.’s directors, Spindle, as it is a small flat, unless your class dictates otherwise.
measures 1/112 th
more commonly known, is very large, ҂ The ‘Works – The various tentacular bays emanating
the diameter
mostly dark and unmapped, and off the other sectors of Spindle lead to the stiffworks
of Mercury.
has for three centuries maintained a that connect the station to the rest of the known
humanoid-friendly atmosphere. The inhabitants of universe. Most of these ‘works are poorly understood
Spindle speak a patois drawn from various common and do not seem to—pun intended—work. They are
Terran languages and a few other sources. This language grouped by nearness to the heart of Spindle:
is called Spindlespeak, or Spin, by fleeters. ҂ The Near Bays – Relatively well-used and safe to
Spindle is a very strange place for non-Spindleborn explore. The stiffworks here lead to the provinces.
humans to inhabit, at least at first. There are no Parts of the Near Bays are It’s rumored tha
t a group
portholes, but many screens in the Arkheion proper inhabited, mostly by poor wetan families. of monk-like
mournfolk
illustrate Spindle’s position in space, and some monitor ҂ The Far Bays – Largely mysterious. The have taken up
residence
Spindle from the outside. No one has ever managed stiffworks here lead to alien but habitable somewhere in
the hellish
to hack into whatever “mainframe” Spindle possesses, worlds. Dormant Bays and seek to
and its technological substrate seems utterly unlike the ҂ The Dormant Bays (off limits) – Accord- live out their
years there
others encountered by the fleeters so far. ing to Co. propaganda, the Dormant in silent reflect
ion, never
Bays are guarded by dangerous techno- reporting what
they learn,
Sectors of Spindle alien specters and should not be visited which violates
the Remit
unless absolutely necessary… of Enigmas. Alw ays give
҂ The Arkheion proper – This library of comms (comput- back to the Co. what is
ers) and other fantastic machines, most long dead, taken from the void!
is the heart of Spindle, where the directors and their
Senior Archivist advisor–rivals gather in council…
According to the Directorate, the Arkheion’s physi-
Spin
cal hoard has been continuously amended, and the
bureaucratic machinery of the Co. enlarged and made The language Spin is close enough to the Terran
more efficient for three hundred years. languages Carvolian and Vennari that these are
҂ The Directorate is a plutocratic cartel balanced mutually intelligible. Otherwise, if you meet something
somewhat by the quasi-religious, ascetic, past- out there in the void that makes unknown sound
technology-worshiping Archive. The Archive patterns or scratches previously unseen glyphs,
is in charge of exploring and exploiting the hell you’re on your own figuring out how to say howdy.
science—the evolution of consciousness. Hell
scientists use their imaginations to sculpt Inside a room-blob
timespace. Back on Terra, knowledge of the hell
science grows far too quickly; we must intervene.
҂ The Canteen – Here, below the Arkheion, fleeters
gather in innumerable hole-in-the-wall cafés to drink
and carouse. In the narrow niches
Archaetech is anything
of the Basilikon, they stand before
that can’t be manufactured
their Refactors to bid on ventures
on Spindle, Terra, or the
from the directors. And in the
provinces, such as an Ancient
great, smoky Bazaar, they buy
smartphone, a neutralino
archaetech scraps not sold on
beam emitter, a Gauss
consignment to the Co. The
cannon, a frigate-class
Canteen houses nanotechnology-
starship, nanotech smart
driven food replicators that,
Blood, a food replicator,
though they only produce bland
or a Dyson sphere.
protein–phytonutrient mush in

010
 ZONES OF
NEAR BAYS INHABITED
SPINDLE

FAR BAYS

DORMANT
BAYS

p
k
e
h
o
e
r
,
t
e

UPMOST THE CANTEEN THE BASILIKON LITTLE WETANA

MP = Mothcatchers’ Porte DM = Draadmijners’ Guild AQ = Acquisitions VF = Velvet Fruit Salter’s securi-

AR = Arena EX = Exchequery ties exchange and haberdashery
THE ARCHIVE DB = Docs-in-Blobs LW = Law
TG = Terran Goods TQ = Tranquility THE NEAR BAYS
CB = Chroming Belt-Mall OR = Oracles VM = Voidmining
BT = Bibliotekion CA = Casino PN = Pantry HT = Stiffworks to the Heechee
ED = Echodrome NX = Nexus NM = Nanomothers Tombs on Terra
FH = Food Hall AL = Alterity
TA = Trades & Arts LT = Lottery THE FAR BAYS
UW = Upper Wetana RG = Stiffworks to the Rod of
THE FLATS Ghenîb on Pazūzūn
NC = Newer Calayat
THE DORMANT BAYS
Figure: Exterior room-blob, showing the spine of a Malkovich tunnel.
Spinechurch, home of the
Phæmmul [not shown]

Most room-blobs
are between 3
and 10 M along
their longest
dimension Tunnel spines extend many km into the void,
growing thinner until becoming undetectable

011
 H.Co. is the largely apocryphal
S.P.E.C.T.R.E. to the Co.’s M.I.6.

The recent past Timeline of Terran activities on-Spin

A little over twenty years ago, a massive tachyon storm ҂ 961 years before present (YBP) – Humans from the
emanating from the future (or so the Senior Archivists Terran nation of Carvolia discover the great stiffworks
maintain) cut all tacks to and from Spindle’s stiffworks. called the Heechee Tombs and start settlements on
All of them. Various theories were put forward to explain several Goldilocks worlds. Within one generation,
what the Archivists called the Didecadic Immertension however, civil war in Carvolia cuts off access to the
Failure, better known as the Groot Tachquake, including Tombs, and the so-called Carvolian provinces are
meddling by the shadowy and perhaps apocryphal stranded with no way to return to Terra for centuries.
Honourable Company of Stillfleeters, or H.Co. ҂ 317 YBP (Co. year zero) – Independent discovery of
In the days after the Tachquake, your Co. went from the Heechee Tombs and, through it, of Spindle by
a bustling network of agents linking various planets and the “Five Most Vile”—rival merchant-warlords on
hulks to a marooned dystopia—slowly dying, surviving Terra who become the founding directors of the
on mush and card games and petty political upheavals. Worshipful Company.
Terra, even, was lost. An entire generation of fleeters ҂ Spindle reacts to human presence by generating
grew up having never ventured out into the stars, Terran atmo and gravity. Even stranger, time
having never clashed with an Enshagan voidhound elver on-Spin passes in sync with Terra.
just after it spawned inside the chest of a companion. ҂ Dawn of the Age of Veinstumbling: the first two
You are one of these newbs. generations of voidminers discover most of the
This year, however, suddenly, the tachyon spikes major provinces and other Goldilocks worlds,
fell to acceptable levels, and a test transmission to a including rediscovery of the Carvolian provinces.
listening station on the Massive influx of wetan immigrants from Calayat
Archivists posit that the
dread but economically and elsewhere. The Co. chooses to focus on its
unfathomably long astronomical
stable Planet of the presence in the void, viewing Terra as simply the
æons may have been previously
Saffron Anax (Tsawald) largest of many markets.
punctuated by events such as the
met with a successful re- ҂ 284 YBP – The Vile Five disappear from public life
‘Quake. If so, extant Ancient
ply. The stiffworks can be on-Spin. Close of the Age of Veinstumbling.
and Tephnian records show no
re-tacked. Transgalactic, ҂ 22 YBP – The Groot Tachquake begins: all stiffworks
indication. Research is ongoing.
transdimensional trade known to the Co. function cease functioning.
can resume. If only there are a few hardy souls brave ҂ 1 YBP – The Groot Tachquake subsides: stiffworks
enough to conduct it… begin working again.
҂ 0 YBP (Co. year 317) – The “now” of Stillfleet: the Co.’s
trade deals are in tatters. The populace of Spindle
yearns to see the light of any sun. Threats abound.
Opportunities, too.

012
 The two halves of Stillfleet
The rest of The first half of this book contains the core rules that

this book
both the players and the GM need to read. Each player
only needs to read the sections pertinent to their char-
acter, while the GM should read or at least skim all of
the rules.
The second half offers chapters on designing and

Getting started running ventures (episodes of games), as well as chap-

ters that explore the many possible settings of Stillfleet:
The following rules are intended to help you begin Spindle, the major and minor provinces, Terra, the wilds
roleplaying as a fascinating early modern-esque of the void, and the higher-dimensional environment
adventurer who lives in outer space amid the ruins of called the Escheresque. The final chapter includes full
vast techno-empires, hunting for loot, stepping into statistics and story notes for 20 (potentially) dangerous
an increasingly complex web of political messes, and encounters of different types.
perhaps trying to make the void a more humane place. While the second half of this book is aimed primarily
Although the rules have been rigorously playtested, they at the GM, different sections within it may interest many
are not inflexible, and your group is free to use, abuse, players.
adapt, and ignore them as you like.
If you want to get started using them as written, then
everyone should read the chapters on core mechanics
On genre
(“Gears”) and classes and species found on Spindle
(“Wayfarers”). After that, when it comes time to finish Stillfleet is a mashup of two genres: the lost world-
your characters, you’ll want to consult the chapter on exploration-driven fantasy of Dungeons & Dragons—but
equipment (“Wires”). Everyone will use these rules. The with the default civilization being that of early modern
chapter that introduces how venture plots tend to work space-Holland, not Tolkienesque quasi-England—and
(“Screams”) is also broadly useful. technology-driven, space-focused sci-fi such as that of
Depending on their characters’ classes, some players Ann Leckie, Cixin Liu, James Tiptree Jr./Alice Sheldon
will need to read the chapter on advanced powers (e.g., her absolutely brilliant stories “On the Last
(“Edges”) or the one on the Weird (“Echoes”), and Afternoon” and “With Delicate Mad Hands”), Ursula
all players will need to read the chapter on advanced K. Le Guin, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Charlie Stross.
powers eventually—if their characters survive. Stillfleet also features a healthy dose of pulpy New
The game mechanics are simple; the list of playable Weirdness and a shout-out to the biological futurism of
classes and species is more involved, but a first-time Octavia Butler and Paolo Bacigalupi.
player only needs to make a small number of choices to The core idea is that you are working for, subverting,
begin—namely, and not in this order: what is your big competing with, running away from, or otherwise
idea for your character (concept); what is their class interacting with the Dutch East India Company
(job, role, vocation, specialty); and what is their species c. 1650 CE… in the limitlessly haunted void. Thus,
(and, relatedly, homeworld)? The options are diverse and instead of playing knyghts, elves, and wizards hunting
bizarre, but each is simple mechanically, having a small deep beneath the earth for gold and fighting off
number of powers. minotaurs and skeletons, in Stillfleet, you play space
marines, psyons, and hackers who travel up, out,
and into the void to search for quantum computer parts
Dice and choices and laser pistols, battling mi-go and rogue automata in
the process.
Many players will likely find it sufficient to understand
the dice-rolling mechanics that underpin the game
(“Gears”), and then to think about the choices involved
in designing the future-adventurers whom they’ll
pretend to be when your group plays (“Wayfarers”).

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH01 ☉ INTRODUCTION 013

How a
In sum, an RPG uses simple rules to bring to life epic
group stories. In an RPG, you take chances, live, and ul-
timately die. Thus an RPG is just like real life—only with

roleplaying
more crazed ramen-noodle-cooking androids, eyeless
dinosaurs, intelligent mega-crabs, laser rifles, fourth
brain lobes, and nanoswarm wytches…

game works PCs: you’re an employee

Players, remember that you are an employee of the Co.

Read this if you’ve never You are supposed to abide by its rules, even when you
disagree with your superiors. Of course, breaking the

played an RPG before rules can be fun, too…

In this tabletop roleplaying game (RPG), you play—that

is, you pretend to be—a player character (PC) called a
voidminer who lives in the future. “Player” always refers
GMs: you’re the Co.
to you, the human being; “PC” or “voidminer” refers to
your fictive persona in the game. Remember that you are the Co. You are also all of the
As a PC, you hang out with other PCs for some aliens and the brutal void of space itself. This game is
reason—money? common political cause? lack of different from other RPGs because the players must
other options?—and interact with non-player characters contend with the Co. along with “wandering monsters.”
(NPCs), narrated by a referee or storyteller. The referee Inventing ways for players to subvert their venal
is in charge of creating the world in which you and the employers will be one source of fun as you play.
other PCs live, struggle, and die. In this book, the referee
will be called the grimventure manager (AKA the game
master or GM).
In the game, your main job is to work with the other
PCs (your fellow protagonists) and the GM (who creates
all of the antagonists, allies, and rewards) to tell a great
story. This story may feature episodes of violence and
betrayal, sneaking and fleeing, shouting and persuasion,
exploration and riddling, and more. The style of the story
is up to your group.
In the course of telling your story, you will roll
different types of polyhedral dice (written as “dX,” where
X is the maximum value on the die), hoping for a high
number. In addition to ordinary dice (“d6s”), you will roll
d30s, d20s, d12s, d10s, d8s, d4s, and even d100s (two
d10s, one determining the tens place, the other the ones
place), d3s (d6 rolls wherein 1 and 2 count as 1 and so
on), and d2s (coin tosses).
Remember: this is a game about stories, political
struggles, secret passions, lost civilizations, and empathy
across species—not rolling dice. Yes, rolling dice—that
is, devolving the whims of fate onto random numbers—
can be fun. But at its core, a sci-fi RPG is a way of collec-
tively narrating surprising, unique stories about futures
that could (semi-)plausibly come to pass. No matter how
ridiculous your character, when you play Stillfleet, treat
the game world as though it could really exist, the game
as though it is happening, and your voidminer as though
they matter to people in this world, in this moment.

014 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WORKS

 P L AY I N G A N D G M I N G STI L L F L E E T

“Down on Earth,” she said carefully, “there are no people left

to draw lines on maps and say which sides of those lines
are the right sides. There is no government left. No human govern-
ment, anyway.”
—Octavia E. Butler, Dawn, 1987.

Character
design
Class and species
In designing a character, you need to make two
key choices: class (job, vocation, role) and species
(biological or mechanical heritage).
There are no rules regarding how players should
select classes, other than the fact that, if your group
does not include a banshee, one will be appointed to
you by your refactor. But a group comprising only
blooders (nanotech-vampyre-junkies) will feel extremely
different from a more balanced group—say, a banshee,
pir, stillrijder, and witness.

Classes
Standard Co. jobs
҂ Banshee – Co. pilot—a technology expert, trained to
tack stiffworks.
҂ Factor – Co. merchant-marine officer—an aspiring
director, trained to boss others around, keep their
morale up, and make trade deals.
҂ Pir – Co. scholar and doctor—a therapist, exo­planetary
priest, and/or trauma surgeon for the team.
҂ Razi – Exoplanetary ranger—a scout, trained to track
down anyone, tame any beast, and shoot any foe.
҂ Stillrijder (silent J) – Co. soldier—a killer, wearing a
powerfully armored exosuit, trained to protect the
rest of the team.
҂ Witness – Co. diplomat and anthropologist—a
professional talker, able to make contact with any
alien civilization, translate enigmatic languages, and
(hopefully) smooth over misunderstandings.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH01 ☉ INTRODUCTION 015

Weirdo partycrashers ҂ Mournfolk – A pair of techno-mummified, crystal-
҂ Blooder – Nanite-addicted “sorcerer”—a nutcase who skinned sapphire elves from the poor province-
found a vial of priceless Late Tephnian liquid nano- world of Gigou—minds bound inextricably together
tech and became addicted to the body-altering powers in mourning for the loss of their original civilizations
it granted. due to senseless war.
҂ Jackal/Mouse – Criminal or orphan—a stowaway on a ҂ Mulgulm – A puritanical moldfolk from the lost planet
venture: a liar and/or a thief. of Nașudrūn.
҂ Snakehead – Self-taught hell scientist—a wild psyon, ҂ Mulruk – A frog-like freedom fighter from Gigou.
unconcerned with the rules of the Directorate, able ҂ Shoodtha – A metal-eating, robotic traveler with
to bend timespace with a thought (though frequently a large, metallic, faceless, crumpled-bag-like head—
unable to control the results). curious and fond of human swords.
҂ Tremulant – Co. hell scientist—an Echotested spy ҂ Sleeper – A Late Tephnian (post)human from
for the Archive, brain-opened to maximize control Terra, dreamlessly asleep in cryostasis for five
of the physics-hacking discipline called the hell thousand years until recently awoken…
science. While technically acting on behalf of the ҂ Solarian – A mimic from a yet-to-be-located living
Co., tremulants tend to be feared and distrusted by planet, capable of copying any species.
their fellow voidminers. ҂ Unhuman – A four-armed posthuman from Terra.

Some playable species Future humans and posthumans

Common on-Spin
҂ Fleeter – A Spindle-born human. 100 million years from now, “Terran” doesn’t mean
҂ Provincial – A human born on one of the province- “human,” at least not exclusively—and vice versa. There
worlds, trapped on-Spin during the Groot Tachquake. are many nonhuman sapient species on Terra and
҂ Wetan – A giant cricket-like bug, born on-Spin or in throughout the void. And even though the scattered
one of the multiple provincial Wetanas. polities of humans still resemble one another and can
interbreed, many capital-F Fleeters—those humans
Uncommon but not unknown born on-Spin—think of humans from Terra as a separate
҂ Conscript – A human born on Terra: “savage,” people, “conscripts”: i.e., irradiated mutants to be
according to most Fleeters, and far more likely to be abducted and trained as hell scientists, pysonic servants
able to manipulate the hell science. of the Co., in the Archive. Humans born neither on-Spin
҂ Pepper elf – A smoky quartz, child-sized automaton or on Terra are lumped together as “provincials”—rubes,
from a long-ago-destroyed guildship. marks, and cargo cultists. Finally, many “alien species”
may in fact be posthumans—groups of humans who
Ancients, aliens, and extradimensionals so heavily engineered themselves that they no longer
҂ Aux – A nigh-immortal hologram, bound to some appear or think of themselves as members of Homo
number of physical drives, which can speak to other sapiens sapiens. How you choose to play your character
technical beings but must be carried by someone else and voice their feelings about other sapients is up to you.
on the team.
҂ Desmudu – A pre-symbolic speech, flight-capable, bat-
like humanoid from the province-world of Kakudun.
҂ Duul-duul – A group of rabbit-like multibots from the
deepest void or Escheresque.
҂ Enjan – A sapient and motile cactus-like plantoid from
the province-world of Qreyjal.
҂ Harajoon – A chimpanzee-like humanoid with gliding
wings and a knack for using computers.
҂ Hrijn – An ultra-intelligent, higher-dimensional being
that appears to threespacers as a group of elephantine
legs and a floating bowling ball.
҂ Jalasti – A short, pacifistic, pansexual salamanderoid
from the province-world of Darasan.
҂ Mongrel – A time-traveling, shrew-faced bear-thing,
sent to save humanity… from itself.

016 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WORKS

Finishing up
In addition to the major conceptual choices of species
and class, you will also need to select one telos or two
Gameplay
teloi (goals, purposes): what do you abstractly want and
thus tend to do? Help people? Get rich? Preserve order?
Learn secrets? Your telos has minor game effects, but
A matter of genre and style
it helps you understand your character and how they Your friends and you can play this game any number
relate to others. of ways, focusing on destroying dangerous aliens and
And of course you’ll need money! You start with protecting innocent sapients across the known inhabited
a number of voidguilders (abbreviated gl) equal to worlds; exploring and looting randomly generated hulks
10 × (maxWIL +maxCHA). You can use this cash to buy (dungeons in space!); engaging in corporate espionage
standard gear in the Canteen, including weapons, armor, and exoplanetary political intrigue—perhaps ultimately
comms, envirosuits, drugs, pets, and more. undermining the Co. (the Directorate and Archive are
You also begin play with a single minor piece of not beneficent!); or simply discovering strange new
archaetech called an oddment: this can be a cool piece places, deep in the void.
of old tech, a one-of-a-kind pet, or a major clue for down As a player, your experience will be different
the road that doesn’t throw off the game’s balance of depending on the genre your group is going for. But
power. An oddment may have some minor game effect, generally, you will explore hulks or planets or parts
but it should be hyper-specific. Perhaps it only works of Spindle; interact with new people and things;
once, or it only works narratively. make checks (roll your scores); and occasionally
fight or carry out some equivalently serious non-
Pre-generated and random characters combat-oriented action (perhaps by stealing an ancient
technical item from a corrupt official, or trying to play
If you are a player, choose one of the pre-generated matchmaker for two powerful aliens).
characters to play. Feel free to swap gear, change names, At different moments, depending on your class and
or even—with the GM’s permission—alter rules slightly style of play, you will also use your various powers,
to better fit your own play style. including innate abilities (species powers) and the hell
You can also generate a random character online! This science (Weird powers).
1st-level character will be very random, but it will also be And throughout it all, you’ll talk with—and laugh at,
complete, including powers and gear. and maybe yell at, and argue with—your fellow players
and the GM.
The last chapters of this book offer statistics for dan-
gerous aliens. But it’s also easy to come up with new
statistics for adversaries, invent new locations and won-
drous items, and port in your favorite plots from other
settings.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH01 ☉ INTRODUCTION 017

GMing a
In terms of an experience, bending time and space
is unforgettably weird: the PCs are cramped, crawling
down a smooth, lightless, room-temperature stone

venture
tunnel—toward an entirely different physics, untold
astronomical units away. Maybe they’ll joke.
Eventually, as they crawl deeper and deeper, the

Maybe they’ll puke.

physics of the tunnel “tilt,” and they see light or hear
distant noises from their destination, if it has light or

What does the Co. want? sound. At the end of the tunnel, they emerge into some
other space, perhaps the tele-anchor room of a great
The general cadence of the game goes like this: the PCs dead ship, or the bottom of a Snakeman Antitemple. The
agree as a group to take on an official venture with the tunnel closes behind them (reopening it will generally
Co. This involves signing a contract with a refactor, an be much harder than opening a Malkovich tunnel), and
officer of the Directorate. For example, maybe they are they are suddenly very far from home.
hired to investigate a dead Ancient ship (a “hulk”) or the
ruins of Tephnian colony; or maybe they’re tricked into
aiding the seditious Honourable Company; or maybe
Talk about your play-style
they are hired to quell a rebellion among farmers on a
distant backwater, or to steal a powerful techno-artifact Before you start playing, discuss what aspects of the far
from a void-elf scholar in orbit around Jupiter. future you are collectively interested in exploring. What
Next, the party tacks out from Spindle (unless the elements are off the proverbial table? Even if you’re
venture is on-Spin). Then lots of wacky/deadly space- good friends and long-time gamers, it’s good to check
hijinks ensue. Perhaps a plot twist or two occurs. in. You might consider RPG safety tools such as the
Eventually, the survivors return to Spindle to turn in an fabulous TTRPG Safety Toolkit:
official report of what happened to their Refactor, sell The TTRPG Safety Toolkit is a resource co-curated
any archaetech they collected to the Co., collect their by Kienna Shaw and Lauren Bryant-Monk. The TTRPG
pay—and level up. Repeat! Safety Toolkit is a compilation of safety tools that have
been designed by members of the tabletop roleplaying

Tacking out games community for use by players and GMs at the
table. You can find it at bit.ly/ttrpgsafetytoolkit.
Spindle’s outermost room-blobs each feature a smooth,
funnel-shaped hole in the wall, just large enough for a

Settings
large human to start crawling down, that continues
on… forever. These are the famous Malkovich tunnels.
The discovering director was a fan of Charlie Kaufman.
When tacked to a destination and “opened,” they become
stable gates between two timespace loci. Narratively,
they serve as starting points for most ventures, once the
PCs have a signed contract from a refactor.
Hulks
Tacking out from a standard Malkovich tunnel on So where do ventures take place? Many are set on the
Spindle is relatively easy: any character with the power various dead ships orbiting planets—or anchored deep
tack (i.e., any banshee) can, as a standard action, burn in the void, nowhere near a solar system.
2 grit (GRT) and open any stiffworks in the Near Bays. The golden rules: 1. Space is full of hulks. The Ancients,
In the Far Bays, they must burn 2d10 GRT and pass cryptocerids, Tephnians, mi-go, faalaan, and any
a normal reason check. This represents the effort and number of barely glimpsed other civilizations have
uncertainty involved in trying to parse an Archival spammed the stars with great gleaming warmachines,
quantum ledger (or whatever MacGuffin you choose to ultrastructural mobile planets, Rubik’s cubes the size of
function as a user guide for the alien warpgate). cities, and Dyson spheres…
Tacking out from the Dormant Bays should be a And yet, 2. PCs should not be allowed to p ​ ilot​hulks,
unique experience, costing a lot of effort (2d20 GRT except as a reward after concerted effort. Hulks are
and a difficult, 9+, REA/use tech check) and involving advanced, dangerous technologies. The PCs are early
some danger of ending up at a random destination— modern explorers and merchant marines. They can
perhaps nowhere at all. press buttons, cross fingers, and roll REA/know checks

018 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WORKS

to abruptly “remember” their training in engineering
all they want, but most hulks should be just that: dead
Provinces, colonies, companies,
ships—dungeons. and empires
To make it plausible for the PCs to get up to these sky-
dungeons without their own vessels, spam ​para-hulks: Is the Co. out to steal land and resources from other
give them space elevators, launchpads with working sapients? That is largely up to you. In the canonical
one-off shuttles, and quantum tunnels pre-tacked to the version of the game, the Co. is evil but not yet imperial
coordinates of teleporter pads on warships. in the sense of being able to militarily dominate
many worlds. Instead, it functions as a scheming and

Provinces and alien worlds paranoid, well, company.

The chapter “Screams” has a longer section on this
Many ventures will touch at some point upon distant question, with more thoughts on how your choices
Goldilocks worlds: planets long-ago engineered to be about the politics of the future will affect your game.
habitable by advanced civilizations, but then abandoned. For now, a short rule is: no fascists allowed! The point
Some of these worlds have been rediscovered in the of Stillfleet is to question, challenge, and rethink the
relatively recent past. The rest of the book offers many ways that markets and techno-fixes come to seem
such settings, with unique xenofauna (“monsters”), natural. It is explicitly not a game about murder-hoboes
archaetech, plot hooks, and more. For more information dominating new worlds. If you want to mindlessly kill
on the provinces, see “Patterns.” and rob aliens, play a video game!

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH01 ☉ INTRODUCTION 019

 Major provinces d8

1 Calarash​ – Mostly water; all land masses are small archipelagos. Ruled by an autocratic
trade council called the Kemmerath. Home to native sapients called dolphinoids.

2 Calayat​ – Very similar to Terra. The largest province by population and certainly the
richest. Probable ur-home of the wetans.

3 Darasan​ – This half-terraformed world, much colder than earth, comprises three rival
queendoms, two of which are relatively recent breakaways from the original queendom
of Theen. The sky above Darasan is full of orbiting ships of unknown provenance.

4 Gigou​ – The cool, wet “Moss Planet” is the smallest and poorest major province. Gigou is
home to the few remaining sapphire elves, the resettled harajoon and the mulruk.

5 Kakudun​ – Largely independent, consisting of dozens of competing kingdoms, all eager

to buy weapons, armor, and luxury goods from the Co.

6 Lost Na​ș​udr​ū​n​ – A true Goldilocks planet, Na​ș​udr​ū​n was once orbited by a Late Tephnian
ring-colony. Today it is home to a vast kingdom of puritanical lichenoids called mulgulm—
and all contact with this planet has been lost.

7 Qreyjal​ – Known for its great paralytic ocean–organism, the zanj. Largely independent,
consisting of several rival early modern empires. Home of the plant-people called the
enjan.

8 Rugu​ņ​ – The most recently discovered major province, Rugu​ņ​is a cool, wet, earthlike
planet with a middling-large human population of time-traveling Snakeman origin.

Minor provinces
d10

1 Carlivago​ – The “World City” stands in the one biotically active swamp on an otherwise
lifeless planet. The Carlivane are paranoid that their city will be conquered by the mi-go;
they view all visitors as potential spies.

2 Demarach/Paldanaar​ – A water world, full of sunken archaetech. The few dry

archipelagos are inhabited by crazed religious groups, only a few of which are loyal to
the Co.

3 Faneslary​ – A mining camp on a dry world with an almost-earthlike atmosphere that is,
unfortunately, unbreathable by humans or wetans. The political situation is beyond tense.

4 Grimmle​ – A cold, watery rock. Grimmle’s villages serve as loyal markets for the Co.
but are at risk from the periodic depredations of the titanic crabs that inhabit the planet’s
oceans.

5 Kavaraat​ – This earthlike world exists in three phases of time at once. Tacking here is
dangerous but potentially lucrative.

6 Radanaar​ – A semi-hospitable, very hot desert planet home to bacteria, giant spiders,
lichen, and little else. Literally forgotten by the Co.

7 Ruoin​ – “The Rightside-Up, Outside-In” is a Goldilocks world. The part known to the Co.
is ruled by the empire of Malkangaard. Ruoin is also home to an advanced, Escheresque
(“Inside-Out”) alien species called the hrijn, which look like 3-M tall elephant-squids.

8 Tsawald​ – “The Saffron Anax’s Worlds” is an unstable double planetary system ruled
by a powerful, tyrannical Escheresque being called the Saffron Anax. Funny enough, the
Saffron Anax is a believer in free trade and friend of the Co.

9 Tyharin – Some portion of the time, this backwater world is part of an advanced “Galactic
Empire” of humans. At all other times, Tyharin is an underpopulated post-apocalyptic
wastescape.

10 Uricon – Once earthlike and home to advanced human civilizations, Uricon is now a
ruined world, largely dry and full of acidic lakes, inhabited by medievals. But its principal
city, also called Uricon, remains large and rich.

020 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WORKS

Some inhabited alien worlds d8 Terra
Many ventures take place on Terra, i.e., earth.
1 Djannaj​ – A rumor, said to be a Goldilocks world Today—100 million years after 2266 CE (give or take)—
populated by nihilistic aliens. Terra is much wetter and hotter. In place of the familiar
2 Enshaga​ – Dead and dangerous. Once home to seven continents are two super-massive ones. In
gigantic, voidfaring yetis. arid Latura, the original mysteries of humanity remain
3 Gnarcosa​ – A Snakeman shopping mall out of time buried under sand and steel. Pala is the larger and
and space. lusher of the supercontinents, and the one most likely to
4 Luna​ – Once a colony of Great Tephnii, Terra’s first be visited by fleeters. And in the long, narrow, hilly
and largest moon is now home to—among other archipelagoes called the West stand the colossal
wonders—a city of insane robots, bubble-cave
dwellers and a species of advanced, ravening aliens egg-cities of the mantids.
called grylloids. These regions are inhabited by roughly one billion
5 New Singapore Two – A rich Ancient city-state. sapients—humans, various posthumans including
Rumored to exist but never found. the politically ascendant, four-armed unhumans, and
6 Pays​ – A Goldilocks world populated by medievals smaller populations of uplifted reptilians—as well as
and threatened by a posthuman cyborg–tyrant robust populations of quasisapients, intelligent fungi
called the Wasp. For some reason, it’s very difficult (mycelial brutes), insects (some as large as hillsides),
to tack to—and get back from—Pays.
saurians, pterosaurs, mosasaurs, notosuchians (giant
7 Paz​ū​z​ū​n​ – Partially explored, home to many crocodiles), and rogue Tephnian automata.
stiffworks and aggressive xenofauna. The remaining
humans here don’t consider themselves provincials; And in the shallow ocean that Antarctica now is,
they’re just trying to stay alive. The Co. abandoned the super-intelligent but short-lived octopodes called
Pazūzūn long ago. ammon plot to go “land-diving” and conquer the
8 Yuggoth​ – Pluto, ur-world of the ubiquitous flying dry-folk.
crab-fungi called the mi-go. A torrential monsoon drenches much of Pala for
months of the year, while the middle of the continent—
like most of Latura—receives no precipitation and
supports only microbial life… and that of dangerous,
antique, solar-powered automata.
Everywhere, among every tribe and nation, the people
of Terra mourn the lost technological extravagances of
the past and yet, too, dimly fear any future yoked to these
fantastically deadly weapons, life-extending apparatus,
and mind-quieting games.

021
 Aliens
Plots and Dangers in the void include many entities, not all of

purposes
which are fascinating, deadly species of xenofauna. That
said, xenofauna are at the core of this game. In terms of
GMing combat with powerful aliens, the key advice to
remember is: use your powers! Burn GRT!

A complete taxonomy of enemies

Intrigue and random
obstacles ҂ “Wandering monsters”​ – These come in many forms
and often work for villains.
The key to setting up gripping, rewarding, collaborative ҂ Villains​ – ​Especially​traitorous former allies. Es­pecially
stories in Stillfleet is to entangle the PCs in ethically the Co. itself…
murky Co., provincial, Terran, and alien intrigue, while ҂ Time​ – PCs should a​ lways​feel they are battling a clock
periodically throwing more short-form challenges at of one sort or another.
them: senseless violence, technical puzzles, confusing ҂ The environment​ – The cruel realities of physics should
but potentially important NPCs. always present challenges to the PCs, apart from en-
Later chapters offer detailed tables full of surprising counters with fauna and the machinations of villains.
encounters, strange items, and memorable places. For ҂ Love​ – When love conflicts with duty, love always
a very quick take on a given situation, simply have a wins—not so great for a character locked into a
random player roll a d6. paramilitary “adventuring guild” scenario.
҂ The self​ – PCs could become addicted to drugs, turn
lazy, grow old, and so on: broken heroes are even more
Random encounters, quick
d6 fascinating than ones in their prime.

1 Disaster​ – Random hostile encounter! If you’re

currently being pursued by a specific enemy, they
find you.

2 Bad news​ – Random hostile encounter! Pick a

normal-bad thing (space bandits, e.g.).

3 Poor omen​ – Nothing critical happens, but the fore-

boding landscape/voidscape through which you pass
leaves you seriously spooked.

4 Good omen​ – Nothing much happens, but the pleas-

ant landscape/voidscape through which you pass
leaves you feeling confident.

5 Relief​ – You encounter some helpful strangers.

These should fit the landscape/voidscape in which
you find yourself. They offer respite and company,
to the extent that you want these things. They leave
you alone if you’re in a hurry, etc.

6 Lucky break​ – You find just the thing you need (food
if starving, helpful strangers if lost, etc.) Or you find a
random useful archaetech item.

Politics in the superfuture

Stillfleet is an explicitly anti-capitalist game—the Co.

is the major villain!—that intentionally invites the GM
to mess with players: will they put down a provincial
rebellion on behalf of a corrupt Directorate official? Will Voidminer checklist:
they help restore a superweapon to working order? How ☑ backpack
many times will they lie to their refactor or play Robin ☑ comms
☑ knife
Hood before some nosy Archivist scans their minds…? ☐ impossible-to-describe living archaetech

022 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WORKS

 Archaetech
In addition to strange ships, worlds, and fauna,
the void is full of useful junk from the deep past
(and, possibly, confusingly, the
For the Co., technologically
future). Like working vessels, truly
and culturally, the past
useful archaetech should be rare,
is in the future, and the
perhaps random, and capable
future is in the past…
of monkey’s-paw reversals. The
chapter “Wires” is full of archaetech! The first section
of “Wires” also explains the rules about how archaetech
items work.

Reporting and leveling

When the PCs return to their refactor and turn in a
report of what happened out there in the unknown
depths of space, they get paid and level up.
Payment is by level: a given PC’s minimum venture
fee from the Directorate, called the base rate, is 25 gl ×
their level. At 2nd level, their base rate is 50 gl, and so on.
Typical hazard pay for very dangerous missions is a
bonus of up to 200 gl per PC.
Leveling up has a few components. The basic idea
is that, at each new level, a PC gains 6 points of pool
to assign between HEA and GRT as desired as well as
one new class power or advanced power. The chapter
“Edges” features the advanced powers.

The bigger picture

Stillfleet​ is a far-future, science fiction roleplaying
game—a wild, slimy, non-human-centric, and hybrid-
happy setting that lends itself both to dystopian
narratives of life after the capitalism that we know—the
post-apocalyptic—as well as stories of life under some
weird new revenant-version of that capitalism—the
post-post-apocalyptic, here called the “post-future.”
The main takeaway is that, in the end, the Worshipful
Company is not good. It is simply all that the characters
know. It is up to them to chart out new territory in new
ways, to choose curiosity over conflict, and to survive the
horrors of ancient, bloody history… Happy voidmining!

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH01 ☉ INTRODUCTION 023

 CH02 ☉ CORE RULES

The rules about the rules

The core rules of Stillfleet are simple. This short chapter covers them in depth, offering
ideas about specific use cases as well as alternatives.
The most important rule is: don’t worry too much about the rules! No RPG is an
exact simulator of the real world; it’s a tool for having fun with your friends. Stillfleet is a
specifically non-rules-intensive game. It’s not a tool primarily for simulating combat, but
for telling collaborative stories about the politics, biology, and technology of a far future
that is neither purely utopian nor dystopian.
The second most important rule is: the best way to use the rules, like the best way
to bring the setting to life, is as a group. If you aren’t sure about a given rule in a given
situation, ask others at the table, make a best-guess, and move on. The dice should help
make your group’s story more epic and hilarious, not bog it down with lawyering.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH02 ☉ CORE RULES 025

 CORE RULES

In those mirrors, the minds of men, in those pools of uneasy water, in which clouds
for ever turn and shadows form, dreams persisted, and it was impossible to resist
the strange intimation which every gull, flower, tree, man and woman, and the
white earth itself seemed to declare (but if questioned at once to withdraw) that
good triumphs, happiness prevails, order rules…
—Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse, 1927.

Rolling dice d4 d6 d8

Beating 6
The basic mechanic of Stillfleet is to roll a single die and
try to get a 6 or higher. The type of die you roll depends
on what you’re trying to do. Contested rolls are won by d10 d12 d20
the higher result (or, among many actors, the highest
one). Ties go to the initiator of the action unless
otherwise stated.
For all uncontested rolls, unless otherwise stated,
a result of 6 or higher is a success on a roll of normal
difficulty. And when one or more people help you do
something, you get a +1 to your roll. You can also boost
your rolls (see “Powers,” below).
red ≥6
Uncontested check difficulties grey <6

1. Easy . . . . . . . . . . . 5+ 1

2. Standard . . . . . . . .6+
2
3. Difficult . . . . . . . . . 7+
4. Very Difficult . . . . . . 9+ 3

5. “Impossible” . . . . . 12+

All rules are optional

4

The following represent rules that have worked very

5
well for the designers of the game, for years. But they
are essentially suggestions. Don’t get hung up on any
given rule! If your group comes up with a better way to
run the game, by all means, go for it! 6

026 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / GEARS

Assigning scores
To make a player character (PC), AKA a voidminer, you
must first choose a class and a species and then assign 5
die types to your 5 core scores. Here are your options.
Either distribute:

d12, d10, d8, d6, d6

<< or >>
d12, d10, d8, d8, d4

This means that you either have no scores so low that

you cannot succeed in a normal challenge without help,
or that you have one low score and one extra d8 (which
succeeds unaided on a 6, 7, or 8). The scores you assign,
after choosing class and species, are these:

COM (combat)
use when rolling to attack or grapple

MOV (movement)
use when rolling to drive/pilot, dodge, initiate, parry,
run, or sneak

REA (reason) << or >>

use when rolling to heal, know, make/repair, use
technology (e.g., tack a stiffworks), or use a Weird power

WIL (will)
use when rolling to empathize, perceive, resist other
(resist seduction, mind control, etc.), or resist world
(resist explosions, falling rocks, poison, etc.)

CHA (charm)
use when rolling to control, negotiate, or seduce

Your voidminer’s mind and body are represented by

these 5 primary scores and by 2 secondary or derived
scores (your “pool,” see below): health and grit.

NPC scores

The average unskilled non-player character (NPC) has

straight d6s, meaning they have only a 1 in 6 chance
of accomplishing a heroic task without special training,
technological aid, or help from a friend. Skilled
NPCs (soldiers, scientists) have straight d8s. A player
character begins play with a much better chance of
accomplishing many heroic tasks, even without using
special powers.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH02 ☉ CORE RULES 027

Making a check
When you want to do something in Stillfleet, if it’s not
hard to do and isn’t being contested, it just happens. If
there’s a chance you can fail at it, or if it really matters
that you do it just right, or that you do it right now, or if
someone is trying to stop you, you have to roll a check.
When calling for a check, think of a check as the
verb you want to perform. Are you trying to steer a
hovertank (MOV/drive)? To flee (MOV/run)? To hurt
someone (COM/attack?) Defend yourself (MOV/dodge)?
To bake a pie (REA/make)? Sense if someone is lying to
your face (WIL/perceive)?
Checks play a basic role by structuring combat,
responses to massive shocks, the use of common and
uncommon skills, and, in many cases, the use of special
powers including archaetech and the hell science.

Advantage and
disadvantage
Often, due to a class power or some other effect, you will
have to roll with advantage or with disadvantage. This
mechanic is very simple: if you have advantage, roll two
dice instead of one, and take the better result. If you have
disadvantage, roll two dice and take the worse result.

Rolling a 1, rolling a
maximum
Whenever you must roll one die to achieve a binary
result—make a thing happen or fail to make it
happen—you fail whenever you roll a 1, regardless of
Rolling a 1
points spent to boost the roll (see below), regardless
of die type. If the task is so easy that there’s no chance If you can fail, you should roll—and cross your fingers
of failure, then you shouldn’t roll at all. not to get a 1. Rolling a 1 represents bad luck, fate, or
This rule does not apply to purely quantitative rolls: a surprise obstacle preventing your success in this
damage, pool regeneration, number of meters an object moment. Players, narrate what goes wrong when you
is hurled, e.g. Conversely, on any non-quantitative roll, roll a 1!
at least the maximum rolled result will always be a Bad luck, by the way, doesn’t mean hitting yourself or
success. There is no point in rolling if the result is watching your gun explode in your hand—just missing
automatically positive or negative (the highest die-value or otherwise failing to do the thing you were trying to
won’t be a success). do. That said, if your weapon can misfire, break, or run
Stillfleet does not automatically privilege high rolls. out of energy, then it generally does so when you roll a 1
That said, the GM can and probably should reward a to attack. (This is up to the GM’s creativity and cruelty.)
max-value roll with some minor bonus or unexpected
positive effect. This makes the game more fun! Spirals that spiral, thoughts that bear thoughts—some niceties
brains.
of quantum physics are now in the control of sapient
show any aptitu de
Strangely, only humans from Terra so far
only to remai n
for this task of bending with will what wants
Stars Thems elves,
steadfastly Just So, the firmament of the very
rks of
that we name hell science. Our best-kept aux and netwo
thread s of time,
fantastic thinking wires cannot see between the
the skeins of mass. The echoes…

028 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / GEARS

Checks
The WIL checks resist other and resist world function
as universal saving throws. Resist checks may be
coupled as needed with checks of other scores, most
often MOV (to represent, say, jumping out of the way of
an explosion). You may need to roll a resist check against

Combat a volcano, the seductive wiles of the famous spy Nerush

of Manaroc, or the mind-probe of an ylythnari torture-
Combat represents your total offensive aptitude, drone. You also roll resist checks against environmental
including your aim, but excluding your ability to dodge threats such as radiation, infections, venoms, and
attacks and your speed. Combat and movement intrusions of the Escheresque into three-space.
collectively represent your body, but they are not
symmetric scores. They are based purely on function,
what you do with your body. You are free to be a small,
Charm
frail-looking character with an amazing combat score Charm represents how others perceive you, as well
or a huge hulk who can’t fight well. You roll your COM as your ability to confidently lead or manipulate
die when making attack checks. others. Charm, like reason, is used in many different
non-physical situations. All forms of deception,

Movement seduction, acting, haggling, motivating, and charisma-

based (not fine motor skill-based) performing are
Movement represents your body in all regards except CHA checks. So are checks related to calling for a
for attack. Movement checks are vital to several aspects ceasefire or otherwise turning the mood of a situation.
of the game, including dodging, piloting, running, CHA also covers intimidation. If you’re trying to
sneaking, and using fine motor skills. MOV also repre- hurt someone’s pride, you’re using CHA, not COM.
sents your hand-eye coordination; use it to roll checks COM only covers intent to physically harm.
regarding disabling traps, opening locks, performing
music, performing sleight-of-hand, picking pockets,
and stealing.

Reason
Reason represents not only your abstract reasoning
skills (logic) but also your accumulated store of
information and how fast you can retrieve it. Whenever
your character needs to know if they know something,
roll REA. This applies to finding clues and tracking
down informatic things (not perceiving physical things).
Reason checks include those relating to archaetech
and biomedicine, as well as those related to conscious
control of hell science powers. You also make REA
checks to use certain hell science powers.

Will
Will represents the parts of your mind that you—as in, your
conscious pattern of thoughts and emotions—cannot
directly access but must frequently rely upon. This
includes your sensorium. Will checks relate to
unconscious awareness, self-presence, instinct, alert-
ness, and other non-frontal lobe brain tasks. Perceive
is the WIL check you’ll make most frequently. You
roll WIL/perceive to notice useful and/or dangerous
things around you, to sense motives and detect lies,
and to avoid surprise attacks.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH02 ☉ CORE RULES 029

 GRT (grit)
Pool Grit is a representation of your ability to perform stressful
activities such as psychically reading a judge’s thoughts,
inspiring a ragtag army to advance against overwhelm-

Starting pool ing opposition, or forcing yourself to attack twice in a

split second. Your starting grit is determined by your
In addition to your scores, which do not change (often), class. Most powers cost grit to use. When you reach
you have two fluctuating sets of points that collectively 0 GRT, you are simply exhausted, overwhelmed, and
are called your pool. You “burn” (spend) these points, unable to use special powers.
either when you take damage or use special powers.
When you run out of total pool, you die. These are the two
halves of your pool:
Recovering pool
You have maximum and temporary HEA and GRT
HEA (health) scores. Grit goes down when you use special abilities.
Unlike your HEA score, your GRT can sometimes be
Health represents your body’s robustness and your boosted beyond its maximum. Note, when you sleep and
ability to deal with trauma. At first level, your HEA regain pool, you do not increase these scores above
is your maxCOM +maxMOV (before any species their maximums.
bonuses). When you reach 0 HEA, you become To regain pool, you need to rest for 5+ hours: sleep
seriously injured, or prone, and can no longer act. if you’re a human, meditate under a sunlamp if you’re a
When you reach 0 HEA and 0 GRT, or if someone photobiont, put your drives into standby if you’re an aux
attacks you while you’re prone, you die. or pepper elf, etc. If you do, you recover dMOV +dWIL
+your level pool (so, minimum 3), distributed as you like
between HEA and GRT. This means, roll your MOV die
and your WIL die and add these results to your level.

030 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / GEARS

 You can regain pool naturally once every 24 Terrasol
standard (earth-length) hours; otherwise, to heal, you
Becoming prone and dying
need help from another source, such as a biomedical or Your HEA and GRT represent energy, attention, and
Weird healer. readiness to fight. Losing a good amount of HEA can
If you don’t rest for 5+ hours out of every 24, choose represent becoming fatigued during a stressful firefight.
one score: this lowers by one die type. Every day that you Being reduced to 0 HEA represents a serious injury, or a
don’t rest, choose another score to lower. After five sleep- near-death experience…
less days, you collapse into a coma and become prone. When you reach 0 HEA but still have GRT remaining,
you fall unconscious and become vulnerable. In game
terms, you’re prone: if any character or force (lightning,
Gaining more pool shark) deals damage to you, that damage burns your re-
maining GRT instead of HEA. If they slit your throat,
You gain 6 permanent pool per level, to be distributed as you die. If you reach 0 GRT as well as 0 although their body
you like between HEA and GRT. For more on character HEA, you die. No use of medical science may be puppeted
advancement, see “Edges.” Realistically, most people will revive your character. by terrible gray
would put their points into GRT as they age: they’d get Becoming prone means suffering from a thanatonanites…
wiser and emotionally tougher, not physically more buff. serious injury. When you are prone but still have GRT,
Ye voidmining (anti-)hero-types, however, may choose you can no longer be revived by the basic power give aid
to grow stronger over time, too. (Think of Wolverine from (GM’s discretion). You can be revived with biomedical
the X-Men.) healing (pir class powers) or with rest.
After resting for one night and regaining pool, you still
feel groggy and slow: one of your scores suffers from a −3
penalty until the venture ends and you take some time
off (R&R). Further, whenever you recover from having
fallen to 0 HEA, your health permanently drops by 1.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH02 ☉ CORE RULES 031

 Or just make those shooting into/from any type of cover, or in
poor light, roll with disadvantage. That’s simpler, but it won’t
typically result in the PCs burning up as much GRT on boost.

Powers
more likely to miss: when making two attacks in
the same round, burn 4 GRT; the first attack suffers
a −1 penalty to hit; the second, a −3.
҂ Attacking from cover or in low light, or attacking
hidden targets – When attacking a target hidden

The time of powers behind light cover (a pillar that doesn’t protect
them completely, a tree) or when attacking in low
Powers are both basic and special abilities. Different light, characters with normal vision suffer a −2 to
powers take different amounts of abstracted game time hit. When shooting at a target who is fully covered
to use: or when attacking in complete darkness, these
characters suffer a −4 to hit.
҂ Standard powers take some amount of time between ҂ Boost (free) – Your mind empties and your eyes close
1 and 10 seconds. In game terms, they use up your as you draw back the proverbial bow: burn 3, 6, or 9
action for the round when in initiative. If you use a GRT; you gain +3, +6, or +9 on your next roll. N.B.,
standard power, you can’t take any other serious this is arguably the most important power in the
action that round (e.g., attack, use the hell science, game. At any point, on any roll, you can burn 3X
or call for a check that would take more than a split to gain +3X.
second). But you can jog up to 5 meters (M), grab
something from your toolbelt, shout at a comrade, etc.
҂ Free powers can be used at will. You can use any
Boosting
number of free powers per round. These can be
chained together if you like. They represent split-​​ In terms of game mechanics, Stillfleet revolves around
second reactions, instantaneous quantum outcomes, a core wager: how much grit are you, the player, will-
and predetermined states of being that suddenly ing to spend to overcome the challenge currently being
affect the situation. thrown at you by the GM? Boost is the core power by
҂ Other active powers require ten minutes, an hour, or which this wager is resolved. If you don't boost a roll,
some other amount of time to work. you save 3, 6, or 9 grit—but you also risk failing. If you
҂ Yet other powers are permanent, meaning they just boost, you can often succeed simply by not rolling a 1
become part of your scores, or passive, meaning they (which is always a failure on any roll that can be failed).
happen automatically in response to something. So boost is more than one of a number of basic powers,
it is a central driver of tension for the whole game!

Basic powers ҂ Call shot (standard) – You aim, steel yourself, and
Your class and species will determine what special strike the blow true: describe any specific non-Weird
powers your PC has. All characters, however, can use the intended effect of your attack, such as blinding or
following basic powers: disarming your target. Burn 4 GRT and roll to attack
with disadvantage. If you hit, the desired effect
҂ Attack (standard) – Roll COM/attack; your target rolls happens, and you deal double damage—or, if you
MOV/dodge: if you tie or get the higher result, you deal prefer, zero damage. Note, you can boost neither, one,
damage, which reduces your opponent’s HEA. The or both of your rolls to hit with disadvantage; the
damage you deal is determined by your weapon. If you lower value is taken, regardless.
are attacking unarmed, you deal your d2 damage or, ҂ Convert (free) – You cannibalize your body’s strength
if you are a stillrijder or otherwise trained in combat, for sheer git-r-dun willpower: burn 3 HEA; you gain
dCOM damage. While attacking in normal atmo, you +1 GRT.
may move 5 M in any direction. Grappling, pushing ҂ Dodge (free) – You may dodge every time you are
back, restraining without harming, and knocking out attacked, unless you are restrained or comatose. Dodge
are all types of attack. Disarming an opponent is a is a MOV roll against an opponent’s COM/attack roll.
called shot (see below). N.B., you must get a higher result, not an equal one, to
҂ Multiple attacks – Stillrijders can use the class dodge an attack, since the attacker initiated the action.
power double tap to make two attacks in the same ҂ Give aid (standard) – You spend the round help-
round without penalty. Other characters can also ing someone who is wounded—bandaging cuts, e.g.
burn GRT to strike more than once, but they are This person regains 2 HEA. If this person is afflicted

032 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / GEARS

 by an ongoing bleed or other condition that a non- reroll all failed dodge rolls this round; every time
healthcare professional could quickly treat, it stops. you successfully dodge, you gain a further +1 to
You can only give aid once per wound; i.e., after subsequent dodge rolls this round. These bonuses
combat ends, you can’t just keep restoring 2 HEA over do not carry over from round to round. While
and over again. Serious medical help is represented parrying, you can move 5 M in any direction.
by the pir power heal (see “Wayfarers”). ҂ Use class, species, tech, or Weird power (varies) –
҂ Using medication in combat – Cleaning and ban- Other powers work according to a variety of mechan-
daging a wound takes an entire round. Popping ics. The important thing to remember about all of
a single pill takes no time: in game terms, it’s a them is that free powers take no time and thus “stack.”
free action. You can always boost or convert—or use any other
҂ Initiate (special) – Whenever you attack or are free power—as long as you do so before rolling a check
attacked, or use a Weird power or resist one, or using a standard power.
initiative begins: first you resolve any ambush attacks
(most real fights involve one side surprising the
other); then everyone rolls MOV/initiate to determine
Key terms
the order in which subsequent events occur. Equal
results indicate that actions happen simultaneously. Note, most powers in Stillfleet are verbs; you do a power.
Initiative can also be used for non-combat situations This makes “acting” simpler. And for brevity, scores
that are time-sensitive (defusing a bomb, escaping are written as three-letter abbreviations (COM, GRT,
an erupting volcano, making a series of arguments etc.). The phrase “dCOM” means “roll your combat die
before a court of law, e.g.). [whatever it is].” The phrase “dREA +1” or “dWIL −2”
҂ Run/flee (standard) – Instead of attacking or using means “roll your [whatever] score and [add or subtract
another standard power, you may run full tilt into or whichever amount].” The phrase “maxCHA” means “the
away from the fray. You move maxMOV × 3 M and highest value of the die that your CHA is.” The phrase
gain a +1 to all dodge rolls this round. “+your level” means “add the number that your level
҂ Parry (standard) – Instead of attacking or running, currently is.”
you may choose to actively defend yourself: you can

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH02 ☉ CORE RULES 033

Combat Combat and consent

Many RPGs treat violent conflict as a given. Others

eschew it altogether. It is up to your group how often and

The turn order how brutal combat is in your game universe. Stillfleet is
written to cater both to groups that enjoy combat (you
Combat is a series of rounds that begins with a contest can blow up dangerous aliens) and those that prefer
of initiative: everyone who plans to act rolls a special non-combat encounters (you can also talk to enemies,
MOV/initiate check to join the fray. The highest result run away from them, trick them, seduce them…).
goes first; tied results happen simultaneously. All It is the GM’s job to make sure that everyone at the
characters act in order from highest to lowest. table is comfortable with how your group will play
Ambushes, surprises, and stabs-in-the-back happen in through combat encounters, if at all. Peppering your
a special round before the first round. game with violent conflicts when some players are not
When it’s your turn, you can do whatever you want: comfortable with violence is not cool!
you get one standard action and infinite free actions.
You can also jog a generous 5 M in any direction while
doing whatever you’re doing, such as stabbing or Combat flowchart
Weirding out, unless you use a power that specifically
requires you to remain still.
To attack, roll COM/attack; your opponent rolls 1. Initiate action.
MOV/dodge. You win on a tie or if your result is
higher. Damage is by weapon. Armor reduces damage
by providing damage reduction, or DR. Unless otherwise 2. Deal with ambushes.
specified, all damage comes off your HEA first. When Ambushers attack first regardless of initiative.
you reach 0 HEA, you become prone. When you reach
0 HEA and GRT, or when someone tries to kill you
while you are prone, you die. 3. Deal with attacks and other
If you are attacked, roll MOV/dodge. You must roll standard powers in initiative order.
higher than your attacker. Dodging is a free action:
roll to dodge every time you are attacked.
When everyone who has rolled initiative has acted, 4. Deal with dodges after every attack.
the round ends. A new round then begins. Combat ends
Dodges are free actions.
when everyone dies, gives up, makes peace, or flees.

Timing 5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until everyone

dies or stops fighting.

A “round” is an abstract unit of time approximately

equal to 10 seconds. “Initiative” is an abstraction that
determines when things happen within a round. The
distances between different initiative rolls can be
thought of as seconds: a character acting on initiative 6
is about 4 seconds faster, in some way, than a character
acting on initiative 2. This is just a rule of thumb! The
point is simply to keep the action moving forward.

034 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / GEARS

Grappling Archive. He later gets into a fight with one of the Eaters
of the Dead, Spindle’s exosuited gendarmes. On round
To grapple an opponent, roll COM/attack; your opponent one, Jerro tears open the gendarme’s suit and makes a
rolls their MOV/dodge. If your result is equal to or higher massive gash, dealing 1 damage plus bleed 3. On round
than theirs, then you deal no damage but gain control of two, even if Jerro runs away or misses, the gendarme
their body for the next round. Neither of you can dodge takes 3 damage.
while either of you is grappling.
The next round, if you wish to concentrate on
continuing your physical dominance, roll COM; your
Toxins and radiation
opponent rolls COM, not MOV, −1. (They roll COM Some attacks may be debilitating in other ways than by
because they’re unable to dodge and must grapple causing hemorrhages, burns, or concussions. Simple
with you.) toxins (venoms, poisons, chemicals that aren’t good for
On the third round, your opponent rolls COM −2, and humans or giant crickets to breathe in or swallow, etc.)
so on, until the penalty is equal to their maxCOM, at result in nausea, causing characters who are exposed to
which point they are pinned and cannot act as long as them to suffer disadvantage on all rolls for a set amount
you don’t take another action. of time. More potent, fast-acting toxins also call for a
WIL/resist world check: failure results in d20 damage.

Disarming Toxicity is generally measured in minutes or hours,

but short-acting venoms are limited to rounds. E.g.,
You can use the basic power call shot or the advanced the venom delivered by the sting of a Gigoix murkwasp
power disarm to take away an opponent’s weapon— persists in the human or wetan system for d6 rounds
or whatever they’re holding. (For the list of advanced (causing d6 damage each round), as opposed to d20 min-
powers, see “Edges.”) utes for a professional Kemmerathi assassin’s zaqarash
If you hit with a called shot, you can both disarm your tea (causing triple disadvantage on rolls).
opponent and deal damage, or choose only to disarm Dangerous radiation exposure causes victims to
your opponent. If you use the power disarm, you inflict suffer disadvantage on checks to recover pool. This condi-
no damage, but your target can’t use their weapon tion typically lasts for d6 days if treated, or indefinitely,
again until they burn a standard action to pick it up, if left untreated. In general, informatic beings are
reassemble it, etc. (You describe how the disarmament immune to toxins but not radiation: bombardment
happens, but the mechanical effect is the same.) by high-energy protons degrades hard drives just as it
Why have two powers that allow you to disarm creates copy errors in DNA.
opponents? Because call shot is more general and harder
to pull off. Disarm is a different, specific martial arts
move (however you interpret it), representing training
Surge die
in non-lethal combat. GMs: sometimes combat drags. Besides reminding
everyone to boost liberally, one good remedy is to

Bleed, burn, and stun introduce a surge die. There are many variations on
the surge die. The simplest mechanic is to—at the top
Certain weapons have the tag bleed or burn. When of the second round of combat, before any PC or NPC
a weapon with bleed X hits, it causes X additional has acted—take any die and set it to show the 1: now
damage when it hits and X additional damage on each everyone must add +1 to all rolls, regardless of the type.
subsequent round until the bleeding character takes a Then increase this surge to +2 the next round, moving
round to treat their wounds. the die to show 2; +3 the round after, and so on, until
In the case of burn X, this damage is cumulative (fire someone wins combat and/or everyone dies.
spreads). So, a plasma torch that does 1 damage and has The effect is to speed everything up and raise the
burn 1 causes 1+1 damage on round 1, 1+2 damage on stakes of all choices. Attacks become more likely to hit;
round 2, and so on… but dodges also become more likely; but also damage
Other weapons have the tag stun. Whenever a weapon increases; but also-also the costs of powers increase…
with stun X hits, roll a d6: if the result is equal to or lower PCs will inevitably burn more GRT boosting as they
than X, then the target is stunned—immobilized—for X realize that the stakes have increased overall. The math
rounds. remains fairly simple.
For example: Jerro the Fleeter jackal steals a
Snakeman planckion lash with bleed 3 from the

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH02 ☉ CORE RULES 035

 Much Archival data regarding the ability of so-
called “Very Late” Tephnian (VLT) warmachines to
regenerate massive damage by absorbing random
nearby matter comes from a single Terran mercenary,
probably apocryphal, codenamed “VELI.” This killer
is depicted in numerous Sasparadan folk songs as
floating above the ground rather than walking,
wielding a blade of energy generated from his mind,
and working with a loyal companion robot shaped like
a giant cat. Whether this “VELI” even existed—much
less whether he and a small number of cohorts brought
down a NERGAL-class “nanospear” weapons plat-
form (a “worldkiller,” the first capable of “ubiquitous
planetary devastation”)—is a matter of conjecture.
If he is lucky enough to both exist and still be alive,
VELI’s location would be extremely valuable to the
Bureau of Quantum-Scale Engineering.

Mob rules
Trying to fight a large group of enemies—a mob—is
inherently dangerous for a small team. A mob can
consist of any type of entity (angry farmers, professional
soldiers, deadly androids, rabid vulture-headed cave-
monkeys wielding enerjawn-saws, etc.). The members
of the mob hold a variety of weapons and are variously
well-trained. For game purposes, however, the mob is
acting as a single threat comprising many bodies but
sharing a single, averaged set of scores.
Fighting a mob works like fighting a single opponent:
it rolls initiative; on its turn, it rolls to hit; when attacked,
it rolls to dodge; when struck by weapons, it loses health.
Mobs do not have DR, GRT, or powers. If anyone in the
mob is particularly interesting—say, a leader hopped
up on quantum-psychedelic drugs, or a specialist with
a superior weapon—then keep track of them separately
during combat.
There are a few differences between mobs and
non-mobs.

҂ Decide in advance if a given mob (mostly) has missile

weapons or not. If its members have guns or bows,
then the whole mob will continue to shoot at the PCs
until the PCs escape out of range or take deep cover,
becoming unassailable. If not, then the PCs can run
away from the whole mob by winning a contested
MOV/run check.
҂ Running away from a mob is hard: within it, there
are lots of people trying to pull the PCs back, hold
them down, and trip them up. PCs roll to run away
with disadvantage. At the same time, mobs generally
aren’t very fast or well-coordinated, especially at scale.
So mobs’ MOV scores decrease in type the larger that
they get.
҂ At the same time, mobs’ COM scores increase in type
as they gain members, since more attackers will get
lucky, find openings, help one another, etc.

036
҂ Mobs inflict automatic damage each round, based
on the total number of fighters. This damage ignores
damage reduction (DR). It represents some sufficient
number of the mob getting lucky and finding
openings when the PCs are distracted. Mobs with
missile weapons continue to inflict automatic damage
as long as the PCs are in range.
҂ In addition to the automatic damage that the mob
inflicts, roll once per round for the mob to attack. If
the mob hits, it inflicts XdCOM damage, where X is
determined by the average war-fighting training of the
mob (up to the GM, see below).
҂ The mob has HEA, and when it runs out, it can no
longer act as a mob. This does not mean that every
single member of the group has been slain or knocked
out—simply that enough are dead, seriously injured,
scared, or confused so as to allow the PCs to take
off, if they want to. If the PCs want to kill every last
member of the mob, then make them fight at least
a few interesting individuals with useful-in-combat
powers but low HEA. These are the injured diehards,
zealots, or opportunists.

Types of mob by size

d6

1 Group of 2–5 (fire team) – COM d6, MOV d8,

HEA 24, d4 automatic damage per PC per round
(DR has no effect)

2 Group of 6–11 (squad) – COM d8, MOV d8, HEA 48,

d6 automatic damage per PC per round (DR has no
effect)

3 Group of 12–23 (patrol) – COM d10, MOV d6,

HEA 72, d8 automatic damage per PC per round
(DR has no effect)

4 Group of 24–47 (platoon) – COM d12, MOV d6,

HEA 96, d10 automatic damage per PC per round
(DR has no effect)

5 Group of 48–99 (echelon) – COM d20, MOV d4,

HEA 120, d12 automatic damage per PC per round
(DR has no effect)

6 Group of 100+ (company) – COM d100, MOV d4,

HEA 144, d20 automatic damage per PC per round
(DR has no effect)

Mob damage by training level

d4

1 Nonprofessional – dCOM damage

2 Grunt – 2dCOM damage

3 Elite – 3dCOM damage

4 Assassin – 4dCOM damage

037
 CH03 ☉ DESIGNING VOIDMINERS

Imagining—or randomly
choosing—a second self
Designing your player character (PC) is a fun aspect of most RPGs.
In Stillfleet, you can design a PC quickly: first you choose a species and
your species powers; then you choose a class and your class powers;
third, you choose a few game-affecting background details; and finally,
you buy gear.
This chapter covers the first three parts; the settings chapter, “Patterns,”
have many more options for sapient species that don’t live on Spindle;
and “Wires” features a textual emporium of void-made goods to pur-
chase before setting off.
Your group may also be starting at a higher level. In that case, you can
start with a 1st-level PC and add pool and powers for every additional
level according to the chapter “Edges.”
If you’re pressed for time, you can instead choose to play one of the
pregenerated characters that appear in the Quickstart Rules. You can
also randomly generate a 1st-level voidminer on our website.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH03 ☉ DESIGNING VOIDMINERS 039

 CLASSES

Every single man, male and female, is a perfect creature of himself; and the same
spirit that made the globe dwells in man to govern the globe; so that the flesh of
man, being subject to Reason, his maker, hath him to be his teacher and ruler within
himself, therefore needs not run abroad after any teacher or ruler without him…
—Gerrard Winstanley, The True Levellers’ Standard Advanced, 1649.

Powers Icons

versus
A voidminer starts the game with several powers and
gains more by completing (i.e., surviving) ventures.
The following icons are used throughout the book to help
visually distinguish different groups of powers.

concepts Class powers

Marquee power

Characters at a glance Class power

In designing a character, you primarily need to make Species power

two rules-related choices: class (job, vocation, role)
and species (organism type, biological or mechanical
heritage). Advanced powers
The next step is to choose your class and species
powers. Most classes offer a small number of options: Communications
if you are a criminal, are you an adult mafioso skilled
in murder, or a lost child skilled in scrambling out of Immerphysics
danger? Likewise, most species offer a small number
of options: an Ancient sleeper can be from 2266 CE, or Nanofluidics
of Tephnian or distant Uricone origin. These choices
are relatively straightforward and don’t require reading Operations
through pages of rules.
Once you have decided on your powers, simply copy Tactics
and paste them into your character sheet, slap a name
at the top, and voila! (See the back of the book for the Hell science powers
character sheet.)
On the other hand… the mechanics behind your The Black Gate
character’s powers are not nearly as important as who
they are, as a person and—deep in the hellish depths of The Crown of Worms
the void—as a colleague-in-arms. That is: what is the
concept behind your character? The Howling Lamp
Is your character the humorless leader of the group?
The wise-cracking everybody’s-bestie who’s going The Mask in Yellow
to get the group killed if she keeps diving through
random ‘works in the Dormant Bays and then tachyon- The Maw
lanterning the team for help? The battle-crazed space
The Sky that Crawls

040 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WAYFARERS

huzaar who’s beheaded one-too-many xenos and can’t
turn off his paranoia even when safely back on-Spin?
Overview of the character
The stowaway who’s secretly the child of one of the other creation process
PCs!? The gunch-addicted screw-up who’s secretly
conspiring with the grimventure manager (GM) to
undermine the group and help H.Co.!?!? 1. Choose your class
The options are many. The point is, don’t just pick a What is your job? What are your special powers?
class and a species and call it a day; think a little more
deeply about your character in the context of a group of
weirdo space adventurers, and moreover as one major 2. Choose your species
character in an evolving story that several people are What kind of sapient thing are you?
writing together.

What is 3. Assign your 5 primary scores

The scores are COM (combat), MOV (movement),
REA (reason), WIL (will), and CHA (charm). You can

a “class?”
assign dice to these scores in two different ways:

d12, d10, d8, d6, d6

—or—
d12, d10, d8, d8, d4

Employees vs. criminals Note: A d4 score will limit you to easy, aided checks only!

and stowaways
In Stillfleet, your class is both an abstraction—a list of 4. Determine your 2 pool scores
cool class powers that you can use within the game— Your HEA (health) and GRT (grit—the points you spend
and a specific profession within the Co.—a list of on special abilities such as hacking ancient computers,
mindreading, etc.), are based on your primary scores.
responsibilities you take on every time you start a Your HEA is equal to your maxCOM +maxMOV. Your GRT
venture. The ten classes in Stillfleet are divided into is determined by your class.
two groups:
Note – Add any species bonuses to scores to your
starting HEA and GRT totals. E.g., if you have +1 MOV,
1. The standard six are the most common professions you correspondingly gain +1 HEA.
for voidminers (banshee, factor, pir, razi, stillrijder,
and witness). A generic group comprises one banshee,
one witness, at least one razi or stillrijder, and one 5. Deal with money
or two of the other standard classes, who provide Your starting money = 10 × (maxWIL +maxCHA) gl.
support including healing and grit recovery. Buy gear before heading out into the void!

2. The freaky four are strange and powerful inter-

lopers—uninvited guests, sometimes sent out on 6. Flesh out the details!
ventures but rarely fully trusted by the Directorate.
Decide how you know the other PCs, what secrets you
There are two groups of freaks: the hell scien- possess, to which organization(s) you’re really allied,
tists (self-taught snakeheads and Archive-created what prejudices against which aliens you hold, what you
tremulants) and the outsiders (the nanite-addicted really think about the Co. and your refactor, and so on.

blooders and the criminal jackals/mice). A generic

group may feature one or two of these classes.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH03 ☉ DESIGNING VOIDMINERS 041

Forming a party (frogpersons) on the poor major province-world of
Kakudun. Now firmly anti-Co. agents, they are reporting
There are no rules regarding how PCs should select to a mulruk sparkseer instead of a refactor. But they have
classes, other than the fact that, if your group does not also completed a significant journey and overcome many
include a banshee, one will be appointed to you by challenges. The GM says they should level up as though
your refactor. But a group comprising only blooders they completed a contracted venture for the Co.
(nanotech-vampyre-junkies) who then each choose Late Yellow Hinge Stopper’s player notes that she wasn’t
Tephnian sleeper as their species will feel extremely much help when it came to technology or quantum
different from a more typical one. navigation during the long Escheresque arc—but she did
If you’re worried about your players all playing ambush two different extradimensional beasts. She asks
blooders (etc.), enforce this rule: each time the PCs tack if she can take a level as a razi instead of as a banshee.
out, they may field as many standard invites as they like The GM says sure.
as well as, at most, 1 each of the freaky classes. Yellow Hinge Stopper is now a 4th-level banshee / 1st-
level razi. She must take the marquee power track this

Choosing a job time. Next level, if she continues playing the role of the
wilderness expert, scout, sniper, and/or beastmaster, she
Each class is defined by a unique marquee power but can select a different razi class power or any of the tactics
also starts with three other powers. Each class also has a advanced powers, since tactics is the advanced powers
formula for determining your starting grit (GRT) as well list associated with the razi class. Yellow Hinge Stopper
as an advanced powers list, which will dictate what new can also return to her studies of engineering—perhaps
powers you can choose from when you gain levels. You after proving her innocence in the Faneslary bombing—
can also always choose more powers from your initial and take another level as a banshee. Either way, she gains
class list. Wise players will coordinate their choices of one class or advanced power per level after 1st.
powers and gear.
Note, some classes have species restrictions. For
example, there is no way to learn about any type of
exoplanetary “wilderness” within the claustrophobic
room-blobs of Spindle, so Fleeters cannot train as razi.

Multiclassing
At 1st level, you must choose a single class. Most
voidminers stick to their chosen occupation as they
gain experience. A few, however, retrain, branch out,
or are forced to acquire new skills in order to survive…
At each level after your 1st, you can choose to take a level
in a class that is different from your initial one—if you
have some narrative justification for doing so.
When you take a level in a new class, you do not
gain four new powers. Instead, you gain only that class’
marquee power. If you later take another level in this
class, you choose a power from the class list or from the
class’ associated advanced powers list.

Multiclassing example

Yellow Hinge Stopper, a 4th-level wetan banshee,

becomes disgraced during a crazy venture in which
her group is framed for blowing up the Co. stiffworks
linking the mining world of Faneslary to Spindle. After
a long trek through Faneslary’s dangerous Unstructured
Forest and then the Escheresque, they finally make a
new home for themselves among the separatist mulruks

042 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WAYFARERS

 BANSHEE
Co. pilot

You are an engineer—and very likely a daredevil—trained

by the Archivists to understand the beyond-human
science of stiffworks.

Your responsibilities are:

҂ opening stiffworks (quantum gates connecting

disparate points in timespaces);
҂ appraising and, as needed, repairing technologies
discovered during the venture;
҂ assisting the venture’s pir in the collection of
technoscientific samples for the Archive.

GRT: maxMOV +maxREA

Advanced powers list: Communications

Your marquee power is:

Tack (standard)

Open, close, or change the destination of a stiffworks.

Costs and mechanics vary by the works. Open
stiffworks remain open for 10 minutes per tack…
usually. Some stiffworks may be retacked (i.e., their
destinations changed), although this varies by type.

Random stiffworks type

d8

1 Ancient

2 Spinside

3 Provincial

4 Tephnian

5 Snakeman

6 Heechee

7 Escheresque

8 Utterly mysterious

GMs: the default tech strata in Stillfleet are meant to function

as useful examples! Feel free to import your favorites or make
up new warp-capable (but presumably now-dead) civilizations.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH03 ☉ DESIGNING VOIDMINERS 043

Mechanics and costs of stiffworks 6. Heechee – Politely ask the gate to open, using your
brain-like multi-tongue (though you probably don’t
1. Ancient – Stiffworks from c. −100 MYA (i.e., those have one of these). Or think at the gate, politely
built by Virgin Dimenzion™, etc.) are technically asking it to open, and burn d20 −dREA GRT,
either primitive and highly unstable tachyon drives minimum 3. Heechee stiffworks may be retacked
(T drives) or more stable but much less useful with some effort (9+ REA check).
quantum-entangling metamagnetic “loop” drives 7. Escheresque – Traveling “to” the Escheresque causes
(Q drives): all non-extradimensional sapients, even informatic
beings, to experience “Escheresque nausea”: this
҂ T drives cost 16 GRT and require a difficult (7 or inflicts d4 −dWIL +dREA GRT damage, minimum 1,
better) REA check to tack; these can be tacked and physically incapacitates you for 1 round. There
to and from stiffworks you’ve actually used before, are two ways to tack “to” the Escheresque:
or well-characterized and easy-to-tack stiffworks
on hubworlds such as Spindle or Terra. The ҂ If you have an Escheresque blade and can “activate”
Archivists believe that T drives were used by it (unfold it in N-dimensions), then you can use
shipping companies with military-grade shipware. it to cut open a stiffworks ex nihilo, from any
҂ Q drives cost 8 GRT and require a standard point in the threespace universe to any point the
(6 or better) REA check to tack; these can be Escheresque and vice versa. (Importantly, you
tacked to and from preprogrammed destinations. cannot use the blade to tack a stiffworks from any
Q drives were (probably) used at starports. Many one point in the threespace universe to another,
preprogrammed destinations are utterly unknown nor from any one point “in” the Escheresque to
to the Co. today. another.)
҂ If you don’t have an Escheresque blade, or
2. Spinside – The oft-used “Malkovich tunnels” on can’t unfold it, you may be able to travel to the
Spindle typically cost 2 GRT to tack, no check Escheresque at no cost via the cryptic foldgates
required. This applies going out, but not always puncturing timespace at various points. These
coming back: the primary stiffworks that connects are typically found in the depths of alien
Spindle to the province of Darasan, for example, is enigmadromes, in the hearts of stars, etc. Little is
easy to use Spinside but requires enormous GRT known by the Co. about the Escheresque, because
expenditure on the Darasannais end to tack back. few fleeters who travel there ever return to Spindle.
Malkovich tunnels can never be retacked.
3. Provincial – I.e., a stiffworks on a distant Carvolian 8. Utterly mysterious – Some stiffworks do not sit
province-world that has some contact with Spindle. within any known category…
This is a standard rockside stiffworks. To tack it, burn
4 GRT and roll a REA check. If you succeed, you’ve
tacked. If you fail, you may try again next round by
burning another 4 GRT. Most cannot be retacked. The Mirror-White Jewel is perfectly circular—down to
4. Tephnian – Interfacing with a comm, make a REA the atom—and has no mass. It is not clear to you how
check, difficulty 7, and burn 12 GRT. Or use the this is possible. What is clear is that it can be tacked
access password (though you probably don’t know as if it were the knob to a door in timespace by making
this). Or drip a single drop of nanite-infused Blood a standard REA check and burning X GRT, where X
onto the sensor (though you probably don’t have is up to the GM’s mood at the moment. (A good rule
any noble Blood on you). Any of these approaches of thumb is the current average party level × 4 GRT.)
will tack the stiffworks. Tephnian stiffworks may be Using the Jewel in this way comes with a 1 in 4 chance
retacked with great effort (18 GRT). of triggering an Escheresque physics event…
5. Snakeman – Sacrifice a sapient life, then scar
yourself, burning d20 −dWIL HEA, minimum 4. A
Snakeman stiffworks may be retacked for the same
cost as opening it.

044
 To use dive to pull someone out of an area against their will,
roll COM/grapple against their WIL/resist other. They win on a tie.

Your other class powers are: Choose 1:

Dive (standard) Astrogate (standard/indefinite)

The ship is on fire—you have to get your party through You can, with effort, actually pilot spacefaring vessels.
the stuck bulkhead before the O2 combusts! (Or Cost to command a vessel is based purely on its class
whatever!) This is your big getaway power. Burn 6 GRT (a combined 1–6 rating based on its size, complexity,
and make a MOV check: if you succeed, you and some or and condition), with each point of vessel class costing

them access—however fragile, limited, and dangerous—to a ship!

GMs: if a player chooses to have the power astrograte, then give
all of your party make it out safely. You can bring 1 +your 6 GRT. Burning this GRT grants you the ability to pilot
level humanoid-sized beings along with you to safety, or or otherwise command the ship, within reason. (If
burn an additional 6 GRT to bring one additional being the hyperdrive’s broke, it ain’t jumpin; mining vessels
beyond your limit. Small sapient beings (0.5-M tall/long) may not sport armament, etc.) While piloting, you are
count for half a slot; large sapes (3-M tall/long) count essentially stuck and unable to otherwise venture. You
double; small pets (cat/beagle-sized) are free. If you fail must pay the astrogation cost each time you chart a
your MOV check, you alone get away but injure yourself course into or out of a system, or each time the ship
for 2d6 HEA damage. is damaged or upgraded. Doing anything with the
ship other than moving from point A to B (firing
weapons, scanning a mysterious craft, remotely
Jack (standard)
salvaging damaged life support systems, etc.) requires
Use, alter, or repair tech. Burn XY GRT, where X is the relevant checks, typically REA or, in a dogfight, COM
stratum (type) of tech (ranked 1–7, clank [medieval], and MOV.
bio [contemporary on-Spin], code [Ancient, Early
Tephnian], force [High Tephnian], nano [Late Tephnian,
Interface (standard)
Snakeman], bug [cryptocerid, heechee, mantid, mi-go],
Escheresque) and Y is the level of complexity (ranked Burn d10 GRT to tap into any comm system (any
1–6, simple, standard, complex, corporate, military, code-stratum archaetech), or to communicate with any
godlike). Thus, a force artifact of standard complexity AI or otherwise informatic being. Using this power
costs 4 × 2 = 8 GRT to interact with. Once this cost has requires no roll, and it obviates the need to spend
been paid, the artifact functions as designed, within copious GRT on jack.
reason. A laser (standard force) keeps firing until it runs
out of juice, which is up to the GM to determine (e.g., d20
Power up (free)
charges). Repowering requires access to the appropriate
resources and an additional use of this power. See You use tools to recharge a technical object or being.
“Wires” for more on tech. Burn X GRT; a technical entity gains X GRT. This GRT
can stack beyond the entity’s normal limit. You can also
҂ It is possible to heal informatic beings using this use this power to add charges to energy weapons. The
power at a 2 to 1 GRT to HEA cost. A pepper elf ’s cost to do so depends on their type: burn 2X GRT to
body is complex force tech (3 × 4), so a banshee add X charges to a personal weapon; 3X GRT to add X
can burn 12 GRT (the minimum required to interact charges to an Ancient or High Tephnian naval weapon;
effectively with the technology) in order to heal or 5X GRT to add X charges to an alien or Late Tephnian
the pepper elf 6 HEA. naval weapon.
҂ Bonus item: instead of a standard envirosuit, you
begin play with a perfect environment suit that
Reposition (free)
you have repaired. This allows you to safely operate in
the void for 36 hours. You expertly case the chaos around you. Burn 6 GRT:
҂ You also begin play with a fannypack-sized sample you gain an extra d12 to use on any roll, going forward.
collection kit (tweezers, microscope, screw-top glass
This can be a dodge check, an attack, a damage roll—
and bend containers). anything. You can use this d12 once, and it will go away;
ft Prin ter was the first of or you can instead use a d6 and, later, another d6; or a
Korporaal Steady Thri
a nake d sing ular ity as an d4 and a d8; or three d4s, etc. The bonus rolls are entirely
our order to employ
a hole in the Imm erm esh. up to you. You can reposition, use the extra die, and
antenna for opening
sugg est you do not follow immediately reposition again (paying another 6 GRT),
And the last, RIP. I
it, youn g draa dmij ner. even in the same round (if you are trying to dodge
her… innovative spir
multiple lethal attacks, for example). But you can never
hold more than one d12-worth of bonus dice at once.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH03 ☉ DESIGNING VOIDMINERS 045

 FA C T O R
Co. merchant-marine officer

You are an aspiring leader within the byzantine power

Remember: your strongest power
is being the boss! Act like it.

structure of the Co., trained in combat, business,

and psychology. Factors are the entrepreneurial
management-types in the Directorate who go out into
the void, tactically executing ventures.
Those who stay back on-Spin and strategically plan
ventures are refactors. Though technically equal in rank,
they attract very different personalities, and refactors
have authority when assigning contracts.

Your responsibilities are:

҂ leading the team to complete the enture as contracted;

҂ representing the Co. in establishing new strategic
relationships, including trade deals.

GRT: maxREA +maxWIL

Advanced powers list: Operations
Species: Conscripts cannot become factors: the Co.
does not trust Terrans.

Your marquee power is:

Command (standard)

Burn 5 GRT and give a non-suicidal command to

someone who understands you: that person must act
as directed, at least for 1 round. (This is not a Weird
power, however, and thus can be overruled by the hell
science.) You can burn 5 more grit per additional target
to enhance the reach of the command. If the command
is clearly at odds with a target’s desires, then after
1 round they can roll WIL/resist other against your
CHA/control to change their course of action.
҂ Bonus item: because you are a boss, you start the
game with an additional 5dCHA voidguilders (your
CHA—roll for it).

046 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WAYFARERS

Choose 3: Feed (hour)

When not under direct threat, you pass around the

‘Avvenge (hour)
beetle jerky and booze for a while. Burn 6 GRT: you
Burn 3X GRT, consult your notes, and search for X and each person with you regains +dCHA (your CHA)
hours: you discover an archaetech object of complexity +your level in pool, to be distributed between GRT and
level X (ranked 1–6, simple, standard, complex, corpo- HEA however they like. Note, this takes one hour—not
rate, military, godlike). This can be exactly the item the five, like normal resting.
group needed. You can also reduce the time required by
spending more GRT; each additional point shaves off 15
Requisition (standard)
minutes from the search.
You contact the Company using your tachyon lantern
(void-crossing mini-comm—basically, a quantum pager).
Bark (free)
Burn 2 GRT and roll REA: if you succeed, you establish
Shout a quick suggestion to aid a companion: burn X a link and can begin talking next round. If you fail, you
GRT, max your level +1; someone else receives +X to may try again next round at no penalty. If you are in an
their next roll. This can stack with boost. enigmadrome or the Escheresque, you must roll a 9 or
higher to succeed. The Co. can’t always help, but they
can often answer basic informational questions (“Isn’t
Detect (standard)
there a known backup stiffworks on Caligan’s other
Burn 3 GRT and call bullshit on something someone moon? [Y/N] Send the damn coordinates!”) and can
said: the GM must tell you if that something is a lie. This generally provide desperately needed small items up to
can’t counteract mind control; it just represents thinking 20 g in mass (vaccines, spare parts, bullets) by one-way
deeply and trusting a gut instinct. de-immertense catafalque It is not enough to give these
within twenty-four hours of local Nimbus Walkers hope, you
a request from a factor. do realize? With words? You
Dispense (two-round)
Your relationship with your must show them how to out-
You use a powerful portable medigadget you have leased refactor will determine the maneuver the rebel Governor.
from the Archive to treat a wound. Burn 3 GRT: you quality and expedience of You must take their fire into
recover or someone else recovers 3 +your level HEA and aid you receive. your own hands and watch
feels much better, thanks to drugs. You can also use this with them as your palms char.
medigadget to synthesize chemicals: once per session,
Sting (free)
you can burn 3 GRT and spend d8 hours to manufacture
street drugs worth 2d20 × your level gl, on-Spin, or 3d30 Your training in combat tactics allows you to pierce
× your level, on the provinces. Dispense can be used on the thickest of armor. Burn X GRT: your next successful
someone with 0 HEA: in this case, the person receiving attack ignores 2X damage reduction (DR). This power
healing wakes up, groggy and weak, and can act. works even against extradimensional armor but is not
itself extradimensional.

Street drugs are common on-Spin and generally

Tactics power (varies)
tolerated by the Directorate, which prefers its workers
functional but also cheery and unlikely to rebel. Choose any one power from the tactics list of advanced
Popular varieties include gunch (synthetic opium) powers. (See “Edges.”)
and wanch (wetan gunch) as well as thinkyboost,
a type of pep pill that is “officially” manufactured only
in the Archive but has many generic equivalents—
most of which are manufactured by cooks working
for the powerful Wetan Mafia.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH03 ☉ DESIGNING VOIDMINERS 047

 PIR
Co. doctor

You are a scholar, religious leader, physician, monk, or

exoplanetary marabout working with the Archivists
to mutually beneficial ends. Those who hold the title
Archivist stay on-Spin, researching in the lab.
Those who call themselves leeches only treat patients.
A pir—who ventures out to collect knowledge—may be
an Archivist-in-training, a combat-hardened medic, or
simply a learnèd naïf with a burning sense of curiosity.

Your responsibilities are:

҂ using your specialist scientific knowledge to complete

the venture as contracted;
҂ healing any wounded voidminers;
҂ collecting technoscientific samples for the Archive
(see “Screams” for how to sell these back to the Co.).

GRT: maxREA +maxWIL

Advanced powers list: Communications or immerphysics
(choose one)
Species: For some reason, most pirs on Spindle are
nonhuman. (Pirs on Terra and exoplanets vary wildly.)

Your marquee power is:

Heal (standard)

You practice trauma medicine, using your training and

a small kit of advanced medi-gewgaws. Burn X GRT
and treat a person, you or someone else: that person
regains X +your level HEA. Healing also cures bleed,
burn, stun, and other non-Weird conditions. Heal can be
used on someone with 0 HEA: in this case, the person
receiving healing wakes up, groggy and weak, and can
act. In any given 24-hour period, heal can only be used
on the same person twice (whether by you or you and
another healer).
҂ Bonus item: you begin play with a doctor’s bag and
some useful medicines: either d8 hits of gunch or d6
stimtenyl strips, your choice. Gunch is a synthetic

048 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WAYFARERS

 It’s up to you how you augur: do you have a memory palace in which you’ve stored thousands of
articles from the Archive, including classified snippets of the partially reconstructed Late
Tephnian UltraNet? Or do you have a connection to an ultrasapient being, somewhere, out there…?

opioid that affect all biological sapients. One hit of recover d4 GRT; this can take you past your maximum
gunch heals d6 HEA. Every time you use gunch, GRT. You can use dWIL doses per day safely (roll each
you face a 1 in 10 chance of becoming addicted. If you day); if you have one dose more, you lose your mind
become addicted, you must use gunch every day or for 10 −dWIL days, minimum 1. (It’s up to you and the
suffer 20 −dWIL GRT damage per day. After d6 days GM as to what it means to “lose your mind.”)
sober, you suffer d6 HEA damage as well. This with-
drawal period ends after 25 −dWIL days. Stimtenyl Choose 1:
strips are non-addictive and heal d4 HEA each.
҂ Bonus item: you also begin play with a fannypack-sized
Bioengineer (day)
sample collection kit (tweezers, microscope, screw-
top glass and bend containers). You can, with proper lab equipment and some
serious tools (typically, on-Spin), conduct advanced
Choose 2: bioengineering experiments. You don’t really know
what you’re doing, of course, but you’re learning
rapidly… This power has four steps:
Ætherspeak (standard)

Burn X GRT, minimum 2: you connect X minds together 1. First, declare your rough intention: e.g., make that
telepathically for your level +X minutes. These minds jackal Scanadow slightly sneakier by making her
can communicate regardless of language and substrate express the genes for body-silencing micro-hairs.
(neurons vs. silicon wafers, e.g.). They needn’t be fully Or: make Dug Dug Nine the cloned assassin stronger.
sapient, but they must be sentient. (I.e., you can get a Or: make it possible for a wetan to have a baby with
sense of what a velociraptor is thinking—although that a human. Based on your intention, the GM sets
“conversation” will feel extremely chaotic—but you can’t difficulty, which must be a number equal to or greater
talk to a piece of steel rebar.) than 12.
2. Second, roll REA and add your level × 2. This is the
number you use to determine your bioengineering
Augur (delayed–standard)
results. You must reach the difficulty set by the GM,
Burn 10 −dREA GRT, minimum 2, and 1 HEA: ask any or else you fail.
answerable (short) question. At the end of the round, 3. Third, burn this much GRT, regardless of success.
after everyone else in initiative has acted, the nameless 4. Fourth, check the list below and talk with the GM
things whom you contacted reply with the answer. This about the final result, which is permanent. Describe
answer may be vague, depending on the question, but the result in garish sci-fi terms. Note, there is always
will not be malicious, a lie, or incomplete. some result! Even if you fail, you permanently change
your subject’s body in some way.

Listen (hour)
Bioengineering difficulties and sample results
You practice psychology and can help someone relieve
stress: at no cost other than time, one person, not you,
regains your dCHA +your level GRT. This requires a ≤ 11 Your experiment fails. Roll a d6: on a 1, the subject
relatively safe environment (a quiet room-blob, empty suffers d30 damage and gains a permanent,
terrifying scar.
saloon, office). Listening only works once per day on the
same person, but you can listen to up to three people 12 Switch two scores permanently.

per day. 13 Harden epidermis/exoskeleton (subject gains +1 DR).

14 Add +1 to a check (e.g., attack, sneak, deceive,

Regenerate (standard) research) or radically change the patient’s entire
appearance.
If selected, this power replaces heal. You have advanced 15 Change sex or impregnate.
training as a physician. Burn 2X GRT: you recover or
16 Add one working limb (subject gains +2 on
another being recovers 3X +your level HEA, or another MOV/sneak or MOV/run checks).
being recovers 2X GRT, your choice. Either way, you feel
17 Change respiration (allow to breathe water or some
rejuvenated by your work and gain a +1 to your next roll. other medium).
Regenerate can be used on someone with 0 HEA.
18 Add +d4 to a check.
҂ Bonus item: you begin play with d4 thinkyboost pills.
Swallowing one of these pep pills allows you to

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH03 ☉ DESIGNING VOIDMINERS 049

 19 Add some combination of limbs that allow the Find clue (once-per-session/standard)
patient to fly.
You find something genuinely useful, plot-wise. You
20 Add +d6 to a check, or add 1 more attack per round.
can find a clue toward whichever plot you want, but
21 Add some organs to the patient that allow them to you should make your choice clear to the GM. This clue
shoot missiles that inflict d20 damage.
is specific: you don’t necessarily understand the bigger
22 Add +1 to a score. picture, but you know what you need to do next.
23 Add +d8 to a check, or allow the being to survive in
the void without atmo.
Quibble (free)
24 Add +d4 to a score.

25 Add +d10 to a check. At no cost, reroll a failed roll; this can be used only once
per roll and must be used immediately after failure.
26 Add +d6 to a score or add 2 more attacks per round.
Whether or not you succeed on this reroll, you must also
27 Add +d12 to a check. reroll your next success (not this action, but the next time
28 Add +d8 to a score. you have to roll).
29 Add some organs to the patient that allow her to
shoot missiles that inflict 3d30 damage. EXAMPLE FROM PLAY:
30 Port one sapient mind into a new body (any age, USING CLASS POWERS
species).
On the north-central plains of Terra’s larger supercontinent, the
voidminers are finally approaching the edges of the irradiated
Wastes. Straight ahead, several kilometers in the distance, gleam
the walls of the bombed-out city of Emnatria Medans. To their left,
Detect (standard) the savanna dries out and becomes a desert. To their right, a muddy
seasonal river snakes toward the city.
Burn 3 GRT and call bullshit on something someone Unfortunately, they are not alone: just as they spy the city’s
said: the GM must tell you if that something is a lie. This walls and pull back on the reins of their jirds (car-sized riding
can’t counteract mind control; it just represents thinking gerbils), something very large stands and shakes off river-mud in
great clumps. From two hundred meters away, it looks like a skinny,
deeply and trusting a gut instinct. rotting ox the size of a house. Its exposed ribs betray a smoking,
fiery engine of some kind. As they ready their rifles, this radiation
beast charges, galloping furiously and belting forth a smog laced
Extend self (standard/ongoing) with toxic embers…
The ensuing melee leaves the beast full of holes but one fleeing
You concentrate, burn d8 GRT, and send out from PC—a wetan witness named Ted—critically injured and burning
your core an ætherial hand: this can pick up any small (taking a cumulative 2 points of HEA damage per round) due to
acute radiation burns. Ted’s player, Hannah, asks if she can cure
object—up to a number of Kg equal to your level—and burning by using the basic power give aid. The GM explains that give
move it slowly but inexorably toward any being on aid covers only basic first aid skills and wouldn’t include a way to
the same planetoid as you. The object can be a note, a soak up radiation.
To save Ted, the party’s shoodtha pir, Dr. Djangles, uses the
poisoned dart, a scientific sample, an oddment— power heal. He is 3rd level and burns 10 GRT, so Ted recovers 13
anything small. It will eventually find the target and HEA and loses the burning condition. The GM prompts Dr. Djangles’s
bump into her, regardless of how long this takes. You player, Dustin, to describe the futuristic medical procedure in garish
sci-fi terms. He makes some gruesome analogies to cooking a stew.
do not have to concentrate to keep the extended self Ted mumbles about her preference for diplomacy but is thankful
moving, and it cannot be stopped by non-Weird means. not to die here, choking on toxic dust.
The time required for it to reach your target is 4d6 Later, inside the ruined city, the party are searching for a
renegade platoon of unhuman soldiers—separatists, now in the
hours −your level. You can burn an additional thrall of a mad buried Late Tephnian warmachine, who want to
Xd8 GRT to reduce the number of hours by X. leave the Federation of Unhuman Kingdoms and found their own
city-state in the Wastes. Just inside the city’s golden gates, gray
The only physician permitted to treat the famous cubic buildings loom, all their windows shattered. Nothing but
vinegar flies stir in the afternoon heat.
Director Arcressoir Prizpo, it is said, was a
While the party’s razi scouts ahead and the jackal tries to steal
mongrel called the Mountain’s Ghost who’d been powerful unhuman booze off of the banshee, the pir decides to
found half-dead on the Tephnian hulk ROTOLO by use the power find clue. This power requires no GRT to work: the
GM simply tells Dustin something useful. In this case, the GM
an expeditionary force—an elite team who later
says that, as the pir quietly slinks into a ruined store to hunt for a
died in freak accidents, one by one, in the days metallic snack (since shoodtha are metallotrophs), he hears two
leading up to the ‘Quake. No voidminer has seen voices speaking Old Tephnian (the language of the Federation)
coming through the building’s vents. He can follow the voices
the Mountain’s Ghost since the ‘works reopened.
back outside…

050 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WAYFARERS

 RAZI
Co. pathfinder

You are a scout trained off-Spin, on Terra or an exoplanet—

most likely rich Calayat, Qreyal, Calarash, or one of the
minor province-worlds—and now employed by the Co.

Your responsibilities are:

҂ using your knowledge of exoplanets and specialist

military training to complete the venture as contracted;
҂ protecting the venture’s acting factor, banshee, witness,
and other voidminers in that order of importance.

GRT: maxREA +maxWIL

Advanced powers list: Tactics
Species: Fleeters cannot become razi.

Your marquee power is:

Track (standard/day)

You work to either follow the trail of a single entity, or

locate any single entity of interest, sans clues. An entity
can be a specific person or a non-specific location. Burn
3 GRT for an easy target (clues exist, and the thing you
are trying to track is not hiding from you), 5 for a diffi-
cult target (clues don’t exist, or the target is hiding from
you), and 7 for a near-impossible one (clues don’t exist,
and the target is hiding from you). Roll a REA check; if
you succeed, you succeed. If not, you find something else
interesting instead. (GMs, roll a random encounter; the
razi is automatically undetected by whatever they find.)
You can burn more GRT and try tracking your target
again tomorrow.
N.B., track is the physical equivalent of the pir’s
augury: You can track down anything within reason,
planetside. Hulkside, you can use this power, but only if
some minimal clue exists; also, GRT costs are doubled
(6 for a non-hiding target; 10 for a hiding one).
The beast’s body didn’t stop thrashing,
even when its head was severed clean
by the automatic sawing action of the
laser gauntlet. The gauntlet’s master,
ribcage crushed, didn’t see dawn break
in rays through the cycads and ginkgos.
Nonetheless. The theropod finally swayed
and fell then, leaving the byrds alone
to rule that high cloud forest.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH03 ☉ DESIGNING VOIDMINERS 051

Your other class powers are: voidscrod… Burn 6 GRT before you attack, and then
roll to attack with advantage. If you hit your opponent,
you inflict double damage. If you are 5th level or higher,
Perfect shot (free)
you can spend another 6 GRT on hitting to inflict triple
Your called shot deals an additional amount of damage damage instead. You can backstab with any weapon,
equal to your level, and you can make two called-shot within reason.
attacks per round, although you still must pay the GRT
cost for each. At 10th level, you can make three called
Chain attack (free)
shots in the same round, paying for each. Note, you can
make a backstab a called shot (see below), but you may If you take down a target—that is, kill, reduce to 0 HEA,
still only make one backstab, when you have surprise, incapacitate, or otherwise physically dominate them—
after two rounds (one round to aim, one to attack). you can immediately burn 2 GRT to make another attack
on that same turn against a new foe within 5 M.

Tame (standard/day)
Fight (passive)
You work to either tame an alien creature or to find and
then tame one. Your unarmed combat damage is now dCOM instead
of d2.
҂ If you’re already near an alien beast (not an intelligent
being—meaning something with a REA score of d2 or
Hunt (free)
1), you can burn 2 GRT as a standard power to calm it
so that at least it won’t eat you. You may then burn 8 When you attack and hit a target whom you’ve tracked
additional GRT and spend the rest of the day working down or fought at any point in the past, you can burn 2
with it, in several hour-long stretches, to make it your GRT to inflict an extra d10 damage. In this one case, you
loyal pet. can burn this GRT after rolling to see if you hit.
҂ If you are not already near a beast, you can burn 2 GRT
and spend 3d4 hours searching to find a beast to tame.
Reposition (free)
Taming it requires an additional 8 GRT and another
hour of hard work. You expertly case the chaos around you. Burn 6 GRT:
҂ This power works planetside and hulkside, but you gain an extra d12 to use on any roll, going forward.
hulkside “beasts” are often so dangerous that this This can be a dodge check, an attack, a damage roll—
power has little effect other than to momentarily anything. You can use this d12 once, and it will go away;
distract them. (GM’s discretion—the point is, you or you can instead use a d6 and, later, another d6; or a d4
can’t have a pet xenoglade.) and a d8; or three d4s, etc. The bonus rolls are entirely
up to you. You can reposition, use the extra die, and
Choose 1: immediately reposition again (paying another 6 GRT),
even in the same round (if you are trying to dodge
multiple lethal attacks, for example). But you can never
Artery-opening strike (free)
hold more than one d12-worth of bonus dice at once.
Burn 2X GRT: your next successful attack causes bleed X.

Slay (free)
‘Avvenge (hour)
When you successfully hit a target, you can burn 5 GRT
Burn 3X GRT, consult your notes, and search for X and roll dCOM again: if you get a 6 or higher, you can
hours: you discover an archaetech object of complexity choose to kill the target outright. If you slay more than
level X (ranked 1–6, simple, standard, complex, one opponent per day, make a dWIL check: if you fail to
corporate, military, godlike). This can be exactly the get a 6 or higher, you lose 20 −dWIL GRT and are visibly
item the group needed. You can also reduce the time shaken.
required by spending more GRT; each additional point
shaves off 15 minutes from the search.
Sting (free)

Your training in combat tactics allows you to pierce the

Backstab (two-round)
thickest of armor. Burn X GRT: your next successful
You wait around the bulkhead, unseen, and pop out— attack ignores 2X damage reduction (DR). This power
finally gutting that no-good H.Co. traitor like an albino works even against extradimensional armor but is not
itself extradimensional.

052 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WAYFARERS

 STILLRIJDER
Co. “marine” (killer)

You are a soldier trained by the Co. to fight in extreme

environments. (Note: the J in “rijder” is silent.)

Your responsibilities are:

҂ protecting the acting factor, banshee, and witness in

order to complete the venture as contracted;
҂ protecting the other voidminers.

GRT: maxREA +maxWIL

Advanced powers list: Tactics

Your marquee power is:

Exosuit (item)

You have a suit of powered, archaetech marine armor—

an incomplete exosuit. Describe it! Sketch it! It is
priceless, if missing a few parts…

҂ Your exosuit counts as a perfect environment suit,

PCs: note, each official stillrijder exosuit is
unique. It represents hundreds of hours of work
by a team of banshees. You can’t just buy one.

allowing you to safely operate in the void for 36 hours.

҂ It is also bulky, causing you to have a −2 penalty to
all non-dodge MOV checks—including drive/pilot,
sneak, and run—while wearing it. This penalty does
not apply to initiative or pool recovery rolls.
҂ In addition, each archaetech exosuit is variously
well-armored: indefinitely set aside X GRT up to
4; you lose this GRT, permanently. Your exosuit
gains damage reduction X. If you stop wearing your
exosuit for 24 hours, you can regain the set-aside GRT
normally through rest, drugs, a pir’s regenerate power,
or other means. As soon as you get back into your suit,
you lose X GRT again. You can’t turn this power off,
once set: your bioelectric energy powers some of the
suit’s core functions.

Archival records indicate that Lt. Avanch modified

M. Haunty’s exosuit so that it would produce sonic
pulses when activated. The button to activate this
command was labeled “KLERB.” M. Haunty never
returned from their fifth venture.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH03 ☉ DESIGNING VOIDMINERS 053

Exosuit upgrades: Missiles (standard)

Choose 1 of the archaetech features below to start; you You have a shoulder-mounted biokinetic quantum field
gain one more feature at 4th, 8th, 12th and 16th levels, if disruptor. Indefinitely set aside X GRT up to 4. Your
you survive that far: missiles inflict Xd4+X damage and have an effective
range of 25 M. You may fire them once per turn at a
cost of X GRT (roll COM to hit), in addition to your
Anti-orgone cladding (free)
standard action. They are small and will only hit one
Whenever you become the target of the hell science, if target. They recharge over time as you wear your suit
you get a WIL roll to resist, you may burn 2 GRT to gain (represented by the GRT cost).
+2 to that roll. If you don’t get to resist, you may burn 5
GRT to gain such a roll.
Scanner (free)

Choose an intelligent or mechanical target, burn d8

Force fists (permanent)
GRT, and make a CHA check. If you pass, you learn
Your base unarmed damage is d20 (not d2 or dCOM). the HEA and GRT pool of your target, its level, and any
Each force-fist attack costs 2 GRT. If you run out of GRT, hidden weaknesses. If intelligent, your target rolls WIL
your unarmed damage becomes dCOM again. to contest your CHA roll. If their result is equal to or
lower than yours, you also scan their surface thoughts
(no repressed memories).
Jet pants (free)

Burn 4 GRT; you can attack normally while moving

Stimjectoid system (free)
25 M per round for a number of rounds equal to your
level. If you choose not to attack, you can move 50 M Whenever you drop to 0 GRT, you instantly lose d3
per round. You gain advantage on dodge checks HEA and regain dCOM +dWIL +your level GRT. If this
against melee weapons (swords, etc.) while jet pants injection kills you, you do not die right away, but instead
are activated. continue fighting until you are reduced to 0 total pool.
Similarly, whenever you drop to 0 HEA, you do not die
right away, but instead continue fighting until you are
reduced to 0 total pool. You now appear permanently
jacked, swole, ripped, brolic, or built (choose).

054 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WAYFARERS

Your other class powers are: Spacefighting (passive)

Stillrijders have the ability—due to their exosuits and

Double tap (standard)
training—to recover from space problems and keep
You are a trained soldier: instead of a normal attack, fighting. You have advantage on non-dodge MOV
you may burn 4 GRT and attack twice on the same checks in zero atmo. In addition, when you get hit in the
initiative. You cannot take two non-attack standard void and you start bleeding O2/pressure from tiny holes
actions or move more than 5 M, just attack. in your exosuit, you know exactly what to do. Patching a
suit is normally a standard action. Stillrijders can instead
patch as a free action in place of their second double-tap
Fight (passive)
attack. They still must burn 6 GRT; this is an exception
Your unarmed combat damage is now dCOM to the norm for double tap.
instead of d2. You can use dCOM for the damage of any
non-archaetech melee weapon, including unarmed
Train (passive)
attacks.
Every level, choose one type of weapon in which to train.
Choose 1: This type must be fairly specific (for the purposes of this
power, a katana is different from a straight longsword)
but is not specific to an individual physical weapon.
Daze (standard)
Whenever you attack with a weapon in which you are
You attack as usual, but if you hit, you stun your trained, you may burn 5 GRT, before rolling to hit, to roll
target for one round instead of dealing HEA damage. twice, taking the higher result. This power stacks with
In addition, your target now suffers −2 to all rolls for other forms of advantage.
the duration of the combat. This power can be used
cumulatively. EXAMPLE FROM PLAY: SLAYING
In the back of a factory for growing medicinal fungi on the minor province
Explode (free) of Carlivago, Hune (a provincial stillrijder) watches as his party’s witness
calmly explains to a quartet of thugs with badges that they were not in fact
When you roll the maximum value on a damage die, you hacking into the Pharmacological Guild’s database. (They were.)
The witness rolls her high CHA/control (deceive) against the gendarmes’
can burn 1 GRT to roll again, adding the new result to WIL/resist other, a d8. Feeling confident, she does not boost this check—
the total damage. This can go on as long as you continue and promptly rolls a 2. The gendarme capetan gets a 3, meaning that he
to burn 1 GRT per roll and get the maximum value on sees through her lies. The other thugs move to put the party’s banshee into
manacles…
the given die. Everyone rolls MOV/initiate to determine the order of events that fol-
low. Hune gets a 9 and acts first. He is confident that he can prevent these
gendarmes from disrupting the party’s mission—to stamp out a mi-go con-
Guard (free/ongoing) spiracy here on Carlivago—and unlike the witness, he is eager to burn GRT.
Hune’s player tells the GM that he is going to use double tap to attack
Instead of attacking or parrying, you may choose to the nearest gendarme twice with his exosuit’s bone-crushing force fists. He
protect an entity other than yourself: burn 3 GRT once; must spend 10 total GRT (6 to attack twice, and 2 for each powered attack).
That’s a large percentage of his GRT, but he’s confident the results will be
you gain +3 to dodge indefinitely, as long as you’re worth it.
guarding, and the first (your level) points of HEA Hune rolls COM/attack (a d12) twice, getting a 7 and an 8. The hapless
damage that your protectee incurs each round apply to thug rolls MOV/dodge (a d8) twice, getting a 5 (a failure, being less than a
7) and an 8 (also a failure, because Hune was the initiator of the action and
you instead of them. Guarding ends when combat ends, so wins the tie).
although you can burn 3 GRT, if you have it, to guard Hune now gets to roll 2d20 to determine how much damage his force
again at any time. firsts deal. He can see that the gendarme is wearing bend (plastic) armor,
and he has no idea how much HEA this opponent has. He considers burning
his remaining 6 GRT to boost each of his damage rolls by +3, guaranteeing at
least 10 damage (and probably much more).
Slay (free) Opting for a more dramatic conclusion, however, Hune chooses to use the
power slay. He burns his final 5 GRT and rolls dCOM again, looking for a 6
When you successfully hit a target, you can burn 5 GRT or higher. With a roll of 10, he’s in the clear: Hune’s force fists punch the
and roll dCOM again: if you get a 6 or higher, you can hapless gendarme’s head clean off of his body, no damage roll required.
choose to kill the target outright. If you slay more than The head rolls to the foot of the capetan, who immediately makes and
fails a WIL check. The remaining trio of gendarmes back away slowly, swords
one opponent per day, make a dWIL check: if you fail to quivering. Hune lowers the gold-plated outer layer of his exosuit’s great
get a 6 or higher, you lose 20 −dWIL GRT and are visibly helmet, rendering his smile invisible as the other players debate the best
shaken. strategy for turning these corrupt gendarmes into assets and finishing their
mission.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH03 ☉ DESIGNING VOIDMINERS 055

 WITNESS
Co. translator

You are an anthropologist, linguist, and intelligence

officer trained by the Co. to report back on what
happens out in the void. If there is no factor in your
group—or your factor is killed—you become the group’s
acting leader.

Your responsibilities are:

҂ acting as the point of contact with any sapient

entities encountered during the venture, which may
mean negotiating your way out of hostilities;
҂ writing an accurate report of the venture for
your refactor, including an itemized bill of
all valuables discovered (the bill being provided
by your factor, if you have one).

GRT: maxREA +maxCHA

Advanced powers list: Communications or operations
(choose one)

Your marquee power is:

Smooth over (standard)

You can calmly smooth over misunderstandings—the

kind that doom many planetside runs: burn 3 GRT for an
easily remedied bad situation (difficulty 5 CHA check),
5 for a difficult one (difficulty 6), and 7 for a nearly
impossible one (difficulty 7). Roll a CHA check. If
you succeed, all works out (for now—you can always
re-blunder). If you fail, roll another CHA check:
success on this one means you haven’t made the situation
worse; failure incites your interlocutors to attack
immediately. In actual game play, this is arguably the
single most useful class power!
҂ Bonus item: you begin play with a book or a set of
Archival pamphlets about one world of your choice;
this gives you a one-time +4 on a REA or CHA check
regarding this world. (You can choose the world well
after character creation.)

056 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WAYFARERS

Your other class powers are: Choose 1:

Conduct ritual (standard/hour/day) Assess (standard)

You participate in an important local ritual: this could be Burn 2 GRT. Choose one entity; this entity can represent
a religious service, an election, a marriage, etc. The time the median characteristics of a group (a gang, a small
requirement depends on the ritual but is typically one army, etc.). By spending a round studying it, you gain
hour and never less than one round. It must be logically a good idea about its general nature and likely powers.
possible for you to lead this ritual. (You can bend but (In game terms, the GM tells you its level, species, and
not break narrative logic here; GM’s discretion.) Burn X classes.) Assess does not let you read someone’s mind or
GRT and choose an effect: automatically catch someone in a lie.

҂ Religious rite (standard) – Everyone involved except

Disarm (standard)
you gains 2X GRT. This GRT can stack beyond their
normal limits. You wink—and in a flash, snatch the maser right out of
҂ Romantic nudge/ban (hour) – A sapient person (not a the isopodal nihiloid’s viselike claw! Burn 5 GRT: you
beast or non-sapient machine) of X or lower level falls disarm one opponent within 5 M. They cannot resist
in or out of love with someone else. You have total unless by using Weird powers.
control over the basic change in affect that you want
to happen; you do not have total control over how this
Find clue (once-per-session/standard)
plays out for the nudged/banned individuals.
҂ Political event (day) – You gain the loyalty and social You find something genuinely useful, plot-wise. You can
capital of 100X locals for X days. They will do your find a clue toward whichever plot you want, but you
bidding within reason, including fight for you. They should make your choice clear to the GM. This clue is
will give up if faced with obviously superior firepower specific: you don’t necessarily understand the bigger
or numbers, however, unless you conduct a second picture, but you know what you need to do next.
ritual to steel their resolve.
According to our records, Refactor Maxima
Kophale of Vzond Jezer single-handedly
Read (standard) made contact with seventeen distinct bands
of disk-headed Lake People. Kophale neglected
Regardless of what you’re encountering, if it’s kinda
to report, however, on which planet the Lake
humanoid at all, you can quickly get a good sense of
People dwell. We also have no record of the
who they are, what they want, and how to communicate
city of Vzond Jezer…
with them. Burn 4 GRT and make a REA check: if you
succeed, you establish lasting contact. If you fail, you
establish some sort of contact but anger your new
friends in doing so. The GM should raise the difficulty
of the REA check to 7 if the entities you’re reading are
already suspicious, or 9 if they are hostile.

At the Archive’s College of Seeing-With, apprentice

witnesses are trained not only in human and
wetan linguistics, but also sign languages of all sorts,
chromatophoric color-signalling, simple chemo­
electrical sensor pathways, cryptography, active
listening, and all other topics potentially useful in
connecting the Co. with alien societies.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH03 ☉ DESIGNING VOIDMINERS 057

 BLOODER
Nanite warlock

You are a nanite-addicted “sorcerer” who cannibalizes

your own body to create fantastic effects.
form of archaetech. Play this up! You’re a techno-vampyre!
Playing a typical blooder means playing a criminal who is
unmoored from time and struggling with addiction to a rare

Your responsibilities are:

҂ using your ability to command powerful

nanofluids to complete the venture as contracted;
҂ appraising and, as possible, repairing Late Tephnian
and other nanotechnologies discovered during
the venture.

GRT: maxWIL +maxCHA

Advanced powers list: Communications. You have
access to nanofluidics at 1st level.
Species: You should probably choose sleeper. With
the GM’s permission, you may instead be some other
(post)human (conscript, provincial, Fleeter, green,
unhuman)—or maybe even a harajoon or wetan.
You cannot be a pepper elf, mournfolk, aux, or other
informatic being, nor an enjan or jalasti.

Your marquee power is:

Control nanofluids (varies)

Your blood is infused with the Blood, capital B—the

liquid suspension of nanites possessed ubiquitously
during Late Tephnian civilization. The Blood acts
according to your will, resculpting your body to give
you insane powers but also making you… kind of
insane. Choose 3 initial nanofluidics powers. (See
“Edges” for the list.) Every subsequent level, you can
choose 1 more nanofluidics power in addition to
1 other advanced power.

058 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WAYFARERS

Your other class power is: Wear the world’s skin (standard)

Burn 3d4 GRT: for the following number of rounds

Overcharge (free)
equal to your level +1, your form becomes monstrous,
You can will your Blood nanites to do crazy things that red, varicose, and grotesque, and your powers shift: your
are bad for them and you, and everything around you. unarmed attacks now deals dCOM or dMOV damage,
When you overcharge, burn 8 +X GRT, minimum 1: add whichever is higher. You gain +2 DR. You automatically
X to your initiative, dCOM checks, and damage rolls intimidate all non-blooders who fail a WIL check. In
for the next X rounds. In addition, your offensive addition, as a free action, you can regenerate 1 HEA
nanofluidics powers deal +2X damage. Every time per round per level by burning 2 GRT.
you overcharge, make a WIL check: if you fail, you
must act in some inappropriately over-serious way on
Bask Skivaan awoke after far too long on The
Juanelia: no longer at warp, the corporate freighter
your primary passion (your telos). This can put you or
was now completely cradled within the red
your comrades at risk; it doesn’t matter.
tentacular arms of a larger ship, like a young crab
riding the stomach of its mother, upside-down.
Choose 2:
After stumbling to a comm panel, Bask found that
the ships’ docks were connected and in fact open;
Artery-opening strike (free) the other ship contained Terran atmo; no warning
lights would keep him from searching out his crew.
Burn 2X GRT: your next successful attack causes
Those androids should have awoken him from
bleed X.
cryoreserve after a few decades, but the comm’s
readings indicated that this had not happened.
Consume (standard) Temporal decimals appeared to be off, way off.
Your nanite-infused Blood hungers for literal flesh,
Entering the cathedral-like dock hall of the larger
ship, Bask could not help but pause at the floating
but only flesh patterned by intelligence: you can eat bio-
table moving slowly toward him. He did not run,
logical material derived from other biological sapients
but stared at the octagonal metal vial on top of
(flesh, blood, ground bone) to repower yourself. Gob-
the table. No one else moved, and the table did
bling 0.5 Kg of biomaterial restores dWIL GRT. You can
not speak. Probably a welcoming gift, he thought,
eat up to 2 Kg per day before becoming sick and suffering
picking up the vial. He was surprised at its weight.
d4 HEA damage. As a bite attack, consume inflicts
Bask Skivaan popped it open and sniffed. Cinnamon
dCOM damage.
and petrol.
The table buzzed, loosing an intense but pleasant
Endure (passive) series of vibraphone-like tones. Its top now glowed
a friendly forest green. Bask sniffed again. A tiny
When you reach 0 HEA, if you have any GRT left, you
fraction of the volatile liquid in the vial had already
don’t become prone. You can keep fighting until you win
entered his sinuses, and from there, his brain. Go
and don’t have to fight any more—at which point you
ahead, it said wordlessly. His tongue salivated.
immediately fall prone, exhausted—or you run out of
GRT and die.
This was not Groombridge 34 A, his comm had
told him. This was not 2579. He had somehow only
made it to Titan, falling out of warp a few thousand
Rage (free) years ago—but millions of years late—and exiting
reserve when The Juanelia’s capture-tank fell below
At any point during combat, you can burn 6 GRT to
a certain rate in its ceaseless quest to suck trace
lower your MOV die by one type and raise your COM
particles from the void. His clients, his husband,
die by one type for a number of rounds equal to your
dead. No crew on either ship, according to his
level. You can do this immediately before rolling to
comms. Just a friendly table.
attack or dodge, but not immediately after. (I.e., if you
attack by rolling a d10, you can’t burn 6 GRT to try again
Drink—you are parched.
using a d12.) If you have d12 COM, it becomes d20
Bask would go on to savor many, many sips.
And then to stop savoring them entirely. But he
while raging.
never forgot that first almost painfully bitter drop
as trillions of suspended nanites touched his tongue
and bottom inside-lip. The table buzzed in
satisfaction. The world began to glow with newfound
sharpness.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH03 ☉ DESIGNING VOIDMINERS 059

 JACKAL/MOUSE
Convict /orphan

You are a career criminal or spy—or else a lost orphan, a

kid, a stowaway hiding inside a half-mapped-out hulk.
Note: as a criminal or stowaway, you should pretend
to be one of the Co.-approved classes or a generic
voidminer—perhaps a stevedore, cook, or musically
talented orphan. Playing a stowaway class means lying
to your team, at least for the first few game sessions.
Trust must be earned!

Your responsibilities are:

҂ using your unique training to help complete the

venture as contracted;
҂ accomplishing any secret goals—such as spying on
the other voidminers—dictated by your refactor.

GRT: maxMOV +maxCHA

Advanced powers list: Tactics

Your marquee power is:

Con (standard)

Burn 4 GRT and tell a lie: everyone believes it, no check

required. This is not a weird power and won’t work
forever, if the lie is unreasonable or can be disproved,
but it will allow you to fool anyone briefly.
҂ Bonus item: you start play with a chiv (d4 damage), free
of cost.

060 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WAYFARERS

Choose 2: If you’re a jackal, choose 1:

Rat out (ten-minute) Backstab (two-round)

Once per venture, when your group reports back to You wait around the bulkhead, unseen, and pop out—
your refactor, you can submit your own memo without finally gutting that no-good H.Co. traitor like an albino
your teammates noticing. If you do so, choose to either voidscrod… Burn 6 GRT before you attack, and then
say nothing of importance or reveal something that at roll to attack with advantage. If you hit your opponent,
least one of the other PCs did not want to report back you inflict double damage. If you are 5th level or higher,
to the Co. If you reveal nothing of great importance, you you can spend another 6 GRT on hitting to inflict triple
simply gain an additional 25 gl as a minor reward. If you damage instead. You can backstab with any weapon,
rat out one or more of your fellows, however, you gain a within reason.
200 + (your level × 25) gl reward and a closer connection
with your refactor: they offer you secret side ventures
Imitate (varies)
and lend you archaetech items, etc. But now you must
rat out the others each time you report back or suffer With great effort, you can use any non-hell science,
a loss of rank, the suspicions of your overseers, and non-nanofluidics class power that costs GRT: simply
possible prison time, etc. The other PCs can never find the GRT cost, X, and burn 4X.
catch you in the act of turning in a memo, but they can
uncover your deceit by other means.
Murder (standard)

Sidebar with the GM: hatch a plot to kill one target (this
Steal (standard)
may be anyone, NPC or PC), and then burn X GRT. The
Name a stealable object—or overhearable or glance- plot must make some kind of sense. It takes at least one
at-able phrase or password, etc.—and burn d8 GRT. round of concerted effort to conceive, at best. X must
Roll a dMOV +your level check. If you succeed, you steal be greater than the level of the target, minimum 2.
the thing without being caught. If you fail, the entity Whenever the time is right, roll dCOM to attack the
from whom you’re stealing makes a dWIL check: if they target (even if you’re using poison, etc.). This roll can
succeed, they catch you; if they fail, you still didn’t steal be signaled secretly to the GM using a pre-arranged
the thing, but at least you didn’t get caught. A 1 is always signal. (“I roll to parry” = murder.) The target rolls
a failure. dMOV or dWIL to resist, depending on the nature of
҂ Bonus item: You also begin play with a free well-made the attack (stabbing or poison, e.g.). For every 5X you
dagger, stolen or of your own design (2d4 damage) spent when plotting, your target suffers a −1 on their
instead of a chiv. But at character creation, if anyone roll to resist. If your final result is equal to or greater
asks you for help buying essential starting gear, you than your target’s, they die. This entire process, if
must give them d12 gl (representing the fact that successful, can take place without the target knowing
you are a prisoner or orphan and thus cash-strapped); who is attacking them, your choice. If you fail but took
each other player can ask for your money. They must reasonable steps to protect your identity, your target
ask; if they don’t read this rule, then they miss out! must make a dREA −X check to identify you.
Eek was nimble for a shrew-bear. She didn’t
Vanish (free) remember her work in the Before Times, which are
also the Times to Come. She did remember her days
Once per round, you may simply disappear. Burn 7 in the Canteen, dancing for the furless things and the
GRT: you vanish into the air or void around you, bugs. She was sent to save them (from what?—she
undetectable by anyone except through the use of Weird didn’t recall them telling her that), but she found
powers, no matter how implausible this seems. Simply them so easy to trick out of their shiny bits. She
describe what happens in detail. N.B., this power does not started to take the bits even when she wasn’t on
count as a standard action and can be used once per round stage, even when the furless things were asleep. She
in addition to attacking or parrying (etc.). You remain amassed quite a nice bindle of coins and, well, who
perfectly hidden until you attack, speak, use any power knows what those other bits were. Some of them
with a visible effect, or otherwise give away your beeped! Too bad the bugs found the bindle. Good thing
presence. the Boss Monks here are always looking for people to
steal bits from other people, quietly, nimbly…

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH03 ☉ DESIGNING VOIDMINERS 061

If you’re a mouse, choose 1:

This is a parallel to banshee

power dive but costs no GRT
and only affects the mouse.
Kawaii (passive)

You simply don’t appear to be a threat. An opponent

cannot inflict damage against you unless you attack,
steal from, or otherwise attempt to harm them first.

Whine for help (passive)

When another PC spends a standard action to aid you,

you gain a +X bonus to whatever you’re doing, where
X is equal to your level. Describe how you beg for
help/annoy them into doing what you want.

Wriggle through (standard)

Whenever you are under dire stress and/or the threat of

imminent demise, you can choose to drop anything on
your person heavier than a small bag/item of clothing
and flee. This means abandoning all weapons and
bulky armor (living armor and nanotech armor is okay).
If you do so, you escape and live, regardless of the logical
contortions required by the GM.

Scamming your own team

Do professional thieves admit to being thieves in public?

Or are they ever “gamblers,” philanthropists, performers,
security consultants, and so on? This deception is a
spectrum depending on player and GM interest. You
can go full three-kids-in-a-trenchcoat when designing a
hyperbolic backstory for a mouse, or play a more suave
jackal who always has an alibi: “Sure, I grew up seeing
some of those Wetan Mafia types around, but me? I’m
just a simple porter. I move the boxes the directors pay
me to move!”
Either way, if you choose to play a jackal or mouse,
then you choose to deceive your own team, at least at
first. This situation is narratively fun but fragile: without
a “legitimate” voidmining identity, you can pretend to
have any Co. mandate—and any class power—that you
wish. At some point, however, the truth will come out.
After that, you may need to earn back your colleagues’
trust.
Just remember, playing a thief, liar, and/or child is a
fun challenge—not a license to constantly annoy your
friends. If your character can scam the other PCs and
add a refreshing dash of chaos to the story, then go for it.
But don’t be surprised if—after one too many oddments
go missing—the rest of the team votes to leave you
behind one day.

062 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WAYFARERS

 SNAKEHEAD
Untrained psyon

You are a self-taught hell scientist—a Terran somehow

capable of touching the Weird without the careful
manipulations of the Archivists. Quite possibly, you
were granted your powers by an ultrasapient patron of
some kind—a cthulhicate entity from the deep void, an
unearthed and deranged Late Tephnian warmachine, or
an utterly unfathomable extradimensional being from
the Escheresque.

Your responsibilities are:

҂ using your command of the hell science to complete

the venture as contracted;
҂ identifying and, as needed, eliminating Weird threats
to the venture;
҂ evading the oversight of the Archive…

GRT: maxWIL +maxCHA

Advanced powers list: Immerphysics
Species: You must choose any human, wetan, or
unhuman. (GM’s discretion.)
Special restriction: Your highest COM die type is d6.

Your marquee power is:

Evoke (free)

Hell science is the evolution of consciousness—the

merger of the human imagination with physical reality.
Hell scientists use their imaginations to sculpt timespace.
Thanks to some terrible mutation, you can control the
Weird. You can use hell science powers that you don’t
even know about. Instead of using a Weird power you
actually understand (that is, using the power channel hell
science, below), name the power you want to use. Then,
as a free action, burn d20 GRT and make a WIL check.
If you succeed, you may use the power as described,
paying the associated GRT cost. Also, your eyes glow,
your breath mists with electrified blood, and so forth.
If you fail, you don’t lose your action for the round
(trying is a free action), but you do lose the d20 GRT.
Note: using a power once does not teach you how to
safely do so again!

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH03 ☉ DESIGNING VOIDMINERS 063

Your other class powers are: Envenom (free)

Burn 4X GRT: after your next successful attack with a

Channel hell science (varies)
non-gun weapon, your target rolls a normal WIL check

PCs, mark each healed location

You begin play with 2 hell science powers, chosen freely at −X. If they fail, they are completely paralyzed for a
from any of the 6 paths (see “Echoes”). Each time you number of rounds equal to your level +1.
gain a level, you can gain 1 more hell science power.
Almost all hell science powers cost GRT to use. The
Mend the spiral (five-hour)

on your own maps!

psyonic equivalent of COM is REA, unless otherwise
stated. When you psychically attack someone, your As a ritual, instead of resting, you may choose to heal a
opponent rolls WIL instead of MOV to resist (to radius of blighted land equal to your level × 10 M. This
mentally “dodge”). N.B., most people tend to be very costs no grit, but you do not regain pool while healing
suspicious of other people who can bend timespace the land. The land is permanently rendered verdant (or
simply by thinking. whatever it was before it was scarred by civilization).
This life returns slowly, over the course of a year. But
from now on, whenever you tread on this copse, you and
Surge (special/free)
your companions gain advantage on all rolls and, when
You can use hell science powers in ways that defy the resting, recover pool completely after five hours of rest.
understanding of even the most erudite Senior (This power does not function on Spindle.)
Archivists: when using a hell science power, burn the
requisite GRT +X more GRT, where X is equal to or
Stand (standard)
less than your level × 3. The effect of the power is now
+X, whether that applies to damage, damage reduction, You spend a round concentrating on your innerself—

Major homage to JoJo’s

duration in minutes or hours, or any other measurable your stand. Your id takes charge; your desires are made
effect. If the effect is not measurable, it is qualitatively vivid; your dream-quintessence becomes a waking

Bizarre Adventure.
amplified a ginormous amount. X minutes after using reality: burn X GRT and describe your stand. It is
the power, you feel weak and cannot use any Weird typically huge and vile. You are now your stand, doubled
power for X rounds. During this time, you smell sweaty on top of your non-stand ego-self, for as long as you
and can’t speak clearly. have GRT. Your stand has advantage on unarmed attacks
and deals 2dCOM+X damage. Your stand takes GRT
Choose 1: damage instead of HEA damage, protecting you from
physical harm. When you drop to 0 GRT, your stand
dissipates, and you are you (and only you) again. Note:
Call patron (free)
your stand hates your ego-self and will try its best to
You supplicate to your always-watching patron: make ruin its reputation, insulting its friends, attacking
a standard CHA check. If you succeed, you get the civilians, and so on. GMs, exploit this!
attention of whatever ultrasapient grants you your
ability to manipulate reality on a quantum scale, and it
takes hold of you, taunting the pitiful beings around you
to react. If anyone attacks you for the next your-level
rounds, they suffer d30 +your-level damage as a
warmachine strafes them with micro-railgun drones,
or a cthulhicate lashes at them with tentacles of purple
hate, etc. After you call your patron (that is, after the
power ends), you must sacrifice d20 GRT to it or else
fall to 0 HEA, prone, as it sucks out the juiciest parts of
you as punishment.

064 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WAYFARERS

 TREMULANT
Trained psyon

You are a trained hell scientist—a Terran conscript who

was tortured for years by the Archivists in order to allow
you to control the Weird.

Your responsibilities are:

҂ using your command of the hell science to complete

the venture as contracted;
҂ identifying and, as needed, eliminating Weird threats
to the venture;
҂ conducting certain necessary tasks for the Archive…

GRT: (maxREA +maxWIL +maxCHA) −maxCOM

Advanced powers list: Immerphysics
Species: You must choose conscript. (Or argue with
your GM for some other choice.)
Special restriction: Your highest COM die type is d4.

Your marquee power is:

Control hell science (varies)

Thanks to excruciating years of that terrible esoteric

training called the “hell science” by the Archivists, you
can control the Weird. You begin play with 3 hell science
powers, all from one of the 6 paths (see “Echoes”).
Each time you gain a level, you can gain 2 more hell
science powers, of which at least one must be on your
path. Most hell science powers cost relatively large
amounts of GRT to use. Using a hell science power
requires a few seconds of concentration. The psyonic
equivalent of COM is REA, unless otherwise stated.
When you psychically attack someone, your opponent
rolls WIL instead of MOV to resist (to mentally “dodge”).
N.B., most people tend to be very suspicious of other
people who can bend timespace simply by thinking.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH03 ☉ DESIGNING VOIDMINERS 065

Your other class powers are: bump into her, regardless of how long this takes. You
do not have to concentrate to keep the extended self
moving, and it cannot be stopped by non-Weird means.
Drain (ten-minute)
The time required for it to reach your target is 4d6
Once per day, you can drain your dWIL +your level GRT hours −your level. You can burn an additional Xd8 GRT
from another sapient within 3 M. This sapient does not to reduce the number of hours by X.
feel anything; their GRT simply flows to you. This takes
ten minutes and does not require a quiet environment.
Feel Weird (standard)
If you and your target are separated before ten minutes
pass, you only regain half the GRT, rounded up. If you suspect someone is using the hell science or near
you (or on you!), you may take a few moments, burn 2
GRT, and call for a WIL/perceive check: if you make the
Memorize (ten-minute/free)
check, you learn some general information about the
In addition to weaving the Weird in real-time, you may nature of the Weirdness happening currently. You don’t
prepare hell science powers in advance by “memorizing” necessarily learn who is causing this Weirdness, but you
them in order to unleash them later. To memorize learn what is going on, in broad terms.
a power, set aside the grit that it costs; this GRT is
permanently unavailable to you until you use it, after
Pass (passive)
which you may recover it normally. Memorizing a
power takes ten minutes (at least); using a memorized Whenever someone suspects you of being a hell
power is always a free action, regardless of the listed scientist, you may claim to be something else. Instead
time. This means that, at a high GRT cost, you can use of rolling CHA to deceive your target, you may roll
more than one hell science power per round. WIL. If your roll is equal to or higher than your target’s,
they believe you are not a hell scientist (until/unless
Choose 1: you use a Weird power), and you recover 2 GRT.

Call Weird (standard) Phase (free)

Once per day, when you let your brain do what it wants Burn d20 −dMOV +X GRT, where X is greater than
to do, strange things happen… Burn d3 HEA. You gain 0, and choose one of the effects below. Whenever you
one die-worth of GRT, with the die-type dependent on phase, you suddenly appear very weird to everyone
your level: You roll a d3 at 1st level, a d4 at 2nd, d6 at around you.
4th, d8 at 6th, d10 at 8th, d12 at 10th, d20 at 12th, d30 at
14th, 4d8 at 16th, 5d8 at 18th, and 8d8 at 20th. Calling ҂ Blink – You move 10X M in the direction of your
Weird does not require a particularly quiet environment, choice. If you choose to move into a living being,
nor must your hands be free, but you must be awake and you destroy it but suffer 5X HEA physical and 2X
able to focus. Whenever you call Weird, you suddenly GRT mental damage in the process. You also end up
appear very weird to everyone around you: your skin covered in gross bits.
appears discolored or slimy; you smell like ozone or ҂ Decorporealize – For 2X rounds, you remain visible
rotting figs; your hair stands on end and emits a pale but become insubstantial: HEA damage directed
blue-gray glow, etc. This gives you away, if you are against you is turned against your attacker instead;
pretending to be someone you are not—especially if GRT damage is attenuated by −X.
you are pretending not to be a tremulant! ҂ Overmirror – You spawn X copies of yourself. For the
next X rounds, including this one, these copies may
act on your initiative, including right now, in whatever
Extend self (standard)
manner you wish. At the end of the Xth round, they
You concentrate, burn d8 GRT, and send out from blink out of existence, and you take X HEA damage.
your core an ætherial hand: this can pick up any small
object—up to a number of Kg equal to your level—and This is not a perfect metaphor for warping timespace,
but it’s apt enough for the purpose of a rule.
move it slowly but inexorably toward any being on
the same planetoid as you. The object can be a note, a
poisoned dart, a scientific sample, an oddment—
anything small. It will eventually find the target and

066 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WAYFARERS

 VOIDBORN(E) SPECIES

Charles Darwin, exposing the human as a corporeal amalgamation of creatures

both at hand and across vast temporal distances, may have given us our first
glimpse of always already “posthuman,” a stance that insists upon our immersion
within worldly material agencies, suggesting our accountability to our fellow
creatures in this community of descent.
—Stacy Alaimo, Bodily Natures:
Science, Environment, and the Material Self, 2010.

Which
Co. Informatic beings can also be healed by banshees
using the power jack, but this process is less efficient,
representing an engineer trying to perform surgery.

reasoning Species beyond “Wayfarers”

thing are Stillfleet is designed so that most players will choose one
of the species offered in “Wayfarers”: your character will

you?
be a mercenary from outer space. That said, there is no
mechanical reason that the game can’t allow for some
or even all players to choose non-conscript species from
Terra who’ve somehow made it up and into the void, or a
species from somewhere further afield than the worlds
Some playable “species” are types of humans from known well to the Co.
different homeworlds, but most are aliens. Mechanically, The species presented in “Patterns” represent other
most species have one or two assigned powers and sapients thought to be at least potentially friendly to
are able to choose one or two more from a list. Many humans and wetans by the Archivists. GMs and players:
species have a permanent +1 modification to some talk about what’s on the table at character creation.
score. This is a big deal! Keep it in mind when assigning
scores. If you have a d4+1, you may reach 6 and succeed
at normal-difficulty checks whenever an ally helps you Species living on-Spin (in this chapter) d12
out or you have a situational bonus.

1 Fleeter (human—Spindleborn)
Informatic vs. biological 2 Provincial (human—exoplanet-born)
Informatic species are indicated by

sapients 3 Wetan (“cricket,” “shrimp”)

4 Conscript (human—Terran)
Informatic sapients are not affected by toxins, and
they can survive hard vacuum longer than biological 5 Pepper elf (dark crystal automaton)

sapients (though not indefinitely). Informatic beings are 6 Enjan (“cactoid”)

affected by the conditions bleed, burn, and stun as well 7 Harajoon (“wing ape”)
as radiation. (They may not have blood, but they have
8 Jalasti (“salamander”)
internal states that can become compromised.)
In addition, informatic beings cannot take bio-stratum 9 Mongrel (tiny-faced bear-mutant crusader)

drugs (gunch, stimtenyl, etc.), but they can be healed by 10 Mournfolk (morghûl, twin-souled wire ghost)
powers such as give aid, heal, and regenerate: leeches 11 Shoodtha (faceless robotic alien)
and pirs are trained to help all sapients known to the
12 Sleeper (human—reborn)

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 Other playable species Choose 1:
d10

Arkheion access (permanent)

These species can be
found in “Patterns.”

1 Aux (dataghost—AI, android, robot)

2 Desmudu (“chirops,” batperson of Kakudun) You gain a permanent bonus of +1 REA.

3 Dolphinoid (dolphinperson of Calarash)

4 Duul-Duul (lapine multibots) Cosmopolitan style (permanent)

5 Fexellaj (raccoonperson of Kakudun) You gain a permanent bonus of +1 CHA.

6 Hrijn (elephantine legs-only X-dimensional of Ruoin)
Languages: You speak Spin plus many common wetan
7 Mulgulm (puritanical moldfolk of Nașudrūn)
rasp-words.
8 Mulruk (frogperson of Gigou)

9 Solarian (“visitor,” alien mimic)

10 Void elf (advanced humanoid of Tnín)

Common (most of you are one of these things)

Fleeter
(human—Spindleborn)
You spell it with a capital F. You are a space-born human.
You claim to be immune to the voidpanic that grips other
inhabitants of the vacuum, but in reality, you are merely
better at faking calm.

Species powers:

Company soul (permanent)

You gain +125 voidguilders at character creation.

“Modern” (permanent)

You gain a +1 bonus on rolls related to clank-, code-, or

force-stratum tech.

Voidborn (permanent)

Whenever the GM requires you to roll a WIL check

because something in space is scary, you gain a +1 to
the roll and don’t appear as fazed as non-Fleeter
characters. This does not apply to Escheresque nausea.

068 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WAYFARERS

Provincial Homeworld d12

(human—exoplanet-born)
1 Calarash (major province)
The people of the various worlds seeded by the Ancients, 2 Calayat (major province)
the Tephnians, the Co., H.Co., the Snakemen, and even
3 Carlivago (minor province)
by the other provinces share one thing in common: they
are neither “truly” ur-humans in the way that Terrans 4 Darasan (major province)

believe themselves to be, nor are they “truly” space- 5 Faneslary (minor province)
born in the way that Fleeters see themselves—as the 6 Gigou (major province)
inheritors of three centuries of tacking, archiving, and
7 Kakudun (major province)
deciphering the secrets of a once richly connected
cosmos. Some provincials resent this outsider status 8 Kavaraat (minor province)

within the Co.; others embrace it, using it as fuel to push 9 Qreyjal (major province)
themselves out among the hulks and climb the ladders 10 Ruguņ (major province)
of the Directorate.
11 Tyharin (minor province)

Species powers: 12 Uricon (minor province)

Different gravity back home (permanent)

Calarash
You gain a +1 bonus to all non-Weird rolls related to
health—resisting disease, fighting poison, not falling This hot, primarily oceanic world is
asleep when you don’t want to, etc. This does not help home to a Carvolian province. Their
with resisting Weird forms of mind control. rulers, the autocratic trade council called
the Kemmerath, are increasingly rivals
Choose 1: of the Directorate. Calarash is home to
sapients called dolphinoids. You speak
Spin and Calaș. You begin with +6d12 gl.
Gladhander, palmgreaser, climber (permanent)

You gain a permanent bonus of +1 CHA.

Subject of empire (permanent)

Calayat
You gain a permanent bonus of +1 WIL. Similar in makeup to Terra, this world is
thought to be the ur-home of the wetans.
Languages: Spin, plus a native language determined by The largest province by population as
homeworld. Choose one, roll a d12 and consult the list, well as the richest, Calayat’s rulers are
or make up a new minor province. This choice informs extremely influential on-Spin—much
your relations to the other inhabitants of Spindle. to the Directorate’s chagrin. You speak
Spin and d2 Calay languages (Malteni,
Anch, Chessenais, Calavane, Sabian, or
Jarchane). All weapons you purchase at
character creation are well-made and
thus inflict +d4 damage.

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 Carlivago Kakudun
Known for housing the Archive’s Kakudun’s inhabited supercontinent is a
pharmacy guild, the “World City” of crowded chaos: dozens of medieval king-
Carlivago stands in a cool swamp on an doms compete with each other, eager to
otherwise lifeless planet. The Carlivane buy weapons, armor, and luxury goods
are paranoid that their city will be from the Co. Native sapients include
conquered by the mi-go; they view all the vaguely raccoon-like fex and bat-like
visitors as potential spies. You speak desmudu. You speak Spin and one Kaku-
Spin. You start the game with 3d4 dunnais language (‘Ethi, Flane, Haxaj/
stimtenyl strips that heal d4 HEA Twinner, Howlish, Jash, Marangali, or
each and one stolen mi-go oddment Westish/Seafolk). You start with an ex-
(a mystery). tra oddment from the terrifying factory-
ruins called the Ratworks: whatever this
thing is, it is high-tech and dangerous.
Darasan
Of unknown origin, this poor but Kavaraat
populous province is incompletely
terraformed: its cool hills and plains Bizarrely unbound from time, this world
are home to poisonous native flora and sports a human province superimposed
no native fauna whatsoever. The three onto a paleolithic human society as well
byzantine queendoms here are stable but as a hostile alien civilization. The prov-
cannot suppress rebellions. You speak ince is medieval—until you fall forward
Spin and Theenish. You gain +2 on or backward through one of the infamous
checks specifically related to political/ Kavaraaq “timeslips.” You speak Spin and
corporate intrigue. one other language: choose to either flu-
ently bark the proto-languages of apes
and monkeys or to read the glyphs of the
Faneslary grey Tetrahelian aliens. (You are not able
to communicate in Tetrahelian without
This dry world has an almost-earthlike visual symbols, however.)
atmosphere that is unbreathable by
humans or wetans, but it is also home
to valuable ore and minerals. Rumors Qreyjal
persist of beings living out in its
Unstructured Forest… The political The homeworld of the enjan is hot, lush,
situation here is beyond tense: the and ribbonned by a living paralytic ocean
miners have recently split into three called the zanj. Wealthy rival empires
variously loyal camps. You speak Spin. span its three major continents. You
You start with 2d6 bombs that deal speak Spin and one of the many Qrey
d20 damage. languages (Qzell, Zjell, Yalantine, Maur,
or something else); you can also have
very simple conversations with vascular
Gigou plants by touching them gently and
thinking to them.
The Moss World, home of the resettled
harajoon, is an old but poor and
politically unstable Carvolian province.
Its primary continent is cool, wet, and
filled with dangerous fauna. You speak
Spin and Mossish; you can also have very
simple conversations with non-vascular
plants and kelp by touching them gently
and thinking to them.

070 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WAYFARERS

 Rugun The common suns
The most recently discovered major Observant voidminers note similarities across the major
province, Ruguņ is a cool, wet, earth- provinces—one or two large continents, incomplete
like planet with a human population terraforming, wetan habitation… The Archivists report
of time-traveling Snakeman origin. that their suns are almost exactly like Terrasol. The plan-
Its single small continent possesses ets are astonishingly similar in size. They variously sport
many stiffworks but is riven by warring one or more moons or not, Terran climatic cycles or not,
nations, only one of which currently and vaguely Terran-esque xenofauna or not.
trades with the Co. You speak Spin and Regardless, none of them is quite right: Qreyjal sports
one of the Ruguș languages (probably the paralytic living ocean called the zanj; Darasan is
Ambaranthine or Caelari). You gain +2 deathly quiet and lacks arable land; Kakudun’s eastern
on WIL and CHA checks related to supercontinent is supposedly home to a sleeping Old
nano-stratum tech. One, and so on.
The Archivists theorize that the major provinces
were prepared by the heechee (the “bee-people”) in
Tyharin order to give humanity a better chance of survival
in the long term. The question begs, however: why
Another world unbound from time, were these Terra-like Goldilocks worlds prepared
Tyharin is at once on the periphery of incompletely? They will pay for any clues.
an advanced human space empire and,
in the Co.’s “present,” a ghostly remnant The strange cases: Calayat, Darasan,
of that empire, with few inhabitants. and Kakudun
You speak Spin and Galactic. Because
you come from a time-shifting world, Some Goldilocks worlds were—apparently—never
you are immune to Escheresque nausea explored by Terrans prior to the Co.’s arrival. The
and other biological problems caused Archive’s official position on these planets is extreme,
by odd physics. (You are not immune and extremely bitter, agnosticism: without conclusive
to full-blown Escheresque events, evidence, there is no reason to suspect a multiplicity of
however. See “Patterns.”) human origins. All provincials (in their terminology)
likely came from Terra at some point, even if millions
of years ago. The Senior Archivists, when pressed, cite
Uricon three relevant data:

Acid lakes and ancient ruins dot the 1. The known human polities are not especially
major continent on this cold, dry world. divergent—evolutionarily, sexologically, culinarily,
Uricon’s sole remaining city—vast and technologically, or culturally—suggesting that they
many-colored—is ruled by a good queen share an origin.
but managed by corrupt bureaucrats. 2. The “xeno-provincial” languages (Theenish, the
You speak Spin and a chavvy version of many Kakudunnais languages, and the many, many
English circa England at 1980–1990 CE, Calay languages) contain the same basic phonic
most of which consists of phrases elements as all known human tongues. (And of
from television. You gain a +1 to checks course the provincials themselves contain the same
related to lying (most CHA checks). base pairs of DNA.)
3. “Top-furthest”—to use the slang of the Canteen—
the xeno-provinces are not unified sociopolitically.
As on Terra and the other provinces, the humans of
Calayat, Darasan, and Kakudun have yet to achieve
anything like world peace.

The Archivists conceal their smiles, noting these points,

but the meaning is clear: there has been only one human
diaspora from Terra, however slow. (The origin of the
wetans is another question entirely.)

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 (The GM gets final say on what things around you
might be “edible,” but they should be generous!)

Wetan Species powers:

(“cricket,” “shrimp”) Arthropod (permanent)

Just under two-thirds of the sapients living on Spindle You gain a permanent bonus of +1 MOV.
today are humans. Another third are wetans. These
large, spiny, insectoid beings trace their origins to the
Mandibles, spiracles, etc. (two-round)
major province-world of Calayat. (Probably—some
wetans believe Kakudun or even lost Nașudrūn to be You can metabolize a much greater range of chemicals than
the true Ur-Wetana.) Of all of the nonhuman sapients hominins, only a few of which are cognizable to them as
whom humanity has encountered, wetans are psycho- “food”—from rotting fungusbark to human-urine energy
logically the most similar to the gregarious ape. For shots. Whenever you encounter something possibly edible,
one, many “cricks” seem to love voidmining as much as make a WIL/resist world check. Take that result and roll as
adventurous humans. many d4s. For every resulting 4, you regain 1 point of pool,
Physically, Spindleborn wetans are drabber, squatter, assigned to HEA or GRT as you like. Eating possible-food
and less spiky than those who were born in the provinces takes at least 20 seconds (two rounds).
and became trapped on-Spin by the Groot Tachquake,
and those who just arrived. Many wetans live among Choose 1:
humans in the Flats proper, but others choose to live just
below, in the sprawling neighborhood of Little Wetana,
Big spiky hard-shelled bug (permanent)
which is largely controlled by the Wetan
Mafia—an increasingly You gain a permanent bonus of +1 COM
powerful rival of
the Directorate.
Chemoelectric sense and sensibility (perm.)

You gain a bonus of +4 on rolls related to bug-stratum

archaetech.

Somnolent sawharp legs (standard)

Burn 4X GRT and roll CHA; X targets roll WIL. For each
target, if your result is equal to or greater than theirs, you
put them into a light, trancelike sleep for maxCHA
rounds, if they weren’t hostile (attacking you). To lull X
hostile beings to sleep, burn 4X GRT and roll CHA; they
resist with advantage .

Languages: You speak Spin, Translated from Rasp, wetan

the Spin-dialect of Wetan names take the form “Adjective
(commonly called Rasp), Noun Doer,” such as Wavy
and either one Calay lan- Kelp Mixer, Random Fig
guage (Malteni or Ches- Carver, Twenty Dance Grafter,
senais), one Kakudunnais etc. Most wetans will insist
language (‘Ethi, Jash, or that their tri-names be trans-
Westish/Seafolk), or Calaș. lated into Spin (or whichever
Wetan is actually a family language), as their impor-
of so-called rasp-languages: tance as identifiers are not in
it involves pheromonal and their Rasp sounds but in their
electrical signals that non- semantic meanings. At the
bugs can never fully under- same time, they will insist that
stand. It is weakly mutually these tri-names are high-level
intelligible with other bug metaphors, vague omens
languages such as Crypto- about their personalities, not
cerid (extinct), Mantish (on literal descriptors; a wetan
Terra), and Yuggothi (the with “Dancer” in her name
language of the mi-go). may not even enjoy dancing.

072 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WAYFARERS

Uncommon (you’ve met one of these things before) Choose 2:

Conscript Corrupted psyker neurome (standard)

Burn d6 GRT and roll CHA. Your target rolls WIL. If

(human—Terran) your result is equal to or greater than theirs, you quickly
Terra has long resisted definition by, and proper read their thoughts or establish communication (if this
relations with, the Worshipful Company. Terra is “home” being is distant, resistant, alien, extradimensional, etc.).
to humanity, but to many Fleeters, provincials, and You have a migraine for at least an hour and are not
wetans, Terra is also terrifying: a hot, populous, happy. You may use this power a number of times per
technology-strewn battleground for cutthroat human, day equal to your level +2.
unhuman, and mantid empires whose citizenries are
rapidly evolving the ability to control physics simply by
Earthlings never give up (permanent)
thinking. (Of course, the true terror of Terran politics
is that they too-perfectly mirror those of the venal Co.) You gain a permanent bonus of +1 WIL.
Terrans do occasionally end up working as stillfleeters,
but typically they have to be conscripted into this
Fury from planet fucking fury (free)
service by the Echotesters, the Archivists in charge of
testing for the hell science, and these conscripts just Whenever you take 4 or more HEA damage in one
want to get back home. Conscripts who turn out not to round, you may gain either +2 GRT, +1 to your next
have psyonic potential are sometimes (rarely) allowed attack roll, or +3 to your next damage roll.
to venture their way toward liberty… Note: almost all
tremulants and snakeheads are conscripts, as are most
Outworld brute (permanent)
non-sleeper blooders.
You gain a permanent bonus of +1 COM.

Languages: You speak Spin and d2 Terran languages.

Major language groups include Carvolian–Dravanian
(Old Carvolian is still spoken on some province-worlds),
Vennari–Gilspari (Spin is in this family), Tharn–Ziru,
Oud Tephnian (unhuman), New Tephnian (Sasparadan),
Squamid (lizard-person), Laturan, Mesan, Siltish, and
Mantish (a rasp-language only partially intelligible to
non-bugs). Most Co. conscripts are from the human
nations of Carvolia or Vennar.

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 Pepper elf Languages: You speak Spin and an irritating series of
flashes and beeps that fleeters call Elf Machina (intelli-
(dark crystal automaton) gible to aux, salt elves, sapphire elves, mournfolk, and
purely informatic beings).
Pepper elves, unlike their companion salt elves (the
other, translucent sex [?] of the species), often leave
their moribund workshop-ships to join the Co. To most
Nonhuman? Act like it!
humans and wetans, they are creepy as sin. But pepper
elves serve as handy assistants in the Archive—and Note, some of the rarer species do not have any choice
occasionally as banshees or other voidminers. in their powers, and some powers are quite weird or
have drawbacks. If you are not a typical Fleeter—some
Species powers: kind of human or a wetan or pepper elf—then play up
your weirdness! When in doubt about a given species’
morphology or cultures, make it up!
Environmental resistance (permanent)

You are informatic. You don’t have to breathe air, and you
can withstand the wild temperature and pressure swings
of the vacuum. You cannot survive strong acid, lava,
astral hydrogen plasma, etc., any more than any other
species.

Rationally designed (permanent)

You gain a permanent bonus of +1 REA.

Choose 1:

Caliginous crustallone skyn (permanent)

You have damage reduction (DR) 3 from non-force

weapons, but you make everyone slightly afraid all the
time (−1 to relevant CHA rolls).

Clockwork motion (permanent)

You gain a permanent bonus of +1 MOV.

Laser vision (standard)

Stare at a target and burn 4 GRT: you take 2 HEA

damage; your target takes dWIL (your WIL) +your level
HEA damage. Your target does not get to dodge. Every
time you use this power, your non-pepper elf colleagues
become slightly more suspicious of you.

Technorganic (permanent)

You gain a bonus of +2 to all tech rolls, except those

regarding bug and Escheresque tech. You can also use
human and wetan drugs.

074 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WAYFARERS

 Rare (you’ve heard tales about these things)

Enjan
(cactoid)
Hailing from the fairly well-explored province-world of
Enjan are not happy-looking “ents,” but bizarre sapient associations

Qreyjal, the enjan (the word is singular and plural) are

not typically interested in or particularly friendly toward
outsiders. That said, the odd plant-person does, from
time to time, come down with a case of wanderlust and
of various photobionts and totally unknown xenomicrobes.

find her way to Spindle.

N.B., like plants in general, individual enjan vary
genetically much more than individual non-planto-
ids. Most appear to be roughly human-shaped cacti;
some, massive tree-things; a few, slimy balls of green
ultra-algae. None of them are quite like Terran plants,
of course; Qrey life, though initially imported from
some human world, has adapted to the presence of the
worldwide paralytic ocean called the zanj.

Species powers:

Whispery (permanent)

You are a plant, so you are normally silent. When you

do force air through your whisperholes (enlarged
stomata), your voice comes out as a pleasant rasp, more
like the wind than a shout. You gain a bonus of +2 to
sneak checks, and +1 to checks involving calming down the extent that you can communicate with the biomass,

See the classic Dave Chappelle routine about the excruciatingly

non-plants. you can command it to do whatever you like. Granted,
most plants are very slow… but they can, for example,
Choose 3: “watch out,” in their way, for specified entities/events in
the area and be checked in with later. Alternatively, they

dumb conversations that Aquaman must have with fish…

can produce food edible by locals, or grow into a bridge.
Auxin-network non-mind plant-mind (perm.)
This depends partially on the predominant type of plant,
You gain a permanent bonus of +4 GRT. and partially on your directions.

Hatred of the burners and cutters (free) Resilient phloem (permanent)

Burn 3 GRT; your next attack against an animal or You gain a permanent bonus of +8 HEA.
automaton (includes all hominins, insectids, and
informatic beings; does not include mushroom-
Spiny (permanent)
and mold-people) inflicts +3 +your level HEA
damage. Alternatively, you can deal this damage to Anyone who attacks you in hand-to-hand combat takes
your target’s GRT pool instead. 2 HEA damage per attack, whether or not they succeed
in inflicting damage. Your unarmed attacks now inflict
dCOM+2 damage.
Plant commander (standard)

Burn d6 −dWIL GRT, minimum 1; you can speak clearly Languages: You speak Spin, one Qrey language of
to a large biomass of plant material for a number of your choice, Plant, and Moldfolk. This means you can
rounds equal to your level. Most plant biomasses have communicate with intelligent plants and fungi. Most
only the dimmest understanding of what the hell you're plants and fungi, however, have little to say.
on about, unless you’re on about water or sunlight. To

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Harajoon
(wing ape)
The futureapes called the harajoon (the word is singular
and plural)—with their fuzzy and random-looking tufts
of hair, large gray eyes, membranous (bat-like) proto-
wings, and leering permanent smiles—are considered
good luck on Co. ventures. They were once said to
be plentiful across the provinces but fell victim in vast
numbers to a terrible wasting chronoplague just before
the Tachquake. Today, most harajoon have been
resettled on the planet Gigou, though they call the
mazing void their true home.

Choose 3:

Chuntish mega-dentition (permanent)

Your fearsome bite inflicts d8 +your level damage.

Geek (standard)

As a free action, burn 3 GRT to reroll any failed check

related to technology.

Gracile (permanent)

You gain a permanent bonus of +1 MOV.

Proto-wings (permanent)

You have pale flesh-flaps connecting your arms to your

thighs. With great effort, you can fly yourself around
carrying a machine gun (or equivalent mass) in light
wind. You cannot take people with you unless they weigh
less than a machine gun (up to ~12 Kg). Flight costs
1 GRT per round and can last, without rest, 6 × your
level rounds.

Travel lust (free)

When traveling through the blackness of space, as long

as you have never been in this room before, you may
make a WIL check. If you do, you gain +1 on your next
roll. If you come back here, you can no longer use this
power.

Languages: You speak Spin, Chuntish (the old harajoon

tongue), and Mossish (the language on Gigou). You can
also decipher the meanings of ape-like and monkey-like
organisms.

076 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WAYFARERS

 Jalasti Neotenic (permanent)

(salamander) You gain a permanent bonus of +1 CHA.

Jalasti (the word is singular and plural)

The “grass” and Sensitive (permanent)
are 1.6-M tall amphibian-like beings
“trees” on Darasan
with a host of colorful sexual and You gain a permanent bonus of +6 GRT.
are red, because
sensory organs arrayed around their
the chlorophyll-
“heads” (their primary ganglia are in Languages: You speak Spin and Theenish (the
equivalent in these
fact in their “tummies”). These pacifists common tongue on Darasan). You can generally
xenoflora reflects
come from the cool, wet provincial communicate well, nonverbally, with the children/larvae
red light instead of
planet of Darasan, which they cohabit of any animal-ish sapient species.
green.
with warlike humans of a medieval
technological stratum.

Species power:

Quasi-amphibious (permanent)

You can hold your breath underwater for a number

of minutes equal to your maxMOV × 2, and you gain
advantage on MOV checks related to swimming.

Choose 3:

Care-minded (permanent)

You gain a +2 bonus to powers and checks related to

medicine and healing, whether of HEA and GRT.

Electrical sense (standard)

Make a WIL check: if successful, you can tell very

roughly where a given current is going inside a building
or ship.

Healing saliva and sweat (standard)

Burn d8 GRT: with a caring touch you heal someone

2 +your level HEA.

Insight (standard)

Burn 1 GRT and make a REA check: if successful, you

have a minor epiphany. You detect a lie or confirm a
truth in conversation, find a clue, remember something
useful, MacGyver a device back to working order, etc.
Your insight is subject to GM review.

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 Mongrel
(tiny-faced bear-mutant crusader)
Does your mongrel actually possess
secret insights unavailable to the

The gigantic, vaguely mammalian, permanently

depressed humanoids called “mongrels” on-Spin were
other players? Probably!?

created 200 million years in the future (100 million

years into the future of Stillfleet) by the Yellow Monks.
Any mongrels out in space have been sent there to
slay “dæmons”—aliens destined to harm humanity’s
fragile future. Of course, what counts as a dæmon is
subject to each inquisitor.

Species powers:

Claws and bearhug (standard)

Your unarmed attack inflicts dCOM +dCOM damage.

When attacking with your meaty, clawed fists, you may
either attack once or burn 3d6 GRT to attack three
times. If you hit all three times, you bearhug and immo-
bilize your opponent. If you dip below 0 GRT, the bal-
ance comes out of HEA, but after combat ends, you pass
out and cannot be awakened for 20 −your level rounds.

Huge (permanent)

You gain a permanent bonus of +8 HEA. You have a

bonus of +2 on all grappling checks. You cannot fit into
tight spaces and so forth.

Skinshift (standard)
Neurosis (permanent)
You molt your skin and completely alter your
Whenever you fail a check for any reason, you feel bad appearance. Once per day, for 3 GRT, you may switch
about yourself and lose 1 GRT. your dCHA and dWIL scores, including bonuses. This
shift is permanent until you shift them back.

Poison resistance (permanent)

Sorrowcobbler (standard)
You have three very large livers. Gain +3 on checks
related to poison or environmental toxins, blood, Burn d4 GRT and touch someone else: you may convert
drinking, etc. (i.e., WIL/resist world checks). X of your GRT into X GRT for them. This trait removes
the GRT from you. It also hurts like hell.
Choose 2:
Wytchsight (standard)
Knock knock (permanent)
Whenever you suspect the hell science at work, you
You are unafraid of ancient, terrifying places. You gain may burn 1 GRT and make a WIL/perceive check. If
+1 to all WIL/perceive, WIL/resist other, and WIL/resist successful, the GM must reveal what Weirdness is going
world checks when investigating hulks and technoruins. on, even if it is otherwise cloaked. This is not a passive
power: you must call out your suspicions of Weirdplay.

Pasthaunted (permanent)
Languages: You speak Spin, Futurecommon, and the
You gain +3 on WIL/resist other checks, because you Yellow Order’s Secret Cant. You may also choose at
will not go back to that dark time of the ancestors. You character creation to speak any one “dæmonic” (alien)
gain −3, however, on CHA/control checks or other checks language of your choice; if you do, you permanently
related to intimidating people. lose d2 GRT.

078 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WAYFARERS

 Or insert some other such
conceptual space poetry here…

Mournfolk Choose 1:

(morghûl, twin-souled wire ghost)

Sensitive (permanent)
Hailing from the “moss planet” of Gigou, the morghûl— You gain a permanent bonus of +6 GRT.
or, as they’re called by Fleeters, mournfolk (both words
are singular and plural)—appear as glimmering, corpse-
thin sapphire wires entwined in the shape of a beautiful Sensor-stack (passive)
elfin Janus whose back is the mirror of their front. The You gain a +2 bonus on WIL/perceive checks.
morghûl claim to be the ghosts of a dead nation of
sapphire elves (mysterious, ultra-long-lived, silicon- Languages: You speak Spin, Mossish, Elf Machina, and a
based sapients of Gigou) who doomed themselves ghost-data language that only Mournfolk can “hear.” You
through selfishness to wander the stars, learning forever can communicate with purely informatic beings on their
the lessons of connection with fellow thinking minds. own terms when using the power tap right in.
A few mournfolk constructed a pitiful Mosstown—a
cathedral for meditating on the downfall of morghûl
civilization on Gigou—deep in the otherwise dark
Dormant Bays of Spindle.

Species powers:

Burning touch (standard)

Burn d4 GRT; your unarmed attack inflicts +d6 damage

this round.

De-fuse (standard)

Burn 12 −dWIL GRT, minimum 1: you split into two

clones with the same stats as you had before except for
max GRT, which is split equally between them. (If your
max GRT is odd, then one clone has 1 more GRT than
the other.) You are now playing two characters: name
both! If either clone dies, however, the other dies, too.

Environmental resistance (permanent)

You are informatic. You are made of “sapphire wire,” so

you don’t have to breathe air, and you can withstand the
wild temperature and pressure swings of the vacuum.
You cannot survive strong acid, lava, astral hydrogen
plasma, etc., any more than any other species.

Re-fuse (standard)

Burn 20 −dWIL GRT, minimum 1: your clones merge

and become one again. You gain full HEA.

Tap right in (standard)

Burn 3 +X GRT, where X equals the complexity of a piece

of archaetech, regardless of its stratum: you can use this
for one round. This power lets you use things you can’t
even begin to understand.

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 ?
Shoodtha
(faceless robotic alien)
Shoodtha (the word is singular and plural)
Xenotheoretically
appear to be humans bound entirely
oriented Archivists
in metallic duct-tape and possessing
are split as to
vaguely spherical gray metal bags for
whether shoodtha
heads. They are very old, independent,
are Escheresque in
and well-traveled, so much so that they
origin; no evidence
no longer remember their homeworld.
exists either way,
Though they are roughly human in
and the xenos
shape, they are not humans. Whatever
themselves claim
they are, they desire to learn by
to have forgotten.
experiencing.

Species powers:

Curious (meta)

You might consider selecting pir as your class (GM’s

discretion if another class is allowed).

Genius (permanent)

Your REA die is one die type higher; if it already is a d12,

it becomes a d12+1.

Metalotroph (permanent)

You eat metal, not other things. If you can’t eat roughly 2
Kg of metal every day, you die.

Not from around here (permanent)

Choose one evolutionary basis:

҂ You are informatic. You don’t have to breathe air, and

you can withstand the wild temperature and pressure
swings of the vacuum. You cannot survive strong acid,
Sink (passive)
lava, astral hydrogen plasma, etc., any more than any
other species. You absorb 1 GRT per hour from your surroundings.
҂ You are Escheresque. You do not suffer Escheresque
nausea and gain a +2 on checks related to Escher-
Swordly (permanent)
esque-stratum tech. Your multidimensional systems
are not balanced for threespace, however: you You are trained (+3 bonus to attack/parry) with all
cannot survive in the void without a suit any better swords.
than a human or wetan, and you can’t use human or
wetan drugs. Languages: You speak Spin, in a bizarrely echoic robo-
҂ You are technorganic. Your systems can safely and tone, as well as any one other language of your choosing.
effectively process human and wetan drugs, but you You may also choose at character creation to speak any
cannot survive in the void without a suit any better one other language of your choice; if you do, you perma-
than a human or wetan. nently lose d2 HEA.

080 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WAYFARERS

Sleeper Enhanced (permanent)

(human—reborn) You gain permanent bonuses of +1 COM, +1 MOV, and

+1 REA.
Sleepers are humans who were preserved in cryogenic
chambers, regenitor-nanite baths, carbonite friezes, or
Insane (permanent)
Uricone antideath cells many millennia ago—perhaps
even in one of the spires of long-buried Grand Tephnii. Your WIL is d4. Play this up! You have no common sense,

“Meet you” = eat your brain.

Awoken, sleepers are not right. Not at all… and you don’t pay much attention to what’s going on
around you, lost in a fog of memory.
Species powers:
Open mind (standard)
Cannibal (standard)
You may burn 4 GRT to communicate with any
You may wolf down roughly 1 Kg of human flesh to being—intelligent or not, biological or informatic—for
regain d6 HEA. If you do, make a REA check: success one minute. If you do so, the ancient things beyond
has no effect; failure makes you feel emotions and lose time and space see you and send one minor “emissary”
d6 GRT. (xlaadi, starspawn, etc.) to “meet you” within 24 hours.

Remember (standard)

Burn d6 GRT; you wrack your brain and recall some

immediately useful detail, e.g., concerning archaetech.
You also recall lots of painful things that you then obsess
over for hours.

Languages: You speak very poor Spin and one other

language: either Uricone (i.e., TV-catchphrase-drenched
Thatcherite English), Chinish (the Chinese–English
mono-language dominant on Terra c. 2266 CE), or Late
Tephnian.

Amnesia

Why would an ancient and well-traveled shoodtha (or

pepper elf, or sleeper) go out into the void as a 1st-level
picaro, an apprentice roughneck, a mere space-grunt?
Perhaps the most convincing—and funniest—way to
deal with this question is to assume that this advanced
automaton has had its memorycore wiped (or that it has
wiped itself). It has no memory of being a 17th-level
pir—of serving as the Chief Psychobenthic Officer, say,
for the dread ylythnari known only as the Celeritarch—
and therefore it is not 17th-level.
This provides a great tool for you: you can play dumb
for a laugh or sketch out a vague ghost of a memory, a
tingling at the back of your brain-sack. Of course, the GM
can also remind you of your past, perhaps in the form of
an unexpected visit from the Celeritarch itself…

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 FINISHING UP

People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment
and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the
public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.
—Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and
Causes of the Wealth of Nations, 1776.

Character
Hustle d30

backgrounds
1 Algæneer (banshee, factor, pir)

2 ‘Avvenger (factor, mouse, pir)

3 Behemoth hunter (factor, razi, stillrijder)

4 Bookie (blooder, factor, jackal)

Tools for the player 5 Bountyhunter (jackal, razi, stillrijder)

6 Burglar (blooder, jackal, snakehead)

The following rules act as double-edged swords: they
7 Carrion merchant (blooder, jackal, razi)
make the PCs slightly more powerful but also give the
GM strings to pull. Whether or not to use them is up to 8 Chef (blooder, factor, pir)

your group. 9 Cyclist (any)

These rules are more for the player than the GM. If 10 Dentist (banshee, jackal, pir)
you as a player want your PC to benefit from hustle, kin,
11 Empath (mouse, snakehead, tremulant)
and/or telos, you need to design these bonuses into the
concept of your character, explain their background 12 Famemonger (banshee, factor, witness)

or allow this to be discovered during gameplay, and 13 Gambler (blooder, jackal, stillrijder)
remember what each rule dictates. If you forget in the 14 Gladiator (blooder, razi, stillrijder)
heat of the moment that you can roll with advantage,
15 Hell paladyn (snakehead, stillrijder, tremulant)
then you simply lose advantage. No retconning allowed!
Suggestion: copy and paste whatever rules you’re using 16 Leech/physicke (banshee, pir, witness)

directly onto your character sheet as a reminder. 17 Meretrix (blooder, jackal, mouse)

18 Peasant (any)

Hustles 19

20

21
Pilot (banshee, factor, pir)

Publican (factor, jackal, witness)

Reverend (pir, tremulant, witness)

22 Server (any)

What were you up to 23 Teacher (factor, pir, witness)

before your first venture? 24 Translator (pir, razi, witness)

25 ‘Ulkdiver (factor, mouse, stillrijder)

A character’s hustle is their background, former career, 26 Wastecycler (banshee, blooder, pir)
or present day job. If your group decides to use hustles,
27 Wrench (banshee, pir, stillrijder)
choose or roll a d30 to select 1 of the options below for
your PC, or make one up. Your hustle can be current or 28 Xenobiologist (pir, razi, tremulant)

long past, but you can have only one (GM’s discretion). 29 Yesperson (factor, jackal, witness)
Appropriate classes are suggested. 30 Zanni (jackal, mouse, witness)

082 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WAYFARERS

 Mechanically, your hustle gives you one advantage on CHA/seduce checks with humans: you creep
and one disadvantage. Some hustles have more narrow people out.
advantages and corresponding disadvantages; some have ҂ Chef (blooder, factor, pir) – You cook food for a living.
very broad bonuses but equally broad handicaps. You have advantage on all rolls related to food and
eating (not agriculture). You have disadvantage on
҂ Algæneer (banshee, factor, pir) – You breed and sell de- MOV/run checks.
licious algae to the Directorate for a living. You have ҂ Cyclist (any) – You race bicycles around an indoor
advantage on checks related to non-sapient plants track on-Spin, or along winding roads in the
and gardening, and you can get into most areas of the provinces. You have advantage on MOV/drive (cycling)
Basilikon, no questions asked. You have disadvantage as well as MOV/run checks, but not MOV/pilot (flying)
on checks related to bureaucracy, venture contracts, checks. You have disadvantage on resisting hunger
lying to your boss, etc.: everyone needs, but no one and thirst, since you consume many more calories
trusts such a vital cog in the great, venal machine of than the average voidminer.
the Co. ҂ Dentist (banshee, jackal, pir) – You torture faces to
҂ ‘Avvenger (factor, mouse, pir) – You find and sell make them more beautiful for a living. You have
antique bits and bobs for a living. You have advantage advantage on checks to remain calm, and you play
on WIL/perceive checks while in technoruins, mini-spingolph with several subdirectors regularly.
including hulks and Spindle but not the “wild” of the You have disadvantage on CHA/seduce checks.
Escheresque. You have disadvantage on WIL/perceive ҂ Empath (mouse, snakehead, tremulant) – You read
checks in primarily organic environments. others’ minds without their permission—or pretend
҂ Behemoth hunter (factor, razi, stillrijder) – You stalk to do so—probably for one director. You have advan-
and blow up deranged warmachines in the provinces tage on WIL checks related to sensing motives and
for a living. You have advantage on all COM checks detecting lies. You have disadvantage on checks to
when fighting warmachines, including mechs and pass as normal, to make friends, to find love…
drones. You have disadvantage on all REA, WIL, ҂ Famemonger (banshee, factor, witness) – You some-
and CHA checks when within 1 km or 1 hour’s travel how command attention and thus money from
of a known warmachine: you need to get that job done ordinary people. You have advantage on all CHA
immediately. checks. You have disadvantage on all WIL checks.
҂ Bookie (blooder, factor, jackal) – You take money from When fans find you, they become angry if you don’t
gambling addicts for a living. You have advantage on sign their ration cards, e.g.
all checks related to money, and you know all the best ҂ Gambler (blooder, jackal, stillrijder) – You recklessly
watering holes in the Canteen. You have disadvantage spend money borrowed at a ridiculous interest rate.
on all checks related to the Co., official scrutiny, your You have advantage on all MOV checks. You have
refactors’ opinions, etc.: no one trusts you with more disadvantage on all WIL checks. Tell the GM
than gambling. in secret to whom you owe a small fortune: a
҂ Bountyhunter (jackal, razi, stillrijder) – You find wanted subdirector, a provincial governor, a Terran mafioso,
criminals and capture or murder them for a living. or a mad ex-Archivist.
When you’re on a job, you have advantage on checks ҂ Gladiator (blooder, razi, stillrijder) – You fight in
related to tracking and sneaking (you don’t enjoy these semi-licit street duels, on-Spin, or in major arenas
bonuses at other times, though). You also enjoy a close before rapt audiences, in the provinces. You have
relationship with at least one high-up refactor (this is advantage on either COM/attack or damage rolls
both good and bad). You have disadvantage on checks (your choice). You have disadvantage on either all
related to non-bounty-related threats, such as the REA checks or pool recovery rolls (your choice).
wiles of mysterious strangers. Choose a cool stage name.
҂ Burglar (blooder, jackal, snakehead) – You steal ҂ Hell paladyn (snakehead, stillrijder, tremulant) – You
valuables from others for a living. You have advantage seek out and “slay”—perhaps on behalf of the Direc­
on MOV/sneak checks. You have disadvantage on torate, the Archive, or another powerful group—
checks related to telling the truth, convincing bailiffs, dangerous xenos, cthulhicate intruders, time travelers,
and being vulnerable. Escheresque entities, and/or political rabblerousers.
҂ Carrion merchant (blooder, jackal, razi) – You sell You have advantage on all rolls related to your chosen
rare xenomeats, popular with the monied set on- type of “dæmon.” You have disadvantage on rolls re-
Spin. You have advantage on REA checks regarding lated to normal civic order: paying taxes, finding food
alien species, but only vis-à-vis their biology, not to eat, not offending everyone around you… When in
their technology or culture. You have disadvantage doubt in a non-void setting, you have disadvantage.

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҂ Leech (on-Spin)/Physicke (on the provinces) (banshee, run… You have advantage on WIL/perceive checks to
pir, witness) – You treat people’s illnesses, physical or see danger or MOV/run checks to run from it. You have
mental, for a living. You have advantage on all basic disadvantage on WIL checks to resist moving forward,
medicine checks, or double advantage on checks and to resist lies regarding possible troves of riches
related to one medical speciality (your choice). You (“quests,” side deals with refactors, etc.).
have disadvantage on all COM checks. ҂ Wastecycler (banshee, blooder, pir) – You find ways to
҂ Meretrix (blooder, jackal, mouse) – You have sex convert organic waste into raw material for delicious
with people for a living. You have advantage insects. You have advantage on checks regarding
on CHA/seduce checks. You have disadvantage bio-stratum tech. But you stank. You have
on CHA/intimidate checks. disadvantage on CHA/seduce checks with Fleeters
҂ Peasant (any) – You are a normcore provincial and provincials (conscripts and nonhumans don’t
farmer: each day, you complete a series of domes- care) as well as MOV/sneak checks near hyper-
tic tasks involving space butter and void cabbage, olfactory species (most organic nonhumans).
or something along those lines. You have advantage ҂ Wrench (banshee, pir, stillrijder) – You fix simple
on CHA checks to blend in or get away without mechanical systems for a living. You have advantage
being noticed (not MOV/sneak checks). You have on REA/make/repair checks. You have disadvantage
disadvantage on CHA/intimidate checks. on initial COM rolls against cool-looking mechanical
҂ Pilot (banshee, factor, pir) – You drive caravans or opponents; this goes away if they deal 10+ damage to
captain ships for a living. You have advantage on you or your friends.
MOV/drive/pilot checks. You have disadvantage ҂ Xenobiologist (pir, razi, tremulant) – You study the
on MOV/sneak checks:—you like to move fast! weird organismic bounty of the universe, probably as a
҂ Publican (factor, jackal, witness) – You sell booze for a consultant for a Senior Archivist. You have advantage
living. People like booze! But you like it, too—maybe on REA checks related to X number of alien species,
too much. As long as a given situation is friendly, you including their technologies and culture. You have dis-
have advantage on CHA checks. Whenever a situation advantage on COM checks against X number of dif-
turns hostile, you have disadvantage on WIL checks. ferent alien species about which you are very curious.
҂ Reverend (pir, tremulant, witness) – You sell uplifting ҂ Yesperson (factor, jackal, witness) – You make
stories about metaphysics for a living. You have someone important feel good about her life for a
advantage on CHA checks related to storytelling. You living. You have advantage on WIL/empathize and
have disadvantage on WIL/resist other checks in the WIL/sense motive checks. You have disadvantage on
presence of any materially powerful force such as a WIL/resist other checks.
cthulhicate. ҂ Zanni (jackal, mouse, witness) – You perform in some
҂ Server (any) – You wait on people, in some capacity low way (as a clown, dancer, singer, or—worst of
or another, for a living. Your instincts tend toward all—standup). You have advantage on CHA checks
balance, calm, and keeping people happy. You have ad- to distract or entertain (not to seduce). You have
vantage on WIL or MOV checks (your choice) related disadvantage on CHA checks to appear convincing
to people. You have disadvantage on COM checks. and serious, to sell important lies.
҂ Teacher (factor, pir, witness) – You babysit children

Kin
for a living. You have advantage on all REA or CHA
checks (your choice) related to explaining things and
learning new things yourself. You have disadvantage
on WIL checks to resist the wiles of children, and
on WIL checks to resist lashing out at misbehaving
entities in general.
҂ Translator (pir, razi, witness) – You convert one form
Binding ties
of language into another for a living. You have ad- No matter how old your character is, they have a past—
vantage on REA and CHA checks related to either one populated by individuals, each of whom has their
linguistic translation or code-stratum tech (your own motivations, desires, and dreads. These people are
choice). But your head is always thinking someone called kin.
else’s thoughts. You have disadvantage on REA and A kin is someone close to you—sibling, friend,
CHA checks to write your own work, to tell your own frenemy, rival, lover, ex, mentor, sensei, former intern,
stories. swami, aunt, co-escapee, current co-hustler—who may
҂ ‘Ulkdiver (factor, mouse, stillrijder) – You are first into prove useful to you, at some point. Your kin may also
the dark, first down the deep, first to take, first to prove demanding: they may suddenly request your aid,

084 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WAYFARERS

beg to borrow money, accuse you of abandoning them, PC-related strings to pull. Feel free to remind the GM
etc. Just as in real life, you may find yourself leaning on that your kin exist and suggest when and where it
your kin or running from them. would make sense to involve one of them in the story.
҂ You track them down, in a way that makes narrative

Creating kin sense: you spend in-game time meeting up, which
is fine if you’re both on-Spin but quite annoying if
At character creation, you gain two kin: one is up to you separated by many millions of lightyears.
to flesh out. This person should be relatively low in social ҂ You remember a special moment or important shared
status—a relative, a friend, nobody in particular, as far as secret with this person and burn 10 GRT as a free ac-
the world of the game is concerned. tion to summon them to you. Whenever you tell the
Your other, more powerful starting kin is determined GM that you’re burning GRT to summon one of your
by your class. Choose 1 of 2 options for your class, and kin, you find them immediately, as soon as this could
the GM will then jot down some secret notes about this possibly make narrative sense. The burden is now on
newly important NPC: the GM to make the connection happen!

҂ Banshee – A Senior Draadmijner (banshee guild-boss, Ultimately, what counts as possible is up to the GM: this
silent J), or a high-ranking wetan mafioso. (Archival or power either can or can’t bring someone from Spindle
underworld connections.) to the heart of the Escheresque… My gut-reaction
҂ Factor – A subdirector, or a provincial intelligence suggestion is “can’t…” unless the resulting story would
officer. (Co. or espionage connections.) be amazing (weird, fun, unique) to play out. When in
҂ Pir – An Archivist–physician, or a provincial eccle- doubt—your summoned kin arrives!
siarch of renown. (Archival or provincial–cultural

Telos
connections.)
҂ Razi – A provincial governor, or an infamous
black-market chandler specializing in exotic
exoplanetary flora and fauna. (Provincial–political or
bioscientific connections.)

Why do you act the way

҂ Stillrijder – A subdirector, or a highly respected
veteran. (Co. connections.)
҂ Witness – An Archivist–historian, or a provincial
artist of renown. (Archival or provincial–cultural
you do?
connections.) Your telos (pl. teloi) is your primary abstract goal in
҂ Blooder – A brutal Terran warlord, or a shady life: a deep well of motivation, a sense of direction, or
but well-supplied ex-Archivist. (Terran–political or the meaning for your
Archival personality tests are
underworld connections.) existence. (Note, telos
standard hoops that Co. factors and
҂ Jackal – A subdirector whom you owe a favor… or the takes the place of the
many other voidminers must jump
leader of a Terran gang/mercenary company. (Co. or “alignment” system used
through before signing their first
Terran–political connections.) in other RPGs.)
venture contract. The most common
҂ Snakehead – The leader of a cabal of Terran mutants, At 1st level, roll a d20
official teloi, according to the gray
some of whom are also self-trained in the hell science, or simply choose one
sages of the Co.’s behavior labs, are
or an angry former spouse and fellow hell scientist primary telos from the
Machiavellianism and narcissism…
who, however, still cares for you. (Terran–political or table below. When you
unique Weird connections.) act explicitly to accomplish your primary telos, choose:
҂ Tremulant – An Archivist–Echotester, or a powerful gain 2 GRT or +2 on your next roll, whatever it is. When
mutant xeno-animal/plant with whom you can you act against your primary telos and another player
communicate telepathically at no cost. (Archival or calls you on it, you lose 2 GRT, and they choose to gain 2
unique Weird connections.) GRT or +2 on their next roll.
At 5th level, you may roll for or choose one secondary

Summoning kin telos. When you act explicitly to accomplish your

secondary telos, choose: gain +1 GRT or +1 on your
No matter who your starting kin are, you may meet up next roll. When you act against your secondary telos and
with either of them in one of 3 ways: another player calls you on it, you lose 1 GRT and they
choose to gain 1 GRT or +1 on their next roll.
҂ The GM brings them into the story. This is out of The GM can suggest to your friends that they should
your control, but GMs always benefit from having call you out for betraying your telos, but it’s up to the

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 Critical
players to do so. In fact, teloi can be entirely ignored
without otherwise changing the game. That said, they’re
a great way to get players to clarify what they want.

Teloi
d20
details
1 Adrenaline – You fulfill your telos when you dive
right in, regardless of the others.

2 Care – You fulfill your teloswhen you help someone Core questions
else in need.
Whether or not you’re using the background rules—and
3 Chaos – You fulfill your teloswhen you make a big before you’re ready to bust ghost-alien heads—you need
change in the situation just to see what will happen.
to decide on a few important details. Write these down:
4 Conflict – You fulfill your teloswhen you choose to
fight it out even if peace could have worked.
1. What do you look like? What kind of clothes do
5 Conversion – You fulfill your telos when you convert you wear?
someone to The Cause (whatever it is).
2. What is your name?
6 Deception – You fulfill your telos when you lie 3. Did you come from Terra or one of the provinces,
successfully and importantly.
or were you born on Spindle?
7 Fame – You fulfill your telos when you put renown 4. Do you have a family? Close friends? Pets?
over self-interest (or reason).
5. Do you know the other voidminers, or are you
8 Inertia – You fulfill your telos when you avoid having meeting for the first time now?
to act or make an important choice at all.
6. What do you think about the other voidminers?
9 Knowledge – You fulfill your telos when you learn Is one of them a lover? A rival? See the table How the
The True Facts (about whatever).
PCs know one another for ideas.
10 Laughs – You fulfill your telos when you pull a really 7. What is the nickname of your crew? Always name
stupid move because it’s so damn hilarious.
your crew!
11 Loot – You fulfill your telos when you amass Crazy 8. What do you think about your refactor (see below)
Awesome Stuff (whatever it is).
and/or other superior(s)?
12 Melancholy – You fulfill your telos when you give in 9. What do you think about the Co. generally? Is it a
to your stupid feelings and it really shows.
force of good or evil?
13 Order – You fulfill your telos when you organize the 10. Most importantly—what do you want? What
group or fight to maintain that organization.
motivates you to travel through the void, to new
14 Passion – You fulfill your telos when you put love worlds?
before self-interest (or reason).

15 Penance – You fulfill your telos when you truly put

yourself in harm’s way in order to improve yourself.

16 Pleasure – You fulfill your telos when you put enjoy- Money and starting gear
able experiences before self-interest (or reason).
You’ll also need equipment to complete your first
17 Power – You fulfill your telos when you amass venture. The Worshipful Company of Stillfleeters mints
control over others.
a currency called the voidguilder (gl). At level 1, you
18 Service – You fulfill your telos when you help The start with a chequery of guilders equal to 10 × (max-
Whole (whatever it is) by sacrificing yourself.
WIL +maxCHA). This averages out to around 160–220 gl
19 Survival – You fulfill your telos when you protect for most characters. Each venture into the void pays
yourself at all cost.
25 × your level gl as a base rate, regardless of success, with
20 Vengeance – You fulfill your telos when you finally additional commissions for interesting archaetech
get back at the Bad Thing (whatever it is).
items found or missions undertaken (see “Screams”).
At character creation, you’ll want to use your personal
A higher-level voidminer starts with chequery to buy weapons and other useful gear.
more money. In addition to 10 × (maxWIL
+maxCHA), they gain their base rate for You also begin play with a single minor piece of
each additional level (see “Edges”). archaetech called an oddment—a cool piece of old tech,
a one-of-a-kind pet, or a major clue for down the road
that doesn’t throw off the game’s balance of power.

086 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WAYFARERS

 Examples include a pen featuring an image of a
How the PCs know one another d30 burlesque dancer who, when the pen is upended,
removes one article of clothing; a magic 8-ball;
1 All dying of the same mysterious plague. Must work a Walkman with a single mixtape full of 1970s rock
together to live! songs; a 100-million-year-old bible; a spinosaurus
2 Siblings, on good terms. vertebra dipped in gold paint; a huge blue key with no
3 Siblings, on poor terms. clear origin or purpose; a mirror that indicates your
mood using a colored aura; one hypersonic grenade; or
4 Extended family.
a tinny-sounding, half-octave electronic keyboard with a
5 Extended family, currently not speaking. limitless battery. Make up your oddment, ask the GM to
6 Helped save each other from a memorable disaster. make one up for you, or search the internet for the most
7 Met in court when PC 1 sued PC 2 for theft. random possible item you can find.
(The case was dismissed.) See “Wires” for a full list of gear and many more
8 Lovers (one or more couples). example oddments.

9 Ex-lovers.

10 Work together. Your refactor and rank

11 Engage in criminal activities together. Finally, when you are ready to leave Spindle, you’ll need
12 PCs are addicts, hooked on the same substance. to be briefed by and sign a contract in front of one of
the Directorate’s handlers,
13 One PC is a pusher; the others are ex-addicts. The Directorate comprises the
called refactors. These low-
14 One or more PCs owe another PC lots of money. ruling General Committee
level bureaucrats direct
and five unequal Afdelings
15 Old buddies, haven’t seen each other for a spell. the day-to-day voidmining
(departments) run by committees
16 One PC has a crush on another PC and has enlisted operations of the Co. Your
of subdirectors: the Afdeling of
the others’ help. refactor is your link to the
the Arkheion (which is in charge
17 PCs have fought each other, metaphorically and Directorate. (In some cases,
of life on-Spin), the Afdeling of
literally, and come to a truce. your refactor is also your
Terra (which deals with Terran
18 Worked together as kids in the bar or kitchen of link to the Archive.)
politics), the Afdeling of the
a café. At 1st level, you are
Provinces (which has grown
19 Political rivals. ranked as a mere “stillfleeter
extremely powerful thanks to the
minima nonfactor, subclass
20 Political potentate and lackey(s). riches of Calayat), the Afdeling
petty −A” (unless you are a
21 All seek vengeance for the same misdeed. of the Void (which must approve
classed factor, in which
all venture contracts into the
22 All worship the same eldritch deity. case you are ranked as a
void), and the Afdeling of
23 All seek the same fortune—the legendary [item of “factor minima, subclass
the Fleet (which exists in case
renown]. commissioned −F” or “−A
the Archivists can ever re-invent
24 Roomies, star-crossed. prime” or even “−A double-
faster-than-light travel).
prime!”—not that it mat-
25 Have co-adopted a pet (dangerous) alien.
ters). You can’t be trusted with Co. secrets, borrow pow-
26 Working together to solve some essential riddle of erful archaetech from the Basilikon, or
timespace/do science stuff.
conduct delicate diplomatic work. As you complete
27 Currently students together, under the tutelage of a ventures and rise in Co. rank, your refactor will
dangerous alien scholar.
offer you higher-paying, more important, and of
28 Currently students together, under the tutelage of course more dangerous ventures. Try to maintain a
an Archivist.
good working relationship, even as you try to change or
29 The PCs were individually chosen as champions by destroy the Co.. —and try to survive!
the Directorate.

30 The PCs were created by a cthulhicate entity to

serve some unscrupulous and inscrutable purpose.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH03 ☉ DESIGNING VOIDMINERS 087

 CH04 ☉ ADVANCEMENT

Developing your (anti)hero

In its simplest form, character advancement in an
RPG means surviving and amassing experiences—i.e.,
memorable events. These events may or may not lead
to new insights, honed skills, hoarded wealth, social
capital, political influence, fleeting or lasting romance, or
any other specific forms by which a character is marked
as changed.
In many RPGs, character advancement entails
choosing new powers and becoming harder to kill (i.e.,
gaining health). Stillfleet offers rules for this classic type
of advancement. In this game, however, players unlock
new powers over time that are not tied to any one
class, but to a type of activity: communicating, delving
into ultra-advanced science, commanding nanorobots
(these powers require nanorobots), politically strategiz-
ing, or warfighting.
This chapter also provides rules that expand upon
those in “Wayfarers” by detailing how you can create
your own classes, and thus new class powers. All of
these rules are optional. Talk about them as a group and
decide what works for you!

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH04 ☉ ADVANCEMENT 089

 LEVELING UP

The yellow canopy of our tremendous energy hangs

like a burning cloth above our heads.
—Virginia Woolf, The Waves, 1931.

How it The Weird-class trade-off

works
Note: at each level after 1st, blooders, snakeheads,
and tremulants may select new bizarre, class-specific
powers in addition to one (other) advanced power.
This makes characters of these classes somewhat
more powerful than the others. At the same time, hell

A convenient abstraction scientists and nanite warlocks are also considered

dangerous freaks by the Co.—and the perfect
In RPGs, characters gain new powers as they advance in vessels by cthulhicate beings seeking a foothold in
an abstract measure of their life experience and overall threespace. GMs, play up the threat that hell scientists
badassness called “level.” This metric is often rated on a and blooders represent to social order! Threaten
scale from 1 to 20+, with 1 being that of a neophyte and these characters with extradimensional attentions!
20 that of a grand master.
In low-power games, you’ll probably begin play as
a 1st-level player character (PC), AKA voidminer. Leveling up confers several benefits. First, you gain
In higher-power games, you may begin as a 3rd- or bonuses to your maximum pool and, sporadically, your
5th-level PC. In this case, you’ll have to choose what scores: whenever you gain a level, you get 6 points of pool
powers your character selected at each level as they to assign between HEA and GRT as desired. At levels 5,
advanced toward the present. 10, 15, and 20, you get to add a +1 bonus to a single score.
Stillfleet offers flexibility: classes do not have set lad- When you level up, you also get a raise in your
ders of new powers by level. Each class starts with access minimum venture fee from the Co., called your base
to one themed list of class-agnostic advanced powers. As rate (25 gl x your level). Your base rate at 1st level, for
you gain more levels, you can access new lists. These lists your first venture (hazard pay, secret-mission, and
are grouped by abstract type of power: useful and com- archae-salvage bonuses aside), is 25 gl; at 2nd level,
mon archaetech-related, Weird timespace trick-related, it goes up to 50 gl; at 3rd level, it’s 75 gl; and so on. Your
logistics and behind-the-scenes scheming-related, and fee is paid out after the venture, but loansharks in the
in-the-moment tactical decision-making-related. Drink- Canteen are always willing to set you up with a little
ing nanites (a dangerous act), gives you access to yet an- something beforehand…
other list. These lists are uneven on purpose: all offer a Additionally, when you level up, you can apply to
range of powers useful to a range of classes. move up one rank within the hierarchy of the Co. or an
allied planetary government, and promotion can confer

The mechanics of level gain a higher rate than your base rate. Whether or not you are
promoted is up to the GM, but this usually happens after
The “completion” of one “venture” is an abstract event a successful venture, not merely one that you survived.
that should be unanimously defined by the grimventure (Note, mechanically, rank has no set effect… Use the
manager (GM) and the PCs. Every time your group tables below and/or make up new, intermediary ranks as
completes one venture and reports back to the Co., all you see fit: bureaucracy is endless!)
of the surviving PCs gain one level, regardless of their Finally, the most important thing that happens
success (however defined). when you gain a level is that you get to choose another

090 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / EDGES

 Level Pool Powers Power list access Score bonuses Base rate

HEA = maxCOM +maxMOV

1. GRT = determined by class
Determined by class Determined by class — 25 gl

+1 class power OR
2. +6 pool +6 total
+1 advanced power
— — 50 gl

+1 class power OR
3. +6 pool +12 total
+1 advanced power
— — 75 gl

+1 class power OR Gain access to an additional

4. +6 pool +18 total
+1 advanced power advanced powers list
— 100 gl

+1 class power OR
5. +6 pool +24 total
+1 advanced power
— +1 to one score 125 gl

+1 class power OR Gain access to an additional

6. +6 pool +30 total
+1 advanced power advanced powers list
— 150 gl

+1 class power OR
7. +6 pool +36 total
+1 advanced power
— — 175 gl

+1 class power OR Gain access to an additional

8. +6 pool +42 total
+1 advanced power advanced powers list
— 200 gl

+1 class power OR
9. +6 pool +48 total
+1 advanced power
— — 225 gl

+1 class power OR Gain access to an additional

10. +6 pool +54 total +1 advanced power OR advanced powers list OR +1 to one score 250 gl
+1 hell science power 1 hell science path

+1 class power OR
11. +6 pool +60 total +1 advanced power OR — — 275 gl
+1 hell science power

+1 class power OR Gain access to an additional

12. +6 pool +66 total +1 advanced power OR advanced powers list OR — 300 gl
+1 hell science power 1 hell science path

+1 class power OR
13. +6 pool +72 total +1 advanced power OR — — 325 gl
+1 hell science power

+1 class power OR Gain access to an additional

14. +6 pool +78 total +1 advanced power OR advanced powers list OR — 350 gl
+1 hell science power 1 hell science path

+1 class power OR
15. +6 pool +84 total +1 advanced power OR — +1 to one score 375 gl
+1 hell science power

+1 class power OR Gain access to an additional

16. +6 pool +90 total +1 advanced power OR advanced powers list OR — 400 gl
+1 hell science power 1 hell science path

+1 class power OR
17. +6 pool +96 total +1 advanced power OR — — 425 gl
+1 hell science power

+1 class power OR Gain access to an additional

18. +6 pool +102 total +1 advanced power OR advanced powers list OR — 450 gl
+1 hell science power 1 hell science path

+1 class power OR
19. +6 pool +108 total +1 advanced power OR — — 475 gl
+1 hell science power

+1 class power OR Gain access to an additional

20. +6 pool +114 total +1 advanced power OR advanced powers list OR +1 to one score 500 gl
+1 hell science power 1 hell science path

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH04 ☉ ADVANCEMENT 091

 Ranks
class power from your class’ list (see “Wayfarers”), or
one of the advanced powers from your class’ advanced
powers lists (see below), or a specialization (see below),
or unarmed combat training (see below). At second level,
you only have access to one advanced powers list, deter-
mined by your class. Every even level thereafter, you gain
access to another advanced powers list of your choosing.
An optional mechanic
for increased corporate
Training up
politicking
When you gain a level, you do not immediately gain In addition to level, which has mechanical game
new temporary health or grit. Instead, your maximum effects, characters can also gain ranks within the
increases. Your temporary pool must be recovered Co. Gaining a rank is totally optional and has more
naturally. That is, after an arduous and somehow minor mechanical effects: with each higher rank comes a
rewarding journey, you must drink, eat, sleep, work higher payout after a venture as well as the ability to
out, defrag, write in your notebook, have a cry, and call for CHA/pull rank checks when interacting with
otherwise process your feelings, train your abilities, other Co. employees.
and reflect upon your newfound sophistication. Note, just because a character attains a rank of refactor
does not mean that they choose to take up this role and
remain behind a desk on-Spin. Presumably, many elite

Advanced powers teams of veteran voidminers prefer to work in the field.

Further note, the various ranks presented here are
The second section of this chapter lists the various simply suggestions; feel free to rename them (the Co.
advanced powers in the game. Both players and GMs is byzantine and its culture shifting as new sapients
should feel encouraged to make up new powers, and pour into Spindle) and adjust their associated venture
even new lists! Whatever power you take, it should pay bonuses.
reflect your recent experiences, or you should at
least be able to justify to the GM why your character
suddenly knows that power. This is usually fun, adding
Gaining a rank
more texture to your PC’s downtime activities, Gaining a rank can be automatic after each venture, but
long-term goals, and random proclivities. we recommend instead requiring that any character
who seeks a higher rank apply for it via a brief one-
The advanced powers lists on-one scene between them and their refactor (or
a higher-ranking official, once they are themselves a
҂ Communications – Hacking comm-stratum archae­tech. refactor)—a promotion interview.
҂ Immerphysics – GRT recovery and short-term The promotion interview should be short, cryptic,
meta-gaming (bonuses). and facts-focused: the interviewer will demand to know,
҂ Nanofluidics – Powers conferred via the nanite Blood. what has the voidminer seeking promotion done for the
Only available to classed blooders at 1st level. All Co.? What are they going to do? And, most importantly,
powers on this list require Blood to work. If you later can they be trusted? That is, make it harder and harder
gain a unit of Blood, you can learn advanced powers to gain ranks! They are not levels, and the directors care
on this list one at a time, as though you are a blooder. deeply about who is allowed to climb up the top rungs of
҂ Operations – Long-term meta-gaming, often relevant the management ladder…
to political situations. For lower-level promotions, this interview can be
҂ Tactics – In-the-moment physical and situational resolved with a brief chat and maybe a CHA check or
powers, largely combat-oriented. two. But as a character returns from more ventures
and thus files more venture reports, the lies, omissions,
The interview process is all the more and doubts about the Co. add up. When interviewing a
tense if the voidminer has joined
voidminer seeking promotion to a higher rank (say,
H.Co., the Federation of Unhuman
Kingdoms, the Mantid Eggs, or one of korporaal or higher), a savvy interviewer will probe
the Worshipful Co.’s other rivals. deeply, trying to catch the voidminer in a lie. GMs,
feel free to force a number of CHA and WIL checks,
or REA checks to recall specific details.

092 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / EDGES

 Note, voidminers can also lose ranks if/when the Co.
Directorate ranks, general outline d12
discovers that they are in any way breaking protocol,
hiding sacred data from the Archive, failing to sell back
archaetech to Acquisitions, and so forth… 1 Stillfleeter minima (i.e., every non-factor
1st-level character)

Venture payout bonuses 2 Stillfleeter (various) (see below)

3 Factor or refactor minima (either tactically or

If your group is using the optional rank rules, then for strategically commands one team of stillfleeters)

every venture completed, each voidminer is paid a base 4 Refactor minder (serves on one dedicated
rate of 25 voidguilders (gl) × their level plus a rank-based “desk” of a committee)

bonus of their Directorate rank × 100 gl. 5 Refactor gezant (majoor) (can serve as a diplomatic
Note, classed factors start at a higher rank than other provincial attaché, making major trade deals)

characters and thus enjoy an automatic venture payout 6 Refactor prime (can serve as a provincial
bonus of +300 gl. This makes a support class more ambassador, determining political outcomes)

enticing to play! 7 Subdirector minima (runs one “desk” of a

committee, setting Co. policy)

Pulling rank 8 Subdirector minder (can serve as a provincial

luitenant governor)

Likewise, if you are using the optional rank rules, then 9 Subdirector kastelein (majoor) (can serve as a
as a standard action, a character of a higher rank may provincial governor)

call for a special CHA check when interacting with 10 Subdirector prime (chairs one committee within an
a character of a lower rank. This is a contested roll, Afdeling [department] of the Directorate)

CHA/pull rank versus REA/know: the higher-ranking 11 Director (casts one vote in the ruling General
employee is trying to get something (a favor, Committee)

information, money, access, archaetech) out of the 12 Director prime (possibly apocryphal)
lower-ranking employee, who is trying to logically
determine if the higher-ranking employee’s rank really
Stillfleeter (voidmining) ranks,
merits respect in this situation. (That is, the lower- d20
regardless of class or level
ranking employee just wants to know if they’ll
get in trouble for disobeying an order.) For every
1 Leerling (valet)
difference in rank between the two characters, the
higher-ranking employee rolls one additional CHA die, 2 Arbeider (able rate)

taking the best result. 3 Huzaar (private)

If the higher-ranking employee’s best result is greater 4 Rijder (marine)
than or equal to the lower-ranking employee’s, then the
5 Kannonier (lance-corporal)
command must logically be obeyed, or else the lower-
ranking employee risks punishment at the stun-batons 6 Korporaaltje (specialist)

of the Eaters of the Dead. If the lower-ranking 7 Matroos prime (leading hand)
employee’s result is greater than or equal to the higher- 8 Korporaal (petty officer, NCO)
ranking employee’s, however, then they know a loophole
9 Wachtmeester (sergeant, equivalent to a refactor
allowing them to get out of this situation without minima)
risking social capital or bodily harm.
10 Opperwatch (master sergeant)
Note, the players can call for CHA/pull rank checks
against other player characters and against NPCs, but 11 Adjudant (warrant officer)

NPCs do not pull rank on player characters. 12 Kornet (ensign)

Further note, the intention here is for the players 13 Devaiss (corvette lieutenant)
to have fun with this mechanic in exploring the
14 Luitenant (lieutenant, equivalent to a refactor prime)
problematic nature of work-place hierarchies—and
ways around them. The idea is not to get into constant 15 Luitcommandeur (lieutenant commander)

arguments about rank! 16 Commandeur (commander, XO)

17 Zeekapitein (captain, equivalent to a subdirector

The bonuses are meant to incentivize some level
minima)
of tension: do the players seek to hoard wealth
or resist the temptations of material success 18 Kolonel (commodore)
and push back against the Co., risking their
characters’ ranks? 19 Achteradmiraal (rear admiral, equivalent to a
subdirector prime)

20 Admiraal (admiral, equivalent to a director)

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH04 ☉ ADVANCEMENT 093

Other forms of advancement braindust and chooses to learn link thoughts (telepathy)
should exhibit some physical and/or psychological flaw
or tic: perhaps her voice takes on a reptilian monoton-
Specialization ality, or she now irrationally fears living flowers (dead
ones are fine). The point is, GMs, remember: the Weird
Instead of a pre-written class power, you may take a +2 is poorly understood and dangerous. Don’t let PCs use
specialization bonus to any specific check of your choice. it lightly.
This should ideally arise from gameplay. Sample special-
izations include:
Multiple PCs
҂ +2 to COM checks when attacking with this specific
type of sword, gun, or psychic power. You can play the game another way, wherein your PC
҂ +2 to MOV checks when dodging while drunk, or is only one of a whole squadron of novice voidminers.
sneaking while it’s raining (or otherwise gloomy out- Design 3 characters at the start of the game. When
side). your voidminer is lost, captured, or killed horribly in
҂ +2 to REA checks when tacking stiffworks of a certain the void, swap in the next character, raising their level
tech stratum, or trying to jack into comms on a broad by 1. Repeat.
class of hulks or planetary installations. Keep in mind, all survivors, and only survivors, gain
҂ +2 to WIL checks when resisting psychic attacks from levels. If you are threatened by powerful lurkers in
aliens or Escheresque beings or humans or ships’ AIs, an unimaginably dark hulk—as you should be—then
or when feeling the situation out. you might not all make it. If the party wipes, no one
҂ +2 to CHA checks when seducing rich people, or brib- gains anything. So you may consider sacrificing some
ing Co. officials, or rigging local elections. characters to advance others, particularly if the group
҂ +2 to random luck/encounter checks (usually rolls of will play together again and those saved one week can
a d6) when avoiding dangerous planetside fauna, or repay their saviors in kind at some later session.
rifling through a long-abandoned Hott Topique (or Individual characters may thus not be as
other Ancient site) for loot. important as the total roster that your party can field.
Ventures may be rolled randomly; archaetech may be
Unarmed combat training rolled randomly; hulks and exoplanets may be rolled
randomly; villains may be rolled randomly. Healthy
One special-case power that stillrijders begin with but diversity of PCs may beat having a few ringers. (Or, at
any character may choose when leveling up is unarmed least, that’s one way to play the game!)
combat training (the power fight). Ordinarily, unarmed

Alternative advancement
attacks deal d2 damage. If you select unarmed combat
training as an advanced power, your unarmed attacks
deal dCOM damage instead.
To play a “monk”-like character (à la that class in clas-
systems
sic RPGs, not à la real monks), you may swap any one of The standard way that advancement works is that a PC
your starting class powers for unarmed combat training. gains one new power per level. To amp up your game,
simply give each PC two powers per level (i.e., institute
Learning hell science powers strong leveling).
For those who prefer advantage and disadvantage to
The hell science concerns the truly Weird—that which bonuses and penalties on rolls, replace the +2 special-
only the Archivists attempt to understand and explain. ization bonus with advantage: roll the specialized check
There are so many known hell science powers that they twice, taking the higher result. The reason for the +2 bo-
are listed—along with their physical and social draw- nus is to allow characters with d4s in scores to succeed
backs—in a separate chapter, “Echoes.” Only snakeheads as though they had d6s, and for d8s to score in extremely
and tremulants begin play with access to the hell science. difficult circumstances, etc. That is, in Stillfleet, depend-
At 10th level, any character can begin to learn hell sci- ing on the die, advantage isn’t as useful as a bonus. Even
ence powers. This should come at a price: all tremulants so, allowing players to choose advantage instead of a +2
and snakeheads are essentially losing their grasps on re- is reasonable.
ality, invocation of Weird power by invocation of Weird Likewise, regarding score increases: instead of replac-
power. A high-level chandler who snorts quantum ing existing scores with higher die types, you may gain

094 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / EDGES

an additional die. You now have as many relevant actions some menace and securing the safety and relative pres-
per check as you have dice. So, in combat, you have as tige of the rebels’ society within the larger world before
many attacks as you have COM dice. These can be of dif- 4) returning to the Co. city to allay the fears of the plan-
ferent types. You choose which to roll for which attacks. etary governor (or lie to them). Each of these four legs
If you have multiple MOV dice, then you can always roll of the overall venture may involve random encounters,
both and take the best result when sneaking or dodging. including “hauntings” related to earlier ventures. (E.g.,
If you have multiple WIL dice, then you roll both when the mi-go principal investigator whom they screwed
resisting or perceiving and take the best result. over but didn’t kill in session #5 finally tracks them down
Finally, for low-power games, allow each PC to select when they’re on their way back to the Co. city.)
a new power from any class or advanced list, but only if The four legs may not be at all symmetric, and that
they give up a power that they currently possess. doesn’t really matter. Let’s say leg 1 takes one IRL
session; leg 2 takes two or three sessions; leg 3 takes

What makes
three; and leg 4 takes only one again. Fine. If you’re
quite generous, the PCs level up after each leg. Or, the
PCs level up after legs 3 (the main action/climax) and 4

a venture?
(reporting back to the Co.), since leg 1 was just travel,
and leg 2 was just a planning discussion (rising action).
This chapterizing of a campaign represents the PCs’
striving toward a meaningful solution to large-scale
social problems and restoring their own confidence in

Breaking up the action themselves, all before having any down time back on-
Spin. It also rewards the PCs doubly without speeding
Exploring the “haunted” asteroid Tchunaal VII (even if up the pace of the game too much: gaining two to four
this leads to several random side events) and dealing levels over 7–8 sessions will boost them from newbies
with the incipient civil war between the state of Nazaray to solid veterans in only a few in-game and IRL months.
and their dolphinoid allies on Calarash (even if this hap-
pens quickly due to a combination of luck and innova-
tive scheming on the part of the PCs) are both discrete
ventures. In general, the PCs can have more than one
venture going on simultaneously, but one will be domi-
nant and the others incipient. In addition, only one can
be resolved per game session.
If you run a one-off game, it counts as one venture,
and the PCs who survive it each gain one level. It’s pos-
sible that they will take their sweet time in finishing this
“one-off,” and you may end up running the venture over
two or more game sessions, IRL. That’s fine. As long as
the venture is clearly defined, and the PCs understand
that they are still in the middle of things—not reflecting
on lessons learned, training, speaking to mentors, etc.—
they shouldn’t gain levels between sessions.
It is quite possible, however, that you will develop big-
ger plots, and that ventures will be less clearly defined—
especially if your PCs decide to undermine the Co. and
start a rival voidmining guild. To deal with a longer-term
venture during which PCs can and should gain levels,
chapterize the plot as best as possible and offer clear
pausing points, regardless of in-game temporality, dur-
ing which the PCs can realistically “level up.”
For example, if the PCs are rockside dealing with a re-
bellion in a major province, they may need to 1) travel
from the main Co. city far into the hinterland and 2)
make a deal with the rebels that involves 3) defeating

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH04 ☉ ADVANCEMENT 095

 ADVANCED POWERS

The idea of power, at first view, seems of the class of those indifferent ones, which
may equally belong to pain or to pleasure. But in reality, the affection, arising from
the idea of vast power, is extremely remote from that neutral character.
—Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the
Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, 1757.

Types of
powers
Organized by category
of effect, not class
Advanced powers are inherently different from class
powers: where the latter build up a clear concept of a
single profession (soldier, doctor, engineer, etc.),
advanced powers are instead organized around their
effects and open to multiple classes.
Of the five lists of advanced powers presented here,
one is more class-like, however: nanofluidics is a list of
powers that can only be used by PCs who have ingested
at least one aliquot (abstract unit) of working nano­
robots, or nanites. These nanite-doses are typically sus-
pended in liquid and referred to by voidminers as the
Blood. For more on nanotech and the Blood, see “Wires.”
Finally, the six paths of the hell science (i.e., “Weird”
powers, “psyonics,” etc.—see “Echoes”) are like advanced
powers lists. But these powers are only available to
classed snakeheads and tremulants, and to PCs of
10th level or higher. At that stage of experience with
venturing out into the void, a sapient intelligence begins
to… open up (or, pejoratively “crack up”). Regardless
of class, higher-level characters can begin to select
Weird powers in place of other advanced powers.
But doing so makes a character, well, Weird—worthy of
suspicion in the eyes of the average Fleeter, provincial,
or wetan.

096 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / EDGES

Communications
Hacking the code,
sounding the void
These advanced powers mostly involve code-stratum
archaetech—the most common type encountered
among the ghost-concourses of hulks and the
cloud-fingering edificial bones of lost provinces.

Communications powers
d12

1 Ally (ten-minute)

2 Call drone (item/free)

3 Empathize (passive)

4 Find N.E.M.A.T. (standard)

5 Hold tricks (special)

6 Hoodwink (standard)

7 Idiohack (standard)

8 Kickfix (standard)
para-noioid rotordisc, etc.). This drone has no game
9 Lighten the mood (passive) effect until you power it up: to do so, as a free action,
10 Lose the scanners (free) burn 5 GRT. For a number of rounds equal to your
11 Sense deep wires (standard) level +2, you gain a new die representing the drone’s aid
(write it as “DRO”). You can roll this die once per round,
12 Speak with warmachines (standard)
adding the result to any other roll (e.g., either attack,
damage, or dodge, but not all of these). After your level
Communications powers: +2 rounds, the drone runs out of power. DRO begins as
a d4. At 4th level, it becomes a d6. At 8th level, a d8. At
12th level, a d10. At 16th level, a d12. At 20th level, a d20.
Ally (ten-minute)
Enemies can target your drone and inactivate it; it has a
You can convert code-based intelligences to your cause. MOV/dodge score of d12 and HEA equal to maxDRO
Burn 4 GRT and roll a REA and a CHA check. The +5. When the drone inactivates, it simply stops working
difficulty of the REA check is 1 + the complexity level until reactivated (perhaps repaired in some minor way).
of the code-based intelligence (generally at least a 3). It does not break unless it is further targeted by enemy
The CHA check is a standard difficulty of 6. If both fire and reduced to −maxDRO. In this case, you have no
checks are successful, you convince the code-based drone and must buy or find a new one.
intelligence to ally with you and accomplish some goal.
This is a permanent alliance, unless you double-cross the
Empathize (passive)
AI. If one check succeeds, the AI is not angry, simply
unconvinced—perhaps curious about the terms of the Add your level to all checks involving persuading AI,
alliance. If both checks fail, you have angered the AI and including REA/argue, CHA/deceive, CHA/intimidate
should probably flee… (“I’ll wipe your drives!”), MOV/pilot (“It’s safe to fly into
that volcano, sure…”), and even CHA/seduce. Unlike
ally, this is not a unique effect per se, merely a way to
Call drone (item/free)
boost normal rolls. Use ally or another power to make a
The next time it makes sense in the story, you gain a more drastic change or to try to hack into sophisticated
new archaetech item—a drone (or robot butler, droid, strong AI.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH04 ☉ ADVANCEMENT 097

 The Late Tephnians were only the latest of many civilizations known to use the very
deep tunnels called N.E.M.A.T. to move rapidly from one point on Terra to another—
and to access very deep labs, caches of weapons, enerjawn derricks, and so on.

Find N.E.M.A.T. (standard) Kickfix (standard)

AKA, The Fonz.

You know about the secret holey spaces above ships’ When you fail to hack or otherwise manipulate tech­
concourses, in ruined office buildings, deep below the nology to your liking, you may burn 2 GRT and roll
earth, throughout the Escheresque, and you know how a COM check: if you get a 6 or higher, you kick the
to access these spaces. Burn 3 GRT and make a REA damn thing and it does whatever it’s supposed to. This
check: if you get a 6 or higher, you find an interesting can work for all mechanical objects and basic high-
secret hole: perhaps you need to find the laser-targeting technological ones, but not for incredibly sophisticated
bay or the charm-bubble chamber. Perhaps you simply posthuman and extradimensional systems (repairing
want to find the room with “the loot.” Find N.E.M.A.T. tachyon drives, hacking strong AI, etc.).
is the corollary of sense deep wires: where sense deep
wires lets you find a technological thing, find N.E.M.A.T.
Lighten the mood (passive)
lets you find a technological place. Together with the
escape-facilitating lose the scanners, these powers allow You gain +dCHA GRT every time you tell a joke,
you a high degree of control over your explorations of in-character, that makes another player, IRL, laugh. You
hulks and other technoruins. must remember to call out this power immediately in
order to receive the GRT; the other players have final
discretion as to what counts as a “laugh” but should
Hold tricks (special)
judge liberally. GRT gained in this way can exceed your
Once per session (not every venture—but every IRL typical maximum.
game), you can deploy a number of minor techno-tricks
equal to your level −1. Each trick can grant you a +2 to a
Lose the scanners (free)
single roll, or—more importantly—it can serve as a clue.
GM: “You don’t know which of the arcomall’s eighty When pursued by monstrous machines of any type
stories the core water treatment facility is on—” You: (mi-go mycetobots, Tephnian sentinels, Virgin
“I burn one trick to figure it out using my, uh, handheld Dimenzion anti-terrorist liberator drones—you name
dowser-app stick. You know. That one.” GM: “Right. The it), burn 5 GRT and roll a REA check: if you get a 7
dowser-app bling-boops right away: it’s on floor 79…” or higher, you lose your pursuers (for now) as you
jump down a vent, hack the smartdoor to mislead the
drones, rework the shiftsteel bulkhead to misdirect
Hoodwink (standard)
the fungibots, e.g. You don’t necessarily emerge
Burn 4 or 7 GRT and tell a lie or otherwise deceive somewhere convenient, but you remain alive…
someone: everyone believes the deception, no check
required. If you spend 4 GRT, then the lie will only hold
Sense deep wires (standard)
up temporarily (per the jackal/mouse power con). If you
spend 7 GRT, it is ironclad, permanent. This is not a You generally know where to go to find the things you
Weird power and cannot prevent someone from reading want, especially technical things, underground, in silent
your mind. That said, if you spend 7 GRT, you get to technoruins, in the holds of the great stillfleet corvettes,
reroll your first check to resist any act of mindreading etc. To find a given technological object or entity, burn 4
that would uncover the deception. GRT, roll an REA check, and add your level. If the result
is 10 or higher, you have a good sense of where it is.

Idiohack (standard)
Speak with warmachines (standard)
You have some control over your own bioelectricity.
You may spend 1 GRT per complexity level to recharge a You are great at getting the attention of the ancientest
depowered technological device that requires electricity machines. If you fail a hack or other tech-related check,
to function. This does not require a check, but the tech roll a REA check. If you get a 7 or higher, at no cost,
may still be in bad shape and thus not work properly or you still failed to do exactly the thing you were trying to
for very long. do—but you did successfully get something’s attention…

Speak with warmachines is dangerous but not automatically so. If you’re just
trying to open a door, the GM should not necessarily put you in contact with the
mad Azathothian ship’s AI that wants to convert all human biomass into fuel.

098 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / EDGES

Immerphysics

robot, or fellow PC. If you choose the last, play it out! What
Deflect allows you to name either an NPC, non-sapient beast or
Changing your fate, Cannibalize (standard)

revising your rolls Touch a sapient entity. That entity loses GRT equal to

happens when they wake up? (If they wake up?)

your level. You gain this GRT. No check is required, but
Immerphysics is the Spinside name for the branch of the entity can resist, in which case you must success-
the study of the natural universe as it appears from fully roll to attack (unarmed). In this case, the entity feels
higher dimensions such as the Escheresque, or those pain when you touch them. If the entity is instead willing
traversed (tunneled through, ripped apart) when (perhaps a friend), they feel no pain.
engaging faster-than-light (FTL) drives. These advanced
powers typically concern GRT recovery and short-term
Dance (standard)
meta-gaming—changing your luck.
You have a psyonic link with your weapon. Burn 4 GRT:
you send it out to fight on its own, floating, needing no
Immerphysics powers
d20 further guidance from you. You can cancel the dancing
at any time; otherwise, it lasts until combat ends. The
1 Alert (passive) weapon can be targeted and destroyed but is likely small
2 Cannibalize (standard) and difficult to hit: its MOV die is a d20; it has HEA
3 Dance (standard) equal to your level +2.

4 Deflect (passive)

5 Detect (standard) Deflect (passive)

6 Extend self (standard/ongoing) Whenever you would become prone, name another
7 Extradimensionalize (free) organism within 10 M of you whose total mass is no
more or less than 50% of your own: this being becomes
8 Fence (free)
prone instead. You are still at 1 HEA. You are not
9 Get lucky (free) prone in game terms and do not suffer the serious harm
10 Hear voices (passive) associated with this state. You’re just tired. If you are
11 Hypnotize (hour) at 1 HEA when you take damage, however, deflect cannot
help, and you become prone.
12 Implode (free)

13 Reroll (free)
Detect (standard)
14 Soften (passive)

15 Switch gears (free) Burn 3 GRT and call bullshit on something someone
said: the GM must tell you if that something is a lie. This
16 Quibble (free)
can’t counteract mind control; it just represents thinking
17 Train power (permanent) deeply and trusting a gut instinct.
18 Vanish (free)

19 Wild boost (free) Extend self (standard/ongoing)

20 Wild out (free)
You concentrate, burn d8 GRT, and send out from
your core an ætherial hand: this can pick up any small
Immerphysics powers: object—up to a number of Kg equal to your level—and
move it slowly but inexorably toward any being on
the same planetoid as you. The object can be a note,
Alert (passive)
a poisoned dart, a scientific sample, an oddment—
You can never be ambushed. If an opponent would act anything small. It will eventually find the target and
before the start of combat by surprising you, instead they bump into her, regardless of how long this takes. You
must join initiative like anyone else. do not have to concentrate to keep the extended self

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH04 ☉ ADVANCEMENT 099

 moving, and it cannot be stopped by
non-Weird means. The time required
for it to reach your target is 4d6 days or
hours (GM’s choice) −your level. You can
burn an additional Xd8 to reduce the
number of hours/days by X.

Extradimensionalize (free)

Burn 3 GRT and select one weapon that

you are currently touching, yours or
someone else’s: it vibrates/unfolds into
a higher dimension and can now affect
extradimensional objects and beings.
Describe this process of rapid hyper-
vibration! It also inflicts an additional
d6 +your level damage. Finally, you can
choose to have it deal GRT damage
instead of HEA damage, which means
it can be used to power extradimen-
sional stiffworks (it is considered an
Escheresque blade, regardless of what
it is). This effect lasts for a number of
hours equal to your level.

Fence (free)

You can hide and move around any small

object or group of small objects (up to
5 Kg) without detection, save by Weird
means. No snooping can discover what
you’ve hidden. You can keep these items
on you or nearby, or you can tell the GM
where you’ve hidden them. If you leave
without retrieving them, they don’t tele-
port to you. Note, this is a free action:
if the GM has someone search you and
you have this power, simply declare that
you’re using it to hide The Secret Thing.

Get lucky (free)

Burn 3 GRT: instead of rolling one die on

your next check, roll two of the same die
and choose the better outcome. You can
only get lucky once per roll.

Hear voices (passive)

You recover 1 +your level GRT whenever

you kill a sapient being.

100 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / EDGES

 Hypnotize (hour) Train power (permanent)

Burn 3 GRT and spend at least one hour alone with Lower the cost of 1 class, advanced, or hell science power
someone. That person falls for you and will now do by 3 GRT, minimum 1. This power can be taken multiple
things within their power to help you. This is not actual times.
mind control, just seduction. They may roll a WIL check
once per day to snap out of it or at least reassess their
Vanish (free)
feelings for you.
Once per round, you may simply disappear. Burn
7 GRT: you vanish into the air or void around you,
Implode (free)
undetectable by anyone except through the use of Weird
Whenever you roll the maximum value on any die, powers, no matter how implausible this seems. Simply
you may burn d6 GRT and choose: either roll the next describe what happens in detail. N.B., this power does
lowest die (down to d4, d3, and finally d2) or the not count as a standard action and can be used once
next highest (up to d30). If you choose the next lowest per round in addition to attacking or parrying (etc.).
and roll the maximum result, you may roll the next You remain perfectly hidden until you attack, speak, use
lowest again, for free; if you roll the maximum result any power with a visible effect, or otherwise give away
again, you may roll the next lowest again, and so on. your presence.
If you choose the next highest and roll the maximum
result, you may burn 2d6 GRT to roll the next highest
Wild boost (free)
die… And so on. As long as you keep rolling max results,
you may either keep rolling for free (lower die) or keep Whenever you aren’t sure if you will succeed at an
paying +d6 to roll the next highest die. important check, you may call for a wild boost. Roll nor-
mally. If the result is a 1, you fail. Any other result is a
success. But you automatically burn GRT equal to the
Reroll (free)
difference between the difficulty of the check and your
Burn 5 GRT: reroll your last roll. You can only reroll once result. So if the difficulty was 6 and you wild-boosted
per roll. and rolled a 4, then you burn 2 GRT. If the difficulty
was 15, for a monumentally difficult task, and you
rolled a 2, then you burn 13 GRT. If you don’t have suf-
Soften (passive)
ficient GRT, you burn HEA at a ratio of 3 HEA per 1
When you lock eyes/sensory organs with someone and GRT. If you run out of both HEA and GRT, you succeed
politely ask a question, you gain advantage on relevant at this single check and then immediately have an
CHA or WIL checks. This counts for the purposes aneurysm (or vegetal or informatic equivalent) and die.
of gathering information, sensing motive, haggling,
seducing, and so on—but not straight-up conning.
Wild out (free)

You fucking lose it. Your eyes glow; your skin becomes
Switch gears (free)
purple and scaly; half of you tesseracts into a blur
Burn 4 GRT: for the next your-level rounds, swap one of antishapes, etc. Burn 3 GRT: your next successful
primary score die for another. You can swap back at any attack inflicts an extra d20 damage, but there is a 1 in 6
time as a free action. chance that instead of your target, you hit your nearest
ally (or, if no allies are present, yourself ). You can
stack this power: for every 3 GRT you burn, you roll an
Quibble (free)
additional d20 damage on your next successful attack,
At no cost, reroll a failed roll; this can be used only once but the chance of striking an ally instead of your target
per roll and must be used immediately after failure. increases by 1 on a roll of d6.
Whether or not you succeed on this reroll, you must also
reroll your next success (not this action, but the next time
you have to roll).

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH04 ☉ ADVANCEMENT 101

 Nanofluidics
Nanofluidics powers 2d20

2 Antiheavy (standard)

3 Bloodplate (standard)

Hacking soft machines 4 Boneless (standard)

In game terms, the powers unlocked by nanotechnology 5 Brainetching (passive)

GMs, this list is just a start! Make up
your own bizarre nanofluidics powers!

are called nanofluidics. (In part, this is simply to give 6 Bubble (standard)
them a unique name as opposed to some version of 7 Cackle (standard)
“nanotech,” which could be confusing.) Classed blooders
8 Camtrap (standard)
have access to this list of powers at 1st level. Other
characters can unlock access to these powers by 9 Charge (standard)

acquiring aliquots of the Blood or by nanotattoos and 10 Cloak (passive)

other wetware (see “Wires”). 11 Cloud (passive)
How should classed blooders choose their
12 Copy (standard)
powers? This is up to each player and GM, but the
fastest method remains to do so randomly: simply 13 Decode (passive)

roll on the table below, and voilà—those strange 14 Defrict (passive)

effects are what your character can perform thanks to 15 Devour (standard)
the 1–100-nanometer-wide robots inside of her…
16 Ditto (standard)
Note: several nanofluidics powers are “passive” and
thus cannot be turned off. This means that once you’ve 17 Eavesdrop (free)

trained your nanites to behave in a certain way, they will 18 Fade (free)
always do so, regardless of your GRT. If you do not have 19 Flechette (standard)
GRT to spend, your Blood will simply convert your HEA
20 Foam (standard)
to GRT at the standard 3-to-1 rate.
Optional rule: if you drop to 0 GRT and 0 HEA due to 21 Hard (passive)

a passive nanofluidics power, you do not die instantly, 22 Hi-fi (standard)

but remain in a critical limbo for an additional d6 23 Hulk (free)
rounds from which one last, extremely serendipitous
24 Lash (standard)
intervention can save you from your own machines.
25 Lend (standard)

26 Limb (standard)

27 Metallíq (standard)

28 Mirror (passive)

29 Pet (standard)

30 Reconfig (standard)

31 Repro (standard)

32 Revive (passive)

33 Scission (standard)

34 Scout (standard)

35 Scratch (free)

36 Spew (standard)

37 Strip (standard)

38 Ultraheavy (standard)

39 Vamp (passive)

40 Whistle (standard)

102 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / EDGES

 Nanofluidics powers: Cackle (standard)

Burn Xd20 GRT: you “laugh”–belch in a frightening

Antiheavy (standard)
manner, releasing a wave of matter-reassembling
Burn either d4 or d8 GRT: your body can float up to 2 M “static” that deals Xd10 damage (separate roll) to
or 10 M for the next dWIL rounds. anyone standing in front of you, out to a 5X-M range.
In addition, affected targets suffer a −X penalty on
MOV/dodge rolls for X rounds.
Bloodplate (standard)

Burn d6+X GRT; X must be at least 1. Your blood flows

Camtrap (standard)
out and hardens around your limbs, providing DR X. For
each increment of X, your MOV die goes down 1 type Burn 4 GRT: your nanites fly out of your nostrils and
(d20 > d12 > d10 > d8 > d6 > d4 > d3 > d2 > 1). At DR create a simple optical sensor that communicates
1, you can no longer sprint. At DR 2, you can no longer via floating nanotubules with your brain. (Sensitive
run. At DR 3, you can no longer walk. At DR 4, you can creatures can indeed detect a bloody “fart” hanging out
Power by Ben Ferber.

no longer shuffle. At DR 5, you can no longer move at of your face.) Your camtrap extends up to 10 M per level.
all, as your MOV die is 1. You may end this power as a You can send it around corners, in tiny holes, anywhere
free action, but you have 2 choices: either the effect takes you can imagine within range. Camtrap adds +3 to
30 seconds to take full effect, slowly subsiding over that WIL/perceive checks, but only for broad searches: it
period, or it happens immediately and is physically quite cannot reveal fine detail. This power is called camtrap
painful—your joints literally crack as you break out of because it may be left in place, “breaking away” from
the armor. your nostrils, indefinitely: when something or someone
trips the sensor, some other nanofluidics power happens
(charge, flechette, etc.). You must pay for the other
Boneless (standard)
power in advance.
Burn 2X GRT: your nanites rearrange your body and
belongings so that you can fit through tiny (but visible—
Charge (standard)
not micro- or nano-scale) apertures like a melted baby
snake for the next X minutes. As a slurry of molecules, Burn X GRT, minimum 1: your nanites transfer a rush
it’s hard to even see you. This makes you hard to hit, of bioelectric energy into any object and launch it from
except by things that would normally excel at hitting your hands. Roll to attack using dCOM +X. If you hit,
gray liquids (mops?), but it also prevents you from the object explodes and deals damage equal to d6 +X
attacking unless by using the nanofluidics powers +your level. You must have a thing at hand that is at least
flechette or spew (below). Note, you can’t really hold any pebble-/card-sized each time you use charge.
non-you stuff well enough to use charge. This power is
great for escaping in a gross manner, or for setting up a
Cloak (passive)
surprise attack.
Burn 1 GRT: the Blood exudes from your skin,
interacting with light in weird ways: you gain +3 to a
Brainetching (passive)
MOV/sneak check. This power may be taken multiple
Indefinitely set aside Xd4 GRT: you have a perfect times. You cannot turn this power off; it happens
memory, gaining +X on all REA checks. You twitch and whenever you roll to sneak.
mutter to yourself as your mind automatically recalls
random fact after random fact.
Cloud (passive)

Burn 3 GRT: nanites disperse part of your body

Bubble (standard)
into a cloud, preventing it from being destroyed by a
Burn Xd12 GRT: you sneeze forth a ball of electrically massive impact and reconstituting (most of ) your body
charged bloodspray/bloodgoo that deals Xd8 damage afterward. Cloud gives you +4 to all rolls that have
(separate roll) to one target within a 30-M range. If the anything to do with severe damage, including falling,
target is informatic, it is stunned for one round. Your being burned horribly, and losing a limb, head, or
eyes and nose “bleed” red-gray snot for minutes after. peripheral organ. In addition, cloud adds back 2 HEA

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH04 ☉ ADVANCEMENT 103

to your body whenever you reach 0 HEA, one time per Ditto (standard)
combat. You cannot turn this power off; it happens
whenever you are threatened by a massive impact. After Burn 3 GRT: your nanites manipulate light to create an
it activates, you feel like retching for days. intensely realistic 3-D holographic illusion. This illusion
can last a number of minutes equal to your level. Targets
can contest the illusion by rolling their WIL/perceive
Copy (standard)
against your REA or CHA, whichever is better;
Your Blood can construct a facsimile of an object out of they must beat your roll to see through the illusion.
the ambient dust around you. This object is permanent. The illusion is easy to disprove at a touch, however.
Its likeness is not exact, but it functions. The cost
to make a given thing depends on its mass and
Eavesdrop (free)
complexity (its negative entropy). To make a typical
medieval door (medium mass, tech complexity clank 1— Burn Xd3 GRT: you gain advantage on WIL/perceive
it has a handle and some hinges but not even a lock), checks for the next X rounds as net-like clouds
you need to burn 3 GRT. To make a similarly heavy of nanites emanate from your sensory organs,
Middle Tephnian slidesteel door (medium mass, somewhat like the ears of a dæmonic elephant. (Note.
tech complexity 2 code—it has a lock controlled by a you can simply burn d3 GRT to gain advantage on a
passcode of some kind), you must burn 6 GRT. This single WIL/perceive check.)
is the “standard” cost: each additional level of
complexity adds another 6 GRT to the cost. Ditto mass
Fade (free)
(rough scale—door or human, car or dinosaur, building
or whale, city block, city, planetoid). This power only Burn Xd8 GRT: you gain sound-dampening micro-hairs
takes a few seconds to work, regardless of the final cost. and pellucid flesh, rendering you nigh-invisible for the
next X rounds; you gain triple advantage on MOV/sneak
checks. (Note, this power can pair with cloak.)
Decode (passive)

Burn 1 GRT: your nanites, running on the venerable

Flechette (standard)
Tephnian code, give you +3 to any code-stratum tech
check (typically REA/use tech or MOV/pilot). They also Burn 2 GRT: you shoot an intense hail of tiny, charged
give you a wildcard roll: Rolling 100 on a d100 indicates nanite-arrows at a target. You gain +2 to hit on the
that not only did you decipher this bit of code; your attack roll, and the resulting damage is 2d6. If you spend
Blood remembers more code from Before! You gain an additional 4 GRT after successfully hitting your
extra, specific, useful knowledge, depending on what target, you inflict an additional d6 damage. Using this
the bit you were originally deciphering was about. power makes your skin itch intensely.
You cannot turn this power off; it happens whenever you
interact with code-stratum tech.
Foam (standard)

Burn Xd8 GRT: you create an impenetrable barrier of

Defrict (passive)
crackling, glittering foam that encases X targets (you
Whenever you enter initiative, burn 1 GRT: you gain +3 or someone else) for Xd8 (separate roll) minutes. While
initiative. This power may be taken multiple times. You encased in foam, you can survive in any environment.
cannot turn this power off; it happens whenever you roll A target cannot leave the foam voluntarily. Leaving the
initiative. foam, you smell like burning flesh.

Devour (standard) Hard (passive)

Burn 4 GRT: your nanites flee your body and convert Burn 1 GRT: nanites disperse your hard parts as you
nearby matter into biological material for your body. fight, reconfiguring them, so you take less damage. Hard
Inorganic materials give you d4 HEA; other biological gives you damage reduction (DR) equal to your level
materials give you d8 HEA. You may use this power a every time you are attacked. This damage reduction
number of times per day equal to your level +2 before only applies to kinetic/slow attacks (swords, bullets), not
you are full. force/lightspeed attacks (lasers). You cannot turn this
power off; it happens whenever you would take damage.

104 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / EDGES

 Hi-Fi (standard) is dangerous to its user as well, however: at the GM’s
whim and depending on the environment in which you
Burn Xd10 GRT: your voice reverberates at an extremely use this power, you must make a MOV check each round
high amplitude; you cause Xd10 damage and stun X to all you are metallíq or suffer Xd8 damage from a hail of
target within a 10X-M range. This power does not work stray nails, pipes, knives, ball bearings, etc.
in environments without atmo. Your throat is sore for
days after.
Mirror (passive)

Burn X GRT, minimum 1: your nanites hover around

Hulk (free)
you, making it appear that you are somewhere you are
Burn d20 GRT: your COM die goes up one type for 2d4 not. This displacement gives you +X to all MOV/dodge
rounds. Your body becomes twisted and freakish as checks for a number of rounds equal to your level × 2.
synthetic fast-twitch muscles wrap around your limbs You cannot turn this power off; it happens whenever you
and your spine sprouts numerous external nanotubule roll to dodge.
auxiliaries.

Pet (standard)
Lash (standard)
Burn Xd8 GRT: you send off a limb as a semi-permanent
Burn Xd8 GRT: you extrude out of one wrist an oil-slick pet (a grotesque “degsnake,” in Fleeter cant); this limb
red monofilament whip that deals d4+X damage and can take simple actions or fight on your behalf for the
causes burn X. Note, it takes one action to extrude the next X days. Your “pet” has the following statistics: your
lash; unless you can attack twice per round, you can’t dCOM+X, your dMOV+X, REA d3, WIL d4+X, CHA 0,
attack the same round you extrude it. The whip lasts d3 HEA Xd8+X, GRT your dWIL+X, and DR 0. Your pet
days or until you yank it out, causing yourself d3 damage. inflicts your dREA+X unarmed damage, but it can also
hold a simple weapon (a longsword or pistol); a single
arm cannot use a polearm, zweihander, bow, or rifle.
Lend (standard)

Burn Xd4 GRT: you send off one arm (or other
Reconfig (standard)
articulated limb) to bond with and aid an ally. This limb
raises your ally’s COM and MOV dice by one type for the Burn 6 GRT: your Blood changes your flesh in whatever
next X rounds. This is an intimate encounter: after bor- way you desire. You can grow much larger or smaller
rowing your limb, your ally feels physically close to you. (down to child size), change your face to mimic
someone else’s, or appear horrifying in order to intimi-
date a superstitious enemy. This effect lasts 24 hours but
Limb (standard)
can be extended indefinitely by burning another 6 GRT.
Burn X GRT: you shoot out a hand or even a head as
a “satellite” to independently fight or otherwise act for
Repro (standard)
you. This power lasts for the subsequent X +your level
rounds. Your head can speak and hear; your hands can Burn 8 GRT: you send your nanites into an electrical
attack normally or manipulate small objects. Your Blood device—this can be a standard Tephnian comm, a dumb
uses nanotubules to maintain efficient contact among ancient radio, or a sapient brain—to induce any specific
your parts, and you don’t “feel” separated. You do feel effect possible. The host rolls WIL/perceive against your
nauseous afterward. REA or CHA, whichever is better, to detect the ma-
nipulation (they must roll higher than you since you are
attacking). If the manipulation would destroy the host,
Metallíq (standard)
it gets an additional WIL/resist other check against dif-
Burn Xd6 GRT: you become strongly ferromagnetic ficulty 7 to remain fragmented or inactivated, but alive.
for the next X rounds; you pull all ferromagnetic
materials within a 10X-M range toward you. They
Revive (passive)
cannot resist. Large masses may merely bend and
creak; small objects fly directly into you. Informatic Whenever you drop to 0 HEA, burn all of your
sapients are not only dragged inexorably toward you remaining GRT: you gain 2d6 HEA. Your heart feels like
but also suffer Xd8 damage per round from the it’s about to explode, and you suffer from panic attacks.
disruption to their electromagnetic systems. This power Revive can’t be turned off.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH04 ☉ ADVANCEMENT 105

 Scission (standard) Ultraheavy (standard)

Burn 5 GRT and make an attack using REA instead of Burn Xd4 GRT: your hands become gravitic magnets;
COM: your nanites enter another sapient’s brain/central you can tractor-pull toward you any 10X Kg of mass.
processor in order to “disconnect” a specific thought. This mass cannot resist; it flies toward you. (Note, most
Your target rolls REA instead of MOV to dodge (they common sapient NPCs will weigh between 40 and
must roll higher than you). If you succeed, you stun your 300 Kg.) If you grapple a target while ultraheavy,
opponent, erasing the last hour of their life from their you gain advantage. Your hands sporadically throb in
memory. They feel a vague sense of unease but don’t excruciating pain.
blame you unless you are also physically attacking them;
they are automatically neutral toward you. They forget
Vamp (passive)
whatever recent memory you want them to forget.
Whenever you successfully make an unarmed attack,
you drain d4 GRT from your opponent. This power may
Scout (standard)
be taken multiple times.
Burn 2 GRT and specify a target of some kind (person,
place, thing): you send a thin veil of nanites in all
Whistle (standard)
directions to search out the target and report back. If
the target is within a radius of km equal to your level, Burn Xd6 GRT: your nanites scatter, infect all nearby
the nanites find it within d6 rounds or a number of vermin-like fauna (whether vaguely Terran or xeno-),
rounds equal to its level (if it has a level), whichever is and spur them into a frenzy for the next X rounds. As
higher. All the nanites know is the target’s location, not a swarm, these beasts have COM d6 +your level and
its condition or disposition. MOV d8 +your level, and they inflict COM d6 +your
level damage. Their HEA equals their maxCOM
+maxMOV. It is up to the GM what if any “vermin” live
Scratch (free)
in the area you’re currently in, but generally include
Burn Xd3 GRT: for the next X rounds, your nails extend insects (if outside) or small sanitation bots (if on a
into cerasteel-hard red claws that deal d6+X damage and ship). The vermin are not intelligent and will attack you
ignore DR X. The bones in your hands throb with a dull as soon as they run out of other targets. Your body now
ache. grows red plastic “hair” all over.

Spew (standard)

You spew up your Blood up as an area attack: the loosed

Extradimensional (XD, “Escheresque,” vorpale)
blades have many unseen physical dimensions.

nanites dissolve nearby opponents into hot omni-goo.

Burn 4X GRT and roll to attack. Spew inflicts Xd8 +your
level damage on any number of targets within a 5-M
radius.

Strip (standard)

Burn 4 GRT and name a physical (non-Weird) thing

within a number of M, and having a mass in Kg, equal
to or less than your level: that thing dissolves within
seconds as your nanites strip it down into a pile of
constituent molecules. That is, at 1st level, you can
completely destroy any 1-Kg thing within 1 M.
Non-Weird extradimensional things are not immune to
strip but have a dark mass (due to their additional sub-
pliated dimensions) determined by the GM. In earth
atmosphere, the standard XD “blade,” for example,
weighs not the expected 1 to 1.5 Kg (typical sword
weight throughout most of human history) but d10 Kg.
If used as an attack, strip inflicts dCOM damage.

106 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / EDGES

 Operations
Politicking, lootstacking
These advanced powers deal with long-term meta-­
gaming and are often relevant to political situations.

Operations powers d12

1 Become ronin (passive)

2 Bestow (ten-minute)

3 Call for backup (free)

4 Find clue (standard)

5 Hear confession (hour)

6 Hold against fate (special)

7 Levy taxes (week)

8 Possess allies—aliens (standard)

9 Possess allies—provincials (standard)

10 Possess archival access (free)

11 Possess secret—stiffworks (free)

12 Wage war (one-day)

Operations powers:

Become ronin (passive)

When doing any dirty work for anybody, you get paid
200% without having to roll a dCHA check and haggle.
You are a trusted expert… and a creepy spymaster. Your
own bosses are frightened of you.

Bestow (ten-minute)

You have the authority to knight new W.Co. Void

Templars: this arcane ritual takes about ten minutes
and grants the new Templars bonuses equal to your level
to COM and MOV. These bonuses last for one venture
and only as long as the Templars believe you to be some
kind of beneficent provincial space boss. If they suspect
that the Co. does not have the best interests of their
people in mind, the bonuses vanish. Once per venture,
you can bestow membership in the Voidus Templarii
upon a number of NPCs of any kind equal to your
level × 5. You can also re-bestow, if you come back to
the same location and want help from the same rubes.
Templars will not automatically do your bidding but

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH04 ☉ ADVANCEMENT 107

will probably fight alongside you if you give a rousing Hold against fate (free)
speech and perform the secret Void Handshake. This
power does not work on PCs because they know you Before every venture, you do special prep work and gain
aren’t sincere. one hold. During the venture, you can burn your hold
to directly contradict the GM on some point. You don’t
get to decide the specifics of what happens, just undo
Call for backup (free)
something that you don’t want to happen.
Once per venture, you can send reinforcements to help
someone in need, including yourself. When on a ven-
Levy taxes (week)
ture, you can declare one time only that help is on the
way. If you make your declaration during combat, help Once per venture, you can declare that you are stealing
arrives in two rounds (not the round you declare, not money from the locals under some sort of official
the next round, but the next). Otherwise, help arrives governmental aegis. When you do this, you spend the
in ten to fifteen minutes. The GM must justify this help next week with some NPC hired thugs levying. You are
as best as narratively possible. “Help” here can take the only minimally able to participate in other plots. At the
form of money, guns, a clue, badly needed supplies— end of the week, roll a d20. If you roll a 1, your loot is
whatever. But help qua guns is never as good as troops “levied” in turn by the government that supports you (be
(below); help qua money is never as good as taxes (below); it the Malteni Empire, the Co. Directorate, the Radanch
help qua a clue is never as good as the Archive (below), Community Improvement Commission, whatever).
etc. Backup is a utility. Using it to bring help in combat Otherwise, you walk away with a chest of local coins
brings only d4 allies of level roughly equal to your own. worth your level × 1000 gl. This power can be used on
Monetarily, it brings d30 × your level gl worth of loot. arkships and space cities, but never on-Spin. Using this
Clues are immediately useful without being either power on Terra raises the chance of being caught from 1
detailed or exact. But this power takes only seconds to in 20 to 3 in 20 (a roll of 1, 2, or 3 is a failure).
use, in game time, since your partners are nearby, and
you only need to signal them by screaming or pinging
Possess allies—aliens (standard)
their comms using the big red FUBAR button on your
walkie. Once per venture, you can declare that you are calling in
a favor owed to you by the superintelligent flying crab-
fungi called the mi-go, the skeletal spider-like posthu-
Find clue (once-per-session/standard)
man merchants called the xanjin, or some other pow-
You find something genuinely useful, plot-wise. You can erful species that dwells in the void. When you call in
find a clue toward whichever plot you want, but you this favor, the aliens arrive 20 −dCHA rounds afterward.
should make your choice clear to the GM. This clue is They will do one thing within their (considerable) pow-
specific: you don’t necessarily understand the bigger pic- er for you, then fuck off. This thing can be eliminating
ture, but you know what you need to do next. one target, transporting you to some distant location on
the same rock or within the same megahulk, or helping
with a difficult AI. The thing cannot be transporting you
Hear confession (hour)
somewhere else entirely in timespace, as that power is
You listen to any number of NPCs kvetch and heal their covered by possess secret—stiffworks (below). The thing
GRT completely. This power can be used to make you an also cannot be winning a war (below). If the aliens fight
essential part of a provincial community or to power-up multiple targets, they have COM d20 and MOV d20,
a friendly aux such as a ship’s AI. In the case of the latter, 3 attacks per round, and inflict d100 HEA damage or
the power is not so much “hear confession” as “talk to incapacitate one target per hit. Theywill only fight for
the fragmented consciousness of the ancient ship” until dCHA × 2 rounds on your behalf. N.B., the aliens will
it heals itself. This power does not work on PCs because turn on you if you piss them off, so don’t piss them off!
they know you aren’t sincere. This power takes one round to use in game-time, since
you’ve already made a pact with the aliens and only need
“Backup” means help à la a cop show: two gendarmes to signal them using your secret miniature MacGuffin-
rush to the scene, guns drawn, yelling. They are
friendly or beholden to you. They will help in class subtachyonic data lantern.
whatever way you need. They are not a platoon of
soldiers, much less an army.

108 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / EDGES

 Possess allies—provincials (standard) Wage war (one-day)

You have an in with the influential aide-de-camp of Your influence within the Co. is great enough to lean on
the rebellious Sabian Grafs of old Anch… Once per the baronet of Suud Calarash and raise an actual army
venture, when on a rockside venture, you can declare against the meddling Jultani Queen of Glass (e.g.). On
that you have local allies who will come to your aid. every third venture, you can burn 8 GRT and declare that

GM play a war-themed board game (or the card game

And/or, at this point, we suggest that you and the
Choose whether you want help in combat or with some- you are going to war against one political entity using the

war, etc.) in order to determine the outcome.

thing else. If you want help in combat, help arrives resources of another. Waging war takes a long time, but
within one hour. If not, it arrives the next day. Help here you can get started quickly: it takes you one day to sum-
takes the form of 2d20 × your level provincial soldiers mon the relevant parties and sell them on your plan. And
of 1st level led by a lieutenant of level equal to yours. you better have a plan. Wage war can help you overcome
The provincials do not possess secrets, will not help a major plot hurdle, but it can also backfire. When using
you overthrow planetary governments without some this power, first describe your goals, then your plans. The
serious convincing, etc. They are allies, not servants. GM and other players should fairly judge the likelihood
Their lieutenant will probably have beef with you, the that you can win, given the resources of your allied po-
longer you take her and her troops away from whatever litical entity. Then the GM should determine whether to
she was doing before you summoned her. But the troops “play through” the war scenario or incorporate it into the
will stick around for at least a week and can help not plot(s) already in motion. Whether now or later, at some
only in guarding, skirmishing, searching, etc., but also point, wage war should boil down to you and the GM
building things, creating a diversion, etc. This power shouting at each other over a complex doodle represent-
takes one round to use in game-time, since you’ve ing various fronts and counter-fronts. The other players
already made an alliance with the locals and only need to should act as ultimate judges of who wins the war, unless
signal them using your data lantern. some non-players are around and can do so instead.

ORIGINAL ARCHIVAL NOTES:

Possess Archival access (free)
LANDMARKS ON ENSHAGA
You have an “in” with the Archivists. Once per venture,
you can declare that you know all about some topic. • The Brūnaz – The Brown Sea sends toxic, algae-filled, cyclonic Brunaj
events (commonly termed “choking siroccos”) onto the eastern mainland,
Tell the GM all the things you would like your character almost all the way to eastern shore of Lake Valaumann. The vast lake itself,
to know about the topic, and the GM will inform you however, is free of Brunaj activity.
what they know. There may be practical reasons why • Hettvalau – The immense grasslands stretch between the eastern shore
of Lake Valaumann and the Brūnaz, and north beyond the lake, into the
you can’t know some fact or another (the Archive is region of coastal forests. The Hettvalau is thought to have been the seat of
incomplete, the Archivists are lying, no one knows Enshagan civilization under the yetis in the era before the creation of the
that!), but you can certainly use this power to help plan God Brain and the exodus. Today, the Hettvalau contains the majority of
known “classical” yeti edifices. The grass has evolved to regrow very quickly
a venture or get out of a bind. This power takes no time after the Brunaj events, relying upon this algaefall for nutrients. The xeno-
to use, since you’ve already done the research. trees have not done the same, and the forests are confined to regions free of
Brunaj events due to sheltering mountains.
• Lake Valaumann – Home of the floating Golden Ziggurat, close to its
Possess secret—stiffworks (free) western shore, the freshwater lake was named after the voidminer who
first tacked out to Enshaga and lived to return and tell the tale, two and a
You’ve been here before—and you’re not gonna die here! half centuries ago. There is a stiffworks in the base of the Golden Ziggurat.
• The Oreki Islands – The northern coast of Enshaga sports several large,
Once per venture, you can declare that you know the moderately forested islands, far from the Brūnaz.
location of a stable stiffworks within 100 −(10 × your • The Seldaj – The montane desert stretches west and south of Lake
level) km, minimum 1. This power takes no time to use, Valaumann. In the north, the Seldaj splits into eastern and western spurs.
The western spur is home to the Palace of Empty Skulls—from which the
since you already know where the stiffworks is. You God Brain monitors much (all?) of Enshaga. There is a stiffworks near the
still have to get to the stiffworks to escape, though, and Palace, in a similar, smaller outbuilding called the Vihara of the Tommygoff
invoking this power gives the GM license to throw at by fleeters.
• The Valaumanni Shrub Plain – The warm, semi-arid hills between the
least one epic encounter at you as you scramble toward northern Seldaj’s eastern spur and the western shore of Lake Valaumann is
the ruined observatory… home to the greatest number of “late” or “rococo” yeti edifices. These are
mostly composed of carefully cut and balanced rock, not metal.
One large continent; there cou
ld be others. The algal sea call
from the east, and to the sou ed the Brūnaz encroaches
th spreads the wide desert call
to the swamps in the north. ed the Seldaj. Stiffworks lead
A civilization once flourished
ing the Valaumann. Despite in the central plains surround-
that lake’s fecundity and the
the oceans’ storms and the cho plains’ sheltering effect from
king siroccos of the Brūnaz,
crisis. Stillfleeters, beware the ruins testify to an unknown
Enshagan violetpepper bush.
quite valuable, being a critical The unfever root, however, is
component of novel double-pur
e stimtenyl.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH04 ☉ ADVANCEMENT 109

Tactics
terms, the GM tells you its level, species, and classes.)
Assess does not let you read someone’s mind or automat-
ically catch someone in a lie.

Backstab (two-round)
Combat tricks, heroic feats You wait around the bulkhead, unseen, and pop out—
Tactics are in-the-moment powers, largely combat-­ finally gutting that no-good H.Co. traitor like an albino
oriented. voidscrod… Burn 6 GRT before you attack, and then
roll to attack with advantage. If you hit your opponent,
you inflict double damage. If you are 5th level or higher,
Tactics powers d20 you can spend another 6 GRT on hitting to inflict triple
damage instead. You can backstab with any weapon,
1 Artery-opening strike (free) within reason.
2 Assess (standard)

3 Backstab (two-round) Chain attack (free)

4 Chain attack (free) If you take down a target—that is, kill, reduce to 0 HEA,
5 Daze (standard) incapacitate, or otherwise physically dominate them—
6 Disarm (standard) you can immediately burn 2 GRT to make another attack
on that same turn against a new foe within 5 M.
7 Dive in (passive)

8 Explode (free)
Daze (standard)
9 Give orders (standard)

10 Hunt (passive) You attack as usual, but if you hit, you stun your target for
one round instead of dealing HEA damage. In addition,
11 Infiltrate (multi-round)
your target now suffers −2 to all rolls for the duration of
12 Knock out (free) the combat. This power can be used cumulatively.
13 Make whole (free action)

14 Maximize (free action)

15 Reconnoiter (multi-round)

16 Reposition (free)

17 See red (free)

18 Slay (free)

19 Soak (free)

20 Train weapon (one-time)

Tactics powers:

Artery-opening strike (free)

Burn 2X GRT: your next successful attack causes

bleed X.

Assess (standard)

Burn 2 GRT. Choose one entity; this enti-

ty can represent the median characteristics of
a group (a gang, a small army, etc.). By spending
a round studying it, you gain a good idea about
its general nature and likely powers. (In game

110 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / EDGES

 Disarm (standard) Maximize (free)

You wink—and in a flash, snatch the maser right out Burn 2 GRT before you attack: if you hit, you inflict
of the isopodal nihiloid’s viselike claw! Burn 5 GRT: maximum damage.
you disarm one opponent within 5 M. They cannot resist
unless by using Weird powers.
Reconnoiter (multi-round)

Burn 4 GRT and spend X rounds, where X is equal

Dive in (passive)
to your level or lower, studying a nearby structure
You recover 3 GRT whenever you act first in initiative. or situation (for example, a crowded souk or
caravanserai). You learn the layout of a structure or
character of a situation—who is there, how they are
Explode (free)
armed. (You do not, however, learn anyone’s level or
When you roll the maximum value on a damage die, you class, as with access.) You and your companions gain +X
can burn 1 GRT to roll again, adding the new result to on MOV/sneak checks, ongoing, for 4X rounds. Unlike
the total damage. This can go on as long as you continue infiltrate, you must still make sneak checks to avoid
to burn 1 GRT per roll and get the maximum value on detection. You can also use reconnoiter and then
the given die. immediately infiltrate. Unlike assess, reconnoiter applies
to physical layouts rather than the disposition of
sapients. You can use assess and reconnoiter together to
Give orders (standard)
gain a fuller picture of a dangerous situation.
You can burn 2 GRT to add +4 to your companions’
next attacks. You cannot act in any other way this round:
Reposition (free)
you’re yelling or silently pointing, e.g. This power can
affect a number of comrades up to 4 +your level. You expertly case the chaos around you. Burn 6 GRT:
you gain an extra d12 to use on any roll, going forward.
This can be a dodge check, an attack, a damage roll—
Hunt (passive)
anything. You can use this d12 once, and it will go away;
When you attack and hit a target whom you’ve tracked or you can instead use a d6 and, later, another d6; or a
down or fought at any point in the past, you can burn 2 d4 and a d8; or three d4s, etc. The bonus rolls are entirely
GRT to inflict an extra d10 damage. In this one case, you up to you. You can reposition, use the extra die, and
can burn this GRT after rolling to see if you hit. immediately reposition again (paying another 6 GRT),
even in the same round (if you are trying to dodge
multiple lethal attacks, for example). But you can never
Infiltrate (multi-round)
hold more than one d12-worth of bonus dice at once.
Burn X GRT: you slowly move 10X M forward, over
X rounds, without being detected. Infiltrate fools
See red (free)
all non-Weird entities. If you are 6th level or higher,
infiltrate fools Weird entities as well. Describe your Burn 6 HEA and 3 GRT: you enter a berserker rage.
puma-like stealth! Choose to gain +d6 on either attack or damage rolls
for the next (your level +3) rounds. If you are 3rd level
or higher, after these rounds are up, you can burn an
Knock out (free)
additional 6 HEA and 3 GRT to keep the rage going
When attacking, you can burn 4X GRT to add stun X for another 3 rounds. If 6th level or higher, you gain
to your attacks for the next X attacks: whenever you +d6 to both attack and damage rolls. Post-rage, you are
hit, you have an X in 6 chance of stunning your target exhausted and hungry.
for X rounds. If you burn 24 GRT, you automatically
stun every foe you hit for the next 6 rounds. Note, the
Slay (free)
power daze causes no damage; knock out causes damage
plus stun. When you successfully hit a target, you can burn 5 GRT
and roll dCOM again: if you get a 6 or higher, you can
choose to kill the target outright. If you slay more than
Make whole (free)
one opponent per day, make a dWIL check: if you fail to
Burn 3 GRT: you gain 1 HEA. get a 6 or higher, you lose 20 −dWIL GRT and are visibly
shaken.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH04 ☉ ADVANCEMENT 111

 Soak (free) Game functions and mechanics
to explore
Once per round, when an ally within 10 M is hit by a
weapon, you can take the damage from it for them, no
matter how implausible the resulting movements would ҂ Function: culture – Perhaps one list of advanced powers
be. Simply describe what happens in detail, with lots of could explore cultural effects, such as becoming a
drama! If you choose to soak this damage, you can burn celebrity on-Spin, or joining the upper echelons of the
4 GRT to lower the total damage by 4. N.B., this power Co. as a subdirector. What about powers that work
does not count as a standard action and can be used once only in specific cultural milieux?
per round in addition to attacking, fleeing, or parrying. ҂ Function: memory/amnesia – What happens when a
shoodtha, sleeper, or Solarian remembers more of
their vast trove of experiences? What powers come
Train weapon (passive)
from remembering the past? And what powers come
Every level, choose one type of weapon in which to train. from forgetting moments from the past, clearing up
This type must be fairly specific (for the purposes of this mental space for new experiences?
power, a katana is different from a straight longsword) ҂ Function: stratum – What about powers specific to
but is not specific to an individual physical weapon. certain technical strata or alien civilizations, like nano-
Whenever you attack with a weapon in which you are fluidics/Late Tephnii but for other tech/lost empires?
trained, you may burn 5 GRT, before rolling to hit, to roll ҂ Function: time – As in time travel. Hell science powers
twice, taking the higher result. This power stacks with aside, what powers could benefit a character simply
other forms of advantage. by their being from the future (a mongrel) or the
technologically advanced past (a sleeper)?

Designing
҂ Mechanic: cards – Draw playing cards instead of
rolling dice: what do the suits mean? What effects do
face cards unleash? Do you use the jokers?

advanced
҂ Mechanic: haunting – How about powers that link dead
characters to living ones? Bonuses and penalties kept,
or strange memories that offer clues but come with

powers
strings (anxiety, delusions)?
҂ Mechanic: images – Powers related to maps, portraits,
or other images: make the players draw!
҂ Mechanic: mini-games – What about powers that
call into being playable mini-games, or simply other

Beyond professional games: chess, checkers, RPGs with different rules,

video games?

skill sets ҂ Mechanic: music – Powers related to music: make the

players DJ!
Advanced powers are not tied to a profession but a ҂ Mechanic: storytelling – Make the players do more
game function, which can be much more abstract than narrative lifting! Have them write haiku about their
a professional skill set. Functions can include using characters’ experiences in order to fuel new powers…
items (communications), navigating cyber- and physical ҂ Mechanic: successes – Powers that call for successes
spaces (communications), rolling (immerphysics), meta- (multiple successful rolls) on multiple dice: which dice
gaming (operations), and fighting (tactics). do you roll? The same score, rolled more than once
These game functions can also introduce whole new to represent the passage of time? Two or more scores,
game mechanics into play, as in the strong meta-gaming to represent a complex challenge?
powers listed on the operations list: when you use wage ҂ Mechanic: voting – Have the other players vote on the
war, you don’t immediately roll dice, but pitch the GM outcomes of powers!
on a plan. The other players then vote on whether your
plan will work. One can imagine more advanced powers
that rely on a voting mechanic.
Here are a few game functions and mechanics to
explore when devising your own advanced powers.

112 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / EDGES

 NON- CO. CL ASSES

The only important elements in any society are the artistic and
the criminal, because they alone, by questioning the society’s
values, can force it to change.
—Samuel R. Delany, Empire Star, 1983.

Normcore Designing
classes classes
Wherefore, normcore? Taking the Stillfleet
The playable classes in Stillfleet are designed to help system into new
flesh out the world of the game—life on-Spin, out in
the void, deep in the Escheresque, and so on. But some
conceptual universes
situations have nothing to do with the Co. or the Weird: The blooder and the jackal/mouse are not the only
sometimes a GM needs an NPC who doesn’t have possible non-Co., non-hell scientist classes one can
any cool class powers, just the ability to fight, steal, or imagine, although they are the only such classes written
otherwise mechanically interact with the PCs. and thoroughly playtested to date. Feel free to make
To that end, here are basic character classes. These your own classes—and please share the results with us!
are intended primarily for NPCs, but there’s no reason Here are thoughts on where to begin.
that a player can’t select one, with GM approval. These
classes don’t have marquee powers, so a player choosing Guidelines for designing new classes
to normcore-multiclass for some reason gets to choose
any power. ҂ On the most basic level, RPG classes tend to
Note, each of these NPC classes only gets 3 powers simultaneously be jobs in a diegetic world, party roles
instead of the usual 4, and the powers are versions of in a game, and archetypes drawn from some genre
ones drawn from the playable classes. This makes them aof fiction (or admixtures or satirizations of such
little easier for GMs to use in practice. archetypes). Classes in Stillfleet work mostly like this,
although we’ve tried to make them good and truly
“When it was green and blue, almost-terraformed,
weird.
and underpopulated (by non-robots), Luna was
҂ In Stillfleet, PCs get exactly 4 class powers at
fought over disastrously by the Slug Kings
character creation. However you structure their
(Glasaloth, Zoth-Urlaakhi the Thousand Feet,
choices, the total should be 4. (Note, normcore/NPC
and Mmamoath the Nonuniform), the retreating
classes get only 3.)
Tephnians (the earth folk who’d terraformed
҂ Start off with one marquee power. This should be
it), as well as the two ‘native’ Lunan empires,
the most amazing, conceptually interesting, defining
Kalidash (still then in control of the Clockwork
ability that the class can do. For the banshee, it’s
Legion) and Khalinaar.”
to tack—open gates between distant points in
–Archivist–Selenogrammatist Aurhaak,
timespace. For the witness, it’s the power to end
called She-Who-Blind-Remembers by the
voidminers who work with her. fights automatically. Whatever the marquee power is,
characters of this class get it automatically.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH04 ☉ ADVANCEMENT 113

҂ Design at least 1–2 more core class powers, unique ALIEN ENCOUNTERS, PROVINCIAL
to the class. These should ideally help flesh out the
RIVALS: THE RIGHTSIDE-UP AND
class, shading it in conceptually. The stillrijder, for
example, is defined by their exosuit, but they’re also OUTSIDE-IN
trained in unarmed combat and can attack twice per The rich and temperate world called Ruoin (pron. “roo-OYN”
round. These core powers might come with free items. or “roo-OH-in,” depending on the voidminer) is home to two sapient
Characters may get these core class powers automati- species: a cohort of humans
who claim not to be descend- The Maalkane did not have a name
cally or have to choose one or two from a short list. ed from Terrans (Archivists for their planet until Hrijnkomt,
҂ Design or choose at least 1–2 additional powers that debate their origin, but most simply calling it “the world.” (Or
extend the class’s utility. These can be powers unique, assume it was Ancient Terra)
and a species of large, gray, so the Archivists say. The truth, as
or they can be borrowed from other classes or the many-limbed, headless aliens they say, is translatable.)
advanced powers lists. They should offer players whom the humans here call
some choice in how to interpret their class’s archetype: the hrijn (pron. “heh’RINE,” see “Patterns” for rules regarding
playing the hrijn!). The sudden arrival of the hrijn is called the
is your pir more of a doctor-doctor, or a sage? Incident, or Hrijnkomt, and it has redefined social life in the part
Characters should choose one or two of these powers of Ruoin known to the Co., an early modern empire called
from a short list. Maalkangaard in Spin.
The hrijn hail from “hrijnspace,” which the Maalkane call the
҂ Determine the class’s starting GRT formula. Most Inside-Out and the Archivists have concluded is a region of
combat-oriented classes’ starting GRT = maxREA the Escheresque. The hrijn appeared out of the blue, three years
+maxWIL. Non-combat-oriented classes’ GRT will before the Co. discovered that some stiffworks were being tacked
by “non-Co. operators” (the official term). Luckily, these human
equal their two most relevant scores. This gives operators—clad in buff armor and carrying primitive muskets,
them slightly more starting GRT, with the idea that speaking a language unrelated to any on Terra or the known inhab-
combat-focused characters will not have high REA or ited worlds—only ever made it to a few hulks, and not into Spindle.
The Directorate apprehended a group of them and found that they
WIL and will thus have slightly less starting GRT—but had independently discovered how to tack stiffworks, if not reliably.
they’ll be good at fighting. Thus the balance of the This leap in knowledge came as a result of ongoing cultural
universe is maintained. exchange with a race of advanced aliens called hrjin who had
initially been viewed as an existential threat: wherever they live,
҂ Choose one advanced powers list for levels 2–3. pink crystals replace native flora, and the sky turns cloudy and
(PCs get to choose a second list at level 4.) Most prone to lightning storms; this eventually renders the land acrid,
combat-oriented classes' first list will be tactics. New, gray, dusty, and cold. But after an initial military conflict that
the Maalkane lost badly, the aliens were ceded the vaal of the
unique classes might even have additional, unique eponymous river Hrijn in which to dwell. They have since proved
advanced powers lists in the way that the blooder curious and even friendly.
starts with access to nanofluidics. Thus the Maalkane came through the Inside-Out and met the
Co. They represented some powerful “Contessas” and a holy order
of philosophers concerned with social order and trade—that is, a
nascent rival Co., and a trading partner. The Maalkane wanted to
know everything about the void and how to traverse it. They were
cautious but honorable. Sadly, none of these early visitors from
Ruoin lived through the Directorate’s advanced interrogations…
Now that the ‘Quake has subsided, how will the Directorate
evaluate a nation of alien humans capable of—with much effort and
failure—using ‘works? What will the Archivists make of the hrijn,
who are surely the most nonhuman-seeming of all of the sapients
encountered by the Co. to date?

114
 Chandler
Bravo (merchant)
(wild warrior) You are a seller of goods and/or services—what kind
You are a berserker—a killer, brawler, mercenary, or thug is up to you. Your powers rely on your access to
who relies on brute strength and ritual (and probably market items.
mind-altering substances) in place of years of training Unlike factors, chandlers do not necessarily wield
by a state. direct political power. They may be in good standing
Most societies sport some sort of rijder class with the Co. or other powerful organizations. They may
(professional soldiery; see below). Not all societies have simply be salespeople. Their abilities to find useful items
berserkers. In higher-fantasy games, bravos may even and call bullshit on lies come from years of experience
be trained or created by hell scientists experimenting working in the souks (markets). Apprentice chandlers
with unleashing the potential of the id. who aren’t very skilled shouldn’t be classed at all.

GRT: maxCOM +maxCOM GRT: maxREA +maxCHA

Advanced powers list: Tactics Advanced powers list: Communications or operations
(you choose)
Powers:
Powers:
Endure (blooder class power)
‘Avvenge (factor class power)
Explode (stillrijder class power)
Detect (factor class power)
Rage (blooder class power)
Feed (factor class power)

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH04 ☉ ADVANCEMENT 115

Courtesan
(professional entertainer)
You are someone paid to keep others happy. You are
often privy to their secrets.
Courtesans may or may not have access to particularly
powerful or interesting clients. They may or may not
use disguises, herbal “love potions,” sex, comedy, dance,
music, or other techniques to extract secrets while they
entertain. They may simply be courtiers, yes-persons,
lackeys, and/or people trying to marry rich.

GRT: maxWIL +maxCHA Leech

Advanced powers list: Operations. After 4th level, you
can select powers from the spy class (doctor)
You are a professional healer—the kind who’d prefer to
Powers: treat scrapes and indigestion on-Spin rather than go out
venturing into the void.
While most leeches lack reliable access to the
Capture attention (standard/ongoing)
advanced training of the Archive—relying instead on
When you flirt or tease, others cannot act without provincial understandings of bodies, diseases, and herb-
passing a WIL/resist other check whose difficulty equals al remedies—all classed leeches are capable of learning
5 +your level. You cannot take other actions while Archival sciences (i.e., in game terms, of using all clank-
capturing attention, but this makes a great distraction and bio-stratum tech). Non-classed healers often rely
and costs no GRT. only upon herbal remedies and may not have powers.

GRT: maxREA +maxWIL

Coax (standard)
Advanced powers list: Communications, operations, or
After you sleep with someone, as a standard action, you tactics (choose one)
can ask one question: your lover must answer truthfully,
immediately, without omission. Powers:

Faint (free) Bioengineer (pir class power)

Whenever you would take damage, you can roll CHA/

Heal (pir class power)
control against another person’s WIL/resist other (this
person must be within 10 M). If your result is equal or
Listen (pir class power)
higher, then that person takes the damage instead of you.

116 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / EDGES

 Spy
(intelligence specialist)
You are a professional stealer of information. You work
for some powerful entity—typically a company, state,
cult, or mafia—and probably have numerous rivals
working against you.
Note, spies may or may not use weapons, have access
to cloaking archaetech, or be able to hack the main-
frame. Most provincial spies are essentially courtiers,
charlatans, “chandlers” doing “normal business activi-
ties,” etc. Many spies simply report what they hear in
certain social contexts up a given chain of command,
to some shadowy ruler. Playing a spy is thus a bit like
Rijder playing a mouse: the goal is not necessarily to constantly
be “thieving” in the classic murder-hobo sense, but to
(career soldier) blend in, play your cards wisely (act when offered a
You are a professional killer, trained by and possibly still lucrative deal), and most importantly survive.
working for a state.
Rijders (pronounced “riders”) may or may not have GRT: maxREA +maxCHA
access to guns and special gear such as exosuits; on the Advanced powers list: Operations or tactics (you
provinces, it’s more likely that rijders will be armed with choose). After 4th level, you can select powers from
swords and arrows and armored in leather, metal, and the courtesan class
chitin livery.
Powers:
GRT: maxCOM +maxMOV
Advanced powers list: Tactics
Act from the shadows (permanent)

Powers: At character creation, choose either the CHA/control

(deceive) or MOV/sneak check: you have advantage on
this check.
Double tap (stillrijder class power)

Steal (jackal/mouse class power)

Fight (stillrijder class power)

Hoodwink (communications advanced power)

Train (stillrijder class power)

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH04 ☉ ADVANCEMENT 117

 CH05 ☉ THE HELL SCIENCE

How Weird will you get?

You might say that there are two types of science
fiction: SF that includes inexplicable mental abilities—
“psyonics,” which is basically a type of scientific-
sounding magick that is explained via the introduction
of a novum, a new thing, such as the evolution of the
human brain, mutated genes, changes in the laws of
physics, discoveries of new physics, etc.—and SF that
excludes such abilities. In the former category, we find
Dune, Star Wars, The Left Hand of Darkness, and The
X-Men. In the latter, At the Mountains of Madness,
Foundation, Dawn, and Ancillary Justice.
Of course, this division is largely arbitrary, if persistent
and useful. The point is that Stillfleet can be played either
way. If you simply ignore this chapter and all instances of
the term “hell science” AKA “the Weird”—or treat these
as rumors created by the Co. to scare its employees—
then you’re playing in the non-fantastic register.
If on the other hand you enjoy this chapter and choose
to allow players to use the hell science, then you’re in the
more mythic but less “realistic” world of science fantasy.
The choice is up to your group. This chapter accommo-
dates all levels of physics-defying Weirdness.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH05 ☉ THE HELL SCIENCE 119

 THE HELL SCIENCE

Who shall conceive the horrors of my secret toil, as I dabbled among

the unhallowed damps of the grave, or tortured the living animal to
animate the lifeless clay?
—Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, 1818.

colloquially,
Learning even the basics of the hell science requires
Or, years of “study” and leaves the newly minted psyon
deeply, permanently scarred—a shivering maniac called

the Weird
a tremulant. It takes an average of five years of brutal
training in the heavily guarded Echodrome of the
Archive for a tremulant-potentiae to unlock their first
Weird power. This training is tightly overseen and once
begun cannot safely be abandoned. For this reason,

That which terrene science only a handful of tremulants are trained by the Archive
and employed by the Directorate at any time—or, at

cannot compass least, that’s what the rulers of Spindle publicly report.
An even smaller number of psyons unlock their own
Past a certain point of complexity, no one truly minds, surprising themselves by accessing hell science
À la the Five Movements learned

understands physics. Rules that break the rules, powers, typically after years of drug use and/or void
dark energy, negative energy, time loops, pulsating travel. On Terra, where they are universally feared, these
by flatlining in The OA.

anomalies in timespace, wormholes, galaxies-wide psyons are called snakeheads. On Spindle, they are
hellstorms, premonitions, farsight—these collective virtually unknown. Snakeheads are likely to be encoun-
phenomena are colloquially called the Weird. Some tered by voidminers on Terra or on distant, moribund
deepvoid species might “understand” the Weird, but minor provinces, living out lives of hedonic exile after
humans and human-like sapients certainly do not. having fled some brutal and secret organization on earth.
The most that humans have figured out is a system
for affecting or using some Weird things, a system
collectively called “the hell science.” This system
Using the hell science in
consists of a series of complex thoughts that “unlock” other games
Newtonian and even Einsteinian physics.
If you like the hell science powers but prefer

Tremulants and snakeheads high fantasy, simply convert them into “spells.” You
Dr. Manhattan asks from

can also use these powers as eldritch item effects,

The vast majority of sapients never develop access to “monster” abilities, properties of strange locations, or
the dunes of Mars…

the Weird. Those who do are almost always one-off moments of oddness.
ancestrally Terran humans—or “conscripts,” in Spin.
In fact, the reason why
Specifically, it is thought,
the Co. still bothers Regardless of their origin, many hell scientists are
the first hell scientists were/
to conscript Terrans is driven by a lifelong greed for obscure knowledge and
will be Archivists from the
to test them for their power over other humans—but even more by a yearning
future, traveling back
latent psychic potential. for greater control over the Weird. Depending on their
to help humanity survive
Most fail out, but a temperament, the hell scientist may be a cold, zen figure
planetary apocalypses.
lucky few survive long at the edges of the “human” (and what is that? what
(Or is this a clever fiction
enough to earn the title do we share, if some of us are born with—and spend
invented by the Archive to
tremulant-potentiae, or decades exercising—a Weird-bending ultracortex?) or
justify its budget?)
almost-psyon. a rash pleasure-seeker, bending time and space to fulfill
momentary whims.

120 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / ECHOES

 The Sky
The Howling That Crawls
The Maw

e.g., psychokinesis
Lamp (morphé)
Shape worlddream
(gnosis) (praxis)
You study matter and its relationship to other
Know pastfuture Destroy peoplethings
levels of order in the universe—the foam of
You study time[space] itself—how sapient quantum dream. Your powers include illusions You study energy and its relationship
e.g., augury

consciousnesses understand and are, (especially terrifying ones), reshaping matter, to entropy. Your powers include
typically, constrained by it. Your powers and wards (including ones that work on the Old electrocution, paralysis, and recharging
include augury, clairvoyance, and time Ones themselves). Terrans call you an alloyer. technology. Terrans call you a vector.
travel. Terrans call you a farseer.

The Crawling Sky

e.g., warding

is the inversion
of the Mask
Th
e is
the Lam aw ion
of inve p is e M rs
Bla rs Th inve own
ck ion r
Ga the he C
te t
of

s Th
ni is t e Bla
C rowrsion of he in ck G
e e the ve at
Th inv aw La rsio e
the the M mp n
of
The Mask is the
inversion of the
Crawling Sky
e.g., regeneration

e.g., teleportation

The Crown The

of Worms Black Gate
(physis)
Survive lifedeath
The Mask (topos)
Warp timespace
You study the intersection of biology and in Yellow You study space[time] and how to
physics—where entropy mysteriously (logos) deform it. Your powers include invisibility,
reverses itself, allowing forms to preserve Control otherself teleportation, and extradimensional
themselves across time… Your powers gating. Terrans call you a deformer or
include damage reduction, reanimation of You study the sapient mind—language, mazer.
the dead, and regeneration of the body. love, plans, unconscious patternings…
Terrans call you a vivisector. Your powers include mind reading,
telepathy, and mind control. Terrans call
you a sphynx.

e.g., telepathy

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH05 ☉ THE HELL SCIENCE 121

 All hell scientists tend to be exceedingly paranoid—
with due cause, as they’re often hunted by non-hell Personalizing the Weird
scientists who fear them and want to destroy them,
governments and corporations who want to exploit Snakehead powers do not have to work exactly like
them, and cthulhicate entities who want to consume tremulant powers. In fact, all hell science powers can
their minds… vary slightly, person to person. Feel free to tweak them,
with the GM, as you like.

Acquiring and using hell

science powers Limiting the Weird
Tremulants must choose one of the six paths studied by Can you use the hell science literally just by thinking,
the Archivists. (Snakeheads do not follow a path.) Each without any ritual component? Or is using the hell
of the six Archival paths represents a different way of science more akin to casting a “spell?”—i.e., hands
understanding and—insofar as it is possible—harnessing must be waved, sacred substances ingested, eldritch
the Weird. Each path offers a different set of 20 phrases shouted? This is up to your group, and ultimately
unique Weird powers. The paths are not organized into the GM can determine how to represent your choice
discrete categories; they represent centuries of Archival mechanically.
infighting as much as rational decoding of irrational One simple method is to state that, if the hell science
phenomena. requires more than thought, it requires one other type of
As a 1st-level tremulant, choose 1 path and 3 powers action per hell scientist (d4):
from it. At each subsequent level—along with choosing
an advanced power—choose 2 more hell science powers, 1. Somatic – involving certain gestures of the hands
of which at least 1 must be on your path. or legs
On the previous page are the known paths taught 2. Verbal – involving certain sounds
by the Archive. Their Terran names—archaic on-Spin 3. Material – involving a physical “focus” or special
but still in use by the dread Blood Legionaries of the food/drug
Sasparadan Empire—are listed parenthetically. 4. Emotional – involving a certain mental state
Tremulants spend grit to use known powers. If you
are a tremulant, you cannot use powers you don’t know. If your required action is not available for some reason
(Although technically you can multiclass as a snakehead (e.g., you are gagged and can’t shout the Words of Power
or, at 10th level, select the power evoke from the snake- that you used in the Echodrome to direct your brain’s
head class list. Talk to your GM before crossing these unfolding; you are drunk and can’t muster the anger/
streams.) concentration that unleashes your particular brand of
Snakeheads are not trained in a “path”: they tend to feel Weird from deep within your ultracerebellum), then you
the notion that humans can understand esoteric physics can’t use the hell science.
by reading datasets, drilling into their own brains, and This method makes the hell science slightly less pow-
taking group meditation workshops is dumb. If you are erful by giving the GM a tool for temporarily handi-
a snakehead, you taught yourself how to do whatever it capping snakeheads and tremulants. It also means that
is that you do. At 1st level, choose 2 hell science powers, specific actions don’t need to be tracked. I.e., individual
ignoring which path they come from. At each subsequent hell scientific “components” don’t have to be bought and
level, choose 1 more hell science power, or choose 2 new recorded on your character sheet—you simply know that
powers and forget how to channel 1 existing power. when you lose all your gear, you’re out for now.
In fact, at any moment you can use any power,
even one you’ve never attempted before. This is called
evoking: as a free action, burn d20 GRT and make a
The diabolic cost
WIL check. If you succeed, you may channel the power Practicing hell scientists slowly lose their grip on real-
as described, paying the associated GRT cost and using ity, invocation of Weird power by invocation of Weird
up however much time the power requires. If you fail, power. Their own minds betray them, inviting them into
you don’t lose your action for the round (trying is a a multiverse so much terribly greater than the hardware
free action), but you do lose the d20 GRT. Note: using of their brains can ever keep up with. Meanwhile, the
a power once doesn’t teach you how to safely do so again! rest of humanity and wetanity go on yakking about the
You have to evoke it each time. price of uskaal… The social lives of psyons tend to crack

122 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / ECHOES

apart under the pressure: no matter how technically hu-
man a given tremulant or snakehead is, they are the most To ham it up, or not to ham?
alien being on Spindle.
Beyond their nerves, the body of a psyon visibly warps When you choose to play a tremulant or a snakehead,
over time. It’s almost as though some thing or things what should you draw upon for inspiration? Should you
from beyond the observable universe were trying to… act like Eleven, the protagonist from Beyond the Black
improve it. Rainbow, Tetsuo, Sycorax, Frieza, the Mystery Man in
In game terms, playing a hell scientist should come Lost Highway, Bela Lugosi’s Dracula with a shotgun and
with a heavy cost: you are not simply a mercenary work- armor made out of living beetles, or techno-Merlin? Yes.
ing for an early modern trade guild in the sky; you are Whichever blend you like.
an aberration, an experiment, an open door onto a dan- The hell science—like all of the other science fictional
gerously inhuman multiverse. The manner in which your and science fantastic elements in Stillfleet—is a MacGuf-
group decides to bring these facts to life is up to you. fin. Your hell scientist can be truly fantastic, subtly weird,
Below are two random tables to help you flesh out how highly technical, a total mystery, a creep, a would-be
the hell science functions in the world of your game. sorcerer king, a ghoul…
Players: choose or invent 1 Weird flaw (physical or social) When in doubt, ask the other PCs and the GM! Some
at 1st level. GMs will want to run games set in more low-tech/low-
In addition to these, the use of the hell science fantasy/hard-SF universes. Others will be fine with Jedi-
should trigger narrative effects over time. The Archive’s level space opera. Your character will very likely help
Echotestsers, the Old Ones that observe us with un- determine this balance.
countable eyes from the deep Escheresque, and/or hoi
polloi xenophobes should eventually intrude upon your
story.

Random physical flaw associated

with using the hell science d12

1 You sweat petrol.

2 Some region of your skin glows a dull orange during

coitus.

3 Your farts smell increasingly sharply of (roll d4):

lemon oil, cinnamon, black pepper, rancid fish.

4 Your skin/chitin yellows and becomes glossy/waxy.

(This has no game effect, but looks unhealthy.)

5 Bright blue mucous constantly drips from a facial

orifice of your choice.

6 Your every uttered syllable is backed by a very faint

tritone sound.

7 You groan and yawn at random, often,

uncontrollably.

8 Whenever you laugh, swarms of tiny black sugar ants

spawn on whatever surface you’re touching with
your (roll d3): hands, feet, any body part.

9 You’re slowly growing bony, wart-like nodules

all over your (roll d4): hands, face, sexual organs,
entire body.

10 Your teeth blacken; if you don’t have teeth, some

other body part inverts in color.

11 Your hair/antennae whiten and lengthen.

12 Your saliva badly burns anyone else it touches.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH05 ☉ THE HELL SCIENCE 123

 Designing
Random social flaws associated
with using the hell science d10

hell science
1 The Honourable Company of Stillfleeters (the
shadow anti-Company) has a hold on you: they
know your deepest secrets, have kidnapped your
loved ones, or the like. They merely want you to

classes
do them a favor, however, and all will be set right…

2 An Old One has hooked itself into your brain. You

feel increasingly compelled to travel deeper into
the Escheresque…

3 Your own family despises you and would rather you

ceased to be a stain on their reputation with the Co.
Several axes of Weird
4 The Blood Legion of Saspar (the paranoid,
autocratic, medieval successor state to the Late
Tephnians) is searching for you: the vile Empress design remain open to
herself believes your blood honors the evolutionary
legacy of the rulers of Great Tephnii. Naturally, you
should be honored to donate your body to her Blood
exploration
Cathedral in Sasparada. It is possible to imagine many other Weird classes with
5 From the heart of the Federation of Unhuman long menus of bizarre powers: hell scientists that focus
Kingdoms (the major political entity on Terra, con- on shape-changing, or dissolving things in acid, or
trolled by many-armed posthumans), the secretive
bureau called Division X has somehow acquired traveling backward and forward in time in small
a hold on you and wants you to work for them: report increments. Perhaps these foci could lead to new
on the activities of the Co., what you do, where you organizations of the hell science paths, new powers,
go, why…
and/or new modes of using hell science powers.
6 The Archivists have a plan for you… They’re always Perhaps you want to push deeper on the idea of the
watching.
snakehead being bound to an ultrasapient patron,
7 Your refactor is terrified of you and keeps assigning changing some features of the class and creating a new
you more and more dangerous venture contracts,
hoping you won’t return… advancement chart to reflect how this relationship warps
the snakehead over the long term. That is, you want more
8 The Eaters of the Dead (the guild of gendarmes on-
Spin—that is, the thugs who protect the Directorate powerfully beneficial and negative mutations, not mere
from the working class) believe you are a threat to cosmetic oddities.
the stability of the Co.; they have recruited some It’s also possible to imagine hybrid classes that open up
member of your group as an informant.
certain hell science paths or specific powers to non-hell
9 A rival hell scientist wants you dead, erased, spaced. scientists. Perhaps you want to play a razi who has
10 A provincial merchant-laird wants you to work for access to the Crown of Thorns and can summon swarms
her, against the Directorate… of insects to help them fend off dangerous xenofauna?
Or a stillrijder who uses the Maw to electrocute and
terrify her opponents? Or a pir who heals by resculpting
cells up from the level of the quark?
To all of the above, we say: cool! Do it! This chapter
should be a guide, a reference, and a jumping-off point.
Rearrange lists of hell science powers, add new ones, and
experiment with new ways of using them. Let us know
how your experiments work out!

Have a good idea for this game—or any game? Go for it!
We support all indie creators. And, as Daniel Jose Ruiz
reminds us, we should all support indie bookstores, too!

124 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / ECHOES

 HELL SCIENCE POWERS

…Capabilities are clearly manifested only when they

have been realized.
—Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1949.

The Black Gate Abstract (standard)

Burn X GRT: you remove an object of mass up to 5X Kg

in mass, unnoticed, from a guarded place not more than
X km away from you. You can bring this object directly
The Black Gate powers to you or put it somewhere within sight of you.
d20

1 Abstract (standard)
Bend space (free)
2 Bend space (free)

3 Cloak (standard) Burn X GRT: you teleblink a short distance—up to X

+your level M away from your current location. Since
4 Convene (standard)
this is a free action, you can bend space as many times in
5 Detune (free) one round as your GRT allows. You must be able to see,
6 Fold space (hour+) visualize, or otherwise imagine based on some kind of
7 Give/force hope (free) data the arrival point for each bend.

8 Haunt (standard)

9 Hover (standard) Cloak (standard)

10 Hurl across (standard) Burn 5 GRT: you become invisible to non-Weird

11 Hurl through (standard) detection for a number of minutes equal to 5 +your level.
As long as you are reasonably quiet, you don’t have to
12 Kiss (free)
make sneak checks. As soon as you attack or otherwise
13 Masscloak (standard) reveal your location, the cloaking is no longer as
14 Promise vengeance (permanent) effective, but continues to give you a +3 to sneak checks
15 Rend space (standard) and +1 to dodge. You can use non-explosive hell science
powers while cloaked.
16 Shadowmirror (free)

17 Steal fate (free)

Convene (standard)
18 Swap fate (free)

19 Warp space (standard) Burn X GRT, minimum 2: you appear to some target at
a great distance. The target can be literally anywhere in
20 Wrinkle (standard)
the universe or the Escheresque, but in the latter case,
you must be in the Escheresque as well. You must be
You never had a name for it. It was simply a
able to reasonably imagine where the target is, and they
feeling, like weeping on the inside, or crying
must be reasonably close to where you imagine. (GM’s
backwards. You could focus your thoughts and
discretion, but the power should generally work.) You
do anything—well, a lot of things…
can speak with the target clearly, albeit holographically,
for a number of minutes equal to your level +X. You
cannot attack or mind control someone using this pow-
er in any way, and your holographic presence is easily

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH05 ☉ THE HELL SCIENCE 125

proved by touch. But if no one has a
reason to think you aren’t there—
and you holo-blink in slyly—you
will pass as present.

Detune (free)

Burn 6 GRT: you make someone,

anyone, fail a roll at which they just
succeeded. Damn, that’s cold.

Fold space (hour+)

You can, theoretically, create a

permanent stiffworks of the only type
somewhat well-understood by the
Archive—the Late Tephnian Blood-
locked foldgate, or the LTB for short.
LTBs require either advanced nano-
biotechnological “engines” to continuously
contour timespace into an “open” flat torus at a
given pinch point (gate), or else a Weird hack
to simply rip open a hole in timespace and then
suture the result into semi-stability. Lacking the
capacity for the former, you will attempt the latter.
Burn d30 GRT and make a REA check. This takes one
round of concentration. If you fail, the GRT is gone
but nothing else happens. If you succeed, you now
need to concentrate for the next hour, burning 3d10
additional GRT and making 3 consecutive REA checks.
If you fail any REA check, you suffer an aneurysm and
fall to the ground, comatose, at 1 HEA. If you succeed,
the air in front of you seems to gently wobble as a new,
untacked gate in timespace folds into being. Tacking this
stiffworks requires burning 6 GRT or d6 HEA and no
check. It is a two-way gate.

Give/force hope (free)

Burn 6 GRT: pick someone who is not you; they reroll a

failed roll. Or burn 3 GRT: pick someone, and they gain a
bonus +d6 to their next roll. You must choose, however,
a negative complication that will befall them if they fail You showed up in the village
the roll. Typically, this is a −d6 penalty to some relevant an orphan, but they
took you in, offered you sand-fl
attribute that persists for a day (if to a check) or an hour ecked bread crusts. At
first the other kids thought you
(if to a score). Your target cannot refuse your potentially were lying. Your new
sisters laughed and pointed:
risky help. you were scrawny and
dirty. “Sand Flea.” A table of
bent spoons and cracked
bowls and one bloody nose late
r, they knew you had
Haunt (standard) “it”—and that the Traders fro
m the Stalk would be
coming for you. They chanted
Burn 2X GRT: you can remotely touch, manipulate, and it over and over, “Sand
Flea, Sand Flea, Trade away,
attack things from a distance of up to 1 million km per gone today…”
level for X rounds. You must be able to visualize a target

126 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / ECHOES

in order to strike it. Attacks are resolved normally, but Rend space (standard)
you can’t be hit back except using Weird powers.
Burn 10 GRT: you instantly teleport to another place that
you can imagine, no restrictions. For every additional
Hover (standard)
6 GRT you spend, you may bring one additional
Burn 4 GRT: you levitate for a number of minutes medium-sized target with you. Beyond maxREA total
equal to your level. You can attack and use hell science targets, including you, you must make a difficult (7+)
powers while hovering, but you suffer a −2 to hit REA check to succeed.
opponents, and they suffer a −2 to hit you. You can fly
over barriers of any sort, up to 1 km tall, and you cannot
Shadowmirror (free)
accidentally fall into traps. You leave no marks behind
on the ground when you hover. Burn 4 GRT at the top of combat, before anything has
been resolved: everyone declares actions normally, but
nothing is determined until the initiative clock resets.
Hurl across (standard)
You decide your action after everyone else. All actions
Burn X GRT: in the blink of an eye, you transport an resolve in initiative order as rolled, but you have been
object within 5 M of you, whose mass does not exceed able to choose with the most information at hand.
10X Kg, a distance of up to 100,000X km across the
same dimension. (N.B., this power can be used to throw
Steal fate (free)
enemies into space.)
Burn 8 GRT and choose a target: you shift a failed roll of
your own onto someone else—so that they fail their next
Hurl through (standard)
action no matter what—and you reroll yours.
Burn X GRT: you translate 10X Kg of objects and/or
entities across dimensions, into or out of the Escher-
Swap fate (free)
esque, safely. You cannot choose the safe destination on
the other side unless you can concretely picture it. That Burn 3 GRT: you take someone else’s failure as your own.
said, the destination will not automatically kill living You fail your action this round (or don’t take an action),
cargo, regardless of Escheresque nausea, e.g. and someone else rerolls with a chance to succeed.

Kiss (free) Warp space (standard)

Burn 10 GRT: pick someone who is not you, and they Burn 6 GRT: you instantly teleport yourself and only
succeed at any roll. This can be a roll they just made yourself to any location that you have seen or been to,
or are about to make. (To use this power retroactively, no matter the distance, on the planet or ship that you are
you must do so immediately after the failed roll.) currently on. You don’t have to know exactly where the
destination is, just that it exists.

Masscloak (standard)
Wrinkle (standard)
Burn 14 GRT: everyone whom you want within a 10
× your level M radius becomes invisible to non-Weird Burn 7X GRT: you cause a target to become old
detection. This effect lasts until you do not want every- before their time by a factor of 5X years. Humans die
one to be invisible. Individuals can subvert their own immediately if wrinkled by +100 years. Other species
cloaking by attacking, speaking loudly, etc. Only you can live some number of years as determined by the GM.
decide to remove the overall effect, however. Humans in middle age (35–65) see their COM and
MOV dice move down one die type and their REA
and WIL dice move up one die type. Humans older than
Promise vengeance (permanent)
65 see their COM and MOV dice move down two
Burn 6 GRT and designate one target: everything that is die types and their REA and WIL dice move up two die
inflicted upon you game-wise, good or bad, happens to types. Aging even 5 years is terrifying and intimidates
your target as well. This becomes obvious to the target as affected targets immediately.
soon as you/they take damage.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH05 ☉ THE HELL SCIENCE 127

 Crown
Buffer (free)
The Burn 2X GRT: you create a cloak of bioelectric energy

of Worms
that slows down incoming attacks of all kinds, giving you
damage reduction X for X rounds.

Call swarm (standard)

The Crown of Worms powers Burn 5 GRT: you summon a swarm of titan darkling
d20
beetles (or other locally appropriate vermin). The swarm

Think Station from Bill and Ted and especially

protects you for a number of rounds equal to your level,

Vegeta and Goku in the Dragon Ball Z movies.

1 Adapt (standard)
absorbing 3 HEA of damage that would otherwise hurt
2 Borrow (standard)
you each round before thinning out too much to be of
3 Buffer (free) use. In addition, anyone attacking you within 5 M of your
4 Call swarm (standard) body suffers a number of HEA damage per round equal
5 Cleanse (ten-minute) to your level.

6 Commingle/sort (standard)

7 Commune (standard) Cleanse (ten-minute)

8 Decorporealize (standard) Burn 10 GRT and stare at a target for ten minutes:
9 Defy entropy (permanent) target permanently recovers one lost sense (sight,
hearing, whatever) or recovers from any one medical or
10 Dull pain (standard)
psychological disorder.
11 Harvest void (ten-minute)

12 Howl (free)
Commingle/sort (standard)
13 Kill your tongue (standard)
Burn d30 −dREA GRT: you join one entity with another
14 Laugh with moss (standard)
so that they share a single mutant, hybrid, giant body.
15 Lend (standard) Neither dies. Their HEA and GRT double. All of their
16 Reanimate (standard) scores move up one die type (use whichever scores you
17 Regenerate (standard) prefer from between the two bodies). You can use this
power again to reverse the process.
18 Sing deep (standard)

19 Spawn hedgeward (standard)

Commune (standard)
20 Zooify (standard)
Burn 2 GRT: you can talk to any majority-biological
sapient, regardless of the languages you speak, for a
Adapt (standard)
number of minutes equal to your level.
Burn 4 GRT: you adapt to any hulkside or rockside
hostile environment for 24 hours. If you burn 12 GRT,
Decorporealize (standard)
you can adapt to the void itself. Your mind protects your
body from extremes of pressure, heat, and ordinary Burn 9 GRT: you and everything you’re holding or
cosmic radiation. (You cannot protect yourself from touching becomes quantum foam until you choose to
astral plasma.) For every additional 4 or 12 GRT, you recorporealize. You appear to be a you-shaped shadow
can protect an additional medium-sized or two small of bubbling anti-space. You cannot attack, be attacked,
sapients. or use hell science powers while foam, but you can
otherwise use your senses as usual. While foam, you are
completely immune to interventions from the outside.
Borrow (standard)

Burn 2X GRT and touch another sapient: you heal

X +your level HEA, and the person you touched takes
X damage.

128 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / ECHOES

 aimlessly. “It” told you where
You ran out, wailing the way kids do, endlessly but not
Japhet—looked surprised, but
to find him. The local magistratus—some fat fuck named
yeah: if a kid had “it,” she’d be
he knew who you were. He told you straightaway, yeah,
and best for the kid! Nobody
taken up by the Stalk-folk. Best for the village that way—
so what? Nobody had had “it” in
here would know what to do with a… gift like that. But
this town, ever.

Defy entropy (permanent) Harvest void (ten-minute)

Ten minutes after you are killed, whenever you are next Burn 8 GRT: from ambient quantum foam, you create
killed, you come back to life with dWIL HEA. Each time enough food or fuel (or whatever your sapient friends
this power activates, choose: either your MOV or WIL need) to feed everyone in sight.
permanently lowers by one die type.

Howl (free)
Dull pain (standard)
Burn 2 GRT: for a number of minutes equal to your level,
Burn 6 GRT: you heal 4d4 HEA. you amplify your voice across vast distances, so that

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH05 ☉ THE HELL SCIENCE 129

 anything with a sense of hearing will understand you the degree that organized configurations of matter can.
clearly from a number of kilometers away equal to They may answer simple questions.
100 × your level, through any medium. You cannot aim
at a specific target, however, unless you can somehow
Spawn hedgeward (standard)
detect things hundreds of km away.
Burn 3X GRT: you make large, thorny plants—cactuses,
voidspikes, succulent thorngraspers—spring to life and
Kill your tongue (standard)
overgrow all around you. The plants give you damage
Burn X GRT, minimum 3: using the Weird, you create an reduction 2 and deal Xd4 damage to anyone within 5X
image or ghost of the sapient’s consciousness. It cannot M of you. They are also edible if boiled. The plants are
resist this communication, although it can choose permanent and don’t go away. They continue to deal
Think of the Dixie Flatline

to be obstinate. You can speak with this sapient for a damage to your opponents and protect you; they just
number of seconds equal to 10X (that is, a minimum don’t move (they’re plants). This power requires nearby
of thirty seconds). To use this power, you must be (within 100 M) sufficient mass of any kind and thus will
within speaking range of the dead sapient—that is, work in a desert or the depths of an atmo-free hulk but
from Neuromancer.

either relatively close by or in contact via archaetech not in the raw void.
(videochat, e.g.) or another hell science power.

Zooify (standard)
Laugh with moss (standard)
Burn 2X GRT: you animate all nearby (within 100 M)
Burn 3 GRT: for a number of minutes equal to your plants; they will now do whatever you want and can
level, you can talk to plants, fungi, and associated move or attack for X +your level rounds. Random
microbes. Plants, fungi, and associated microbes can’t normal plants don’t deal much damage (X HEA to all
help you with most human things, but they are targets within 100 M per round) nor provide much
otherwise perceptive. damage reduction (1 DR to you and any friendlies
within 100 M per round), but they can create effective
distractions, steal small objects, gum up machineworks,
Lend (standard)
etc. This power requires nearby plants; it will work in
Burn 2X GRT: you take X damage, and someone else a hydroponic farm, arkshrine garden, forest, oasis, etc.
recovers 2X HEA.
“So many imagined escapes from the beating
hearts we ourselves capture in our dusty or
Reanimate (standard) algae-beslimèd hands when we emerge from
Burn 12X GRT: you bring back one sapient from the our mind-cocoons… The winds here, dissonant
dead for X hours. The target sapient feels melancholic choruses… The familiars within them seem
and fuzzy but otherwise like they did in life. They do, to know of our fascination with the ancient
however, reek no matter how or how often they cleanse narrow stone arches of the Cancellan Plain…
their body. N.B., they do not, probably, want to be alive They rip into our sleep, bringing the most
this way. They can remember only bits and pieces of beautiful songs.”
–The conclusion of the last report by Dkr. Allabyrōt Zjanth,
their former life, and each memory hurts like a thousand of the
witness of some renown on Pazūzūn. Disappeared the year
burning daggers. Groot Tachquake. Appended to this page, in someone else’s
hand,
that of Zjanth’s refactor: “Or can these facts not
presumably
them?”
be set in words, lest they wilt and haunt those that drew
Revivify (standard)

Burn 4X GRT: you recover X pool every round for 2X

rounds and can allocate this to HEA or GRT as you like,
each round.

Sing deep (standard)

Burn 3 GRT: for a number of minutes equal to your level,

you can talk to stones, metal objects, sand, silt, etc. Most
of these things cannot say much, but they will help you to

130 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / ECHOES

The
Howling
Drink from horn and ivory (hour)

Burn 12 GRT, go into a deep trance, and ask one question

Lamp
that has two possible outcomes, A and B: you learn what
the GM thinks it would take to instantiate A versus B.
Your answers come in the form of vivid dreams.

The Howling Lamp powers Drink twice (ten-minute)

d20
Burn 6 GRT and ask one question about the past: you
1 Ask of the ages (ten-minute) suddenly experience the moment of interest—just a
brief couple of seconds—as if it were happening to you
2 Dowse (standard)
right now, in full vivid detail. Your question must be
3 Drink from horn and ivory (hour) one specific object, person, or place, not a large-scale
4 Drink twice (ten-minute) historical incident, life history, etc.
5 Feel for nerves (standard)

6 Listen to the void (standard) Feel for nerves (standard)

7 Look beyond (standard) Burn X GRT, minimum 3: for a number of rounds
8 Monitor (standard) equal to your level +X, you sense everything sapient
9 Open more eyes (standard) within your level +10X M, even if it is cloaked in a
Weird manner. You don’t get any specifics about these
10 Pierce the veil (free)
intelligences, just that they exist and whether or not they
11 Pluck your bones (special) know that you exist.
12 Read ahead (standard)

13 Replay (free) Listen to the void (standard)

14 Reweave (standard)
Burn 2 GRT: for a number of minutes equal to your level,
15 Scry deep (standard) you can hear clearly for a distance of 100 M. You can
16 Skip one moon (standard) now choose to “ignore” any physical obstacles that would
17 Slow the river (standard) deflect soundwaves and listen to what lies beyond them.

18 Speak with steel (standard)

19 Summon stray (standard) Look beyond (standard)

20 Tend inner bar (passive) Burn 4 GRT and name a locus that exists somewhere:
you can now remotely view that locus as if you were
really there for a number of hours equal to your level.
Ask of the ages (ten-minute)
Weird powers at that locus can detect that an
Burn 8 GRT and ask one question: reaching out through intelligence is snooping around, but not anything
the dimensions—through the great Garden of Forking specific about you. If your target locus is not in the same
Paths itself—you get the answer. You cannot learn solar system (same astro-location), then you see it as
exactly what will happen in the future, but you can get a blurry and washed-out, barely visible.
good idea based on the current situation. You can learn
what happened in the past or is the case presently.
Monitor (standard)

Burn 4 GRT: you create an invisible sensor that works for

Dowse (standard)
the next 24 hours, reporting back to you in all the senses
Burn 4 GRT and ask one question about where a person, that you possess about what’s happening at this locus,
place, or object is presently located: you learn the within 360 degrees, out to a distance of 30 +your level
answer. You cannot learn about the past or future by M. You cannot employ the monitor as a conduit through
dowsing, only the present. You don’t learn new details which to use hell science or nanofluidics powers, except
about your target, only its geo-/astro-location. insofar as these rely on normal sensory data to work.
(E.g., you can use this power to see a target for the
first time whom you then target with the power promise
vengeance.)

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH05 ☉ THE HELL SCIENCE 131

 Open more eyes (standard) matter what is going on, if you are not in a location
and want to be, you can burn your hold to suddenly
Burn 3 +X GRT, minimum 0: for a number of minutes appear, ready to act, with whatever you need to be there
equal to your level +X, you can see through solid (environment suit, e.g.). The GM must justify this in
obstacles. Your sight extends to its typical limits; you can the narrative and can’t counteract or punish it. You are
now simply choose to “ignore” obstacles and view what simply Weirdly lucky.
lies beyond them.

Read ahead (standard)

Pierce the veil (free)
Burn 4 GRT: you see what will happen to you along one
Burn 10 GRT: within range of your ordinary sight, you general line of possibility—one story—within the next
see everyone and everything, even if those things are 24 hours. You don’t get specific details, but the GM must
Weirdly invisible or of a higher dimension, and no one be honest and helpful.
can lie to you, even by omission. This power lasts for 1
hour or until you dismiss it, whichever comes first. If you
Replay (free)
burn an additional 10 GRT at activation, this power lasts
for 24 hours instead but causes blue smoke to pour from Burn 8 GRT: redo the entire last round. Start again at
your nostrils (or something equivalently odd, if you lack the top of initiative. Everyone may change their actions,
nostrils). but they have no foreknowledge of what is likely to
happen. You remember the should-have-been version
of this round perfectly. It haunts you always…
Pluck your bones (special)

Burn 2 GRT permanently: at the beginning of each IRL

Reweave (standard)
game from now on (not each venture), make a REA
check and add your level; you cannot boost this roll. If Burn d20 GRT and d6 HEA and name a moment in
the result is a 9 or above, hold one Weird intervention the past century at a geolocation within 100 km of your
against the GM: at any point in the ensuing game, no current one: you travel to that point in timespace. You

Although tachyon-comms connecting Kavaraat to Spindle went

TIME FUCKERY: KAVARAAT dark for two decades, this little affected relations between the
(“WHOSE WAVES ARE YEARS… Co. officials here and the previous Prince of Great Kavaraat. The
new prince, Aestelaar the Pocked, took office only months before
SICK OF PREY”) the ‘Quake subsided and enjoys unshared credit for its subsiding.
Aestelaar is a madman who believes that the advanced aliens—the
Kavaraat was discovered three times during Carvol’s brief Tetrahelians—coming through the timeslips are “dæmons.” The
exploration of the stars, but it was not until centuries later that Pocked Prince is happy to hire any visiting voidminers to slay them.
these “worlds” were correlated by a First-Five Era Archival venture Leaping through a timeslip and traveling back roughly 40,000
as being in fact one in the same: a world deeply split along the years, the bold venturer discovers a kingdom of early hominins
dimension of time, so that numerous semi-visible scars of air called called “low men” by the Kavaraaq and the “ur-Kavaraaq” by the
“timeslips” exist stably at different loci throughout it, allowing for Archivists. This time phase is haunted by predatory metrads (float-
travel between three distinct eras. ing jelly-vampyres) or dissecting advanced aliens (Tetrahelians
The large, decadent, medieval city-state called Kavaraat gave or mi-go) from the future. The low men are only dangerous due
its name (or the Oud Spinnish mistranslation of its name, anyway) to their distrust of outsiders, especially outsiders bearing arms,
to the entire world. This phase of time is the “today” of Kavaraat especially outsiders bearing technologically advanced arms.
according to the Co. and the chronolocus where the Co. maintains In the future—roughly 3,000 years or so, the Archivists believe
its so-called “province”—a ghetto within the vast city where the based on the evolution of a common Kavaraaq fungus—a cohort
Co. maintains a permanent embassy, barracks, trading outpost, and of gray, large-eyed, helmeted advanced aliens have migrated to
artisans’ sub-district. Kavaraat from their dying world, codenamed “Tetrahelia” by
Roughly a thousand Fleeterborn Kavaraaq live in the Alien the Archive, all but displacing humanity. For whatever reason,
Quarter of Great Kavaraat, and another two thousand in a thorp the aliens haven’t (yet?) traveled back in time to systematically
outside the walls of the city, a muddy little place called Forget- dominate or wipe out the ur-Kavaraaq. The medieval Kavaraaq
Me-Some. These proud folk are treated miserably by the paranoid and their equally unlyrical Fleeterborn colleagues call these
native Kavaraaq, who enjoy the benefits of trade with the Co. Tetrahelians “the space aliens.”
but view travel between worlds, ironically, as unnatural. (Travel In addition to these “local” aliens and the occasional mi-go, the
between eras of the same world is officially banned and certain- void elves also visit this world regularly to collect “art materials.”
ly frowned upon, but in practice common among thrillseekers,
criminals, and the religious.)

132 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / ECHOES

are unchanged from the present, and your actions in and roll dREA +dCHA. If the result is a 9+, the target
the past can affect the present (your origin). Be careful! comes to you within 2 hours with no explanation of
After a number of days equal to or less than your level, how or why. The target is confused but not hostile to
you may jump back to the origin (the same moment you unless they would have been already. If you burn 16
and locus from which you rewove). If you miss your GRT instead of 12, the target arrives in d10 rounds.
return window, you are stranded in the past, as you
cannot weave forward from origin, only backward.
Tend inner bar (passive)
To travel back up to one millennium, burn 2d20 GRT.
To travel back further, burn 3d20 GRT. When another character, PC or NPC, comes to you for
advice, tell them what you honestly think they should do.
If the person asking your advice takes it, they gain a +2
Scry deep (standard)
bonus to the next 3 rolls they make in doing so, and you
Burn 4 GRT: you completely scan a 3-M-radius sphere regain 3 GRT. This power can be used at most once per
of space that you can see. Within that space, you can scene/discrete narrative beat (GM’s discretion).
detect all living things, all sapients, all dangers, and
all items that the GM honestly believes you would
find valuable or interesting. Scrying offers no semantic
value, however: it doesn’t tell you what something
means. Scrying also cannot detect Weirdly cloaked
beings—although scrying does work via other remote-
sensation powers such as look beyond.

Skip one moon (standard)

Burn 3 GRT: you see what will happen to you and

only to you in the immediate future, up to one
hour ahead, if you take some specific action. Be
specific about the consequences that matter to
you. The GM must answer to the best of their
ability, but they can’t guarantee that the future
will turn out as planned.

Slow the river (standard) You simply nodded, ser

i-
Burn 8 +X GRT, minimum 1: you slow down time. For ous and distant, alread
y
the next X rounds, each round is played twice—meaning planning your escap
e
that on their respective initiatives, everyone can attack from the mercifully coo
l
twice, use two powers, run twice as far, etc. This makes shade of his worksho
p.
initiative order twice as important. At the same time, he wa
s
searching for (you cou
ld
hear, as though he we
Speak with steel (standard) re
speaking directly to yo
u)
Burn 1 GRT or 3 HEA and touch one object: roll dREA the strange box that the
and add your level. If the result is 7 or greater, choose Traders had given him
to learn either how the object was made (socially, not long ago for just such
technically), who last used it, or how it really works (but an occasion: a child wi
th
not about the historical conditions of its making). If the “it” would bring much
result was 12 or higher, learn all three facts. seed, much water, many
tools…

Summon stray (standard)

Burn 12 GRT, shout one sapient target’s name (they must

be on the same planet, ship, or pocket dimension as you),

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH05 ☉ THE HELL SCIENCE 133

 The
Mask in
Benumb (standard)

Burn 10 +X GRT, minimum 0: you cause a victim to

Yellow
become divorced from reality and fall catatonic for a
number of minutes of your choosing equal to or less
than your level +X. Catatonic persons cannot act and do
not remember what happens to them while catatonic.

The Mask in Yellow powers

d20 Command quasisapes (standard)

1 Apprehend (passive) Burn 6 GRT and name a group of visible, non-sapient

beings (butler-robots, skull-faced blue munkeys, vine-
2 Attract (free)
sharks, e.g.) within 100 M: for a number of minutes
3 Benumb (standard) equal to your level, you completely control these organ-
4 Command quasisapes (standard) isms. If you burn an additional d6 GRT, the duration of
5 Dive deep (hour) your control is measured in hours instead of minutes.
Every round, as a group, your organisms can attack or
6 Enrapture (standard)
defend. Their COM, damage, and special effects, if any,
7 Enthrall/mass puppet (standard) are determined by their type: venomous snakes inflict 1
8 Extract (two-round) damage but can kill within minutes; a fleet of acid-sea
9 Fog thought (free) turtles can probably inflict d6 or absorb 1 damage per
round; etc. The organisms follow commands as they are
10 Implant (hour)
able to. When your command lapses, the quasisapes
11 Incept (standard) neither disappear nor die, but keep doing what they are
Rules for Terran species such as
the ceramic robots called HNNH
will be available in future books!

12 Incite frenzy (standard) doing; if running away or attacking, they keep doing
13 Laugh among enemies (free) so. They do not defend you, however. Note, this power
affects any number of beings with REA of d3 or lower; it
14 Link thoughts (standard)
can be used simply to stop an attack from a large mob.
15 Peer in (standard)

16 Pour honey (standard)

Dive deep (hour)
17 Puppet (standard)
At no cost, when you spend an hour or more being
18 Think with (standard)
physically intimate with someone—whether in the
19 Trade eyes (standard) form of lovemaking, huddling together for warmth,
20 Wipe mind (standard) wrestling, or torturing—you can learn their secrets.
Roll dCHA +your level. On a 12 or higher, you know
all of their deepest secrets, what makes them most
Apprehend (passive)
vulnerable, whom they love, and what they fear. On a
Whenever you begin to take off your clothes, perform 6–11 pick one line of inquiry to learn about. On a 2–5,
a sensuous dance, or otherwise command the attention you simply establish a relationship with this person
of a room by becoming visibly vulnerable, every without learning any secrets. Unless you roll a 1, the
sapient creature in sight becomes transfixed. If you target cannot resist you and does not realize that
stop the strip-tease—and especially if you attack you’ve used the Weird on them.
someone—the power stops working. Pepper elves, aux,
and HNNH are immune to apprehend.
Enrapture (standard)

Burn 12 GRT: one target permanently falls in love with

Attract (free)
someone of your choice (this can be you). They will
Burn 6 GRT and name a sapient or quasisapient target never attack you unless you attack first. This power can
whom you can see: the target feels a deep desire for you only be reversed by manifesting it again, or by physically
for 24 hours. They will not harm you unless you attack separating the lovers for at least three months.
them. They will do favors for you. They are not under
your complete control, however.

134 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / ECHOES

That was fifteen years
and many leagues of
running ago. You’ve learned
a lot about “it,” but not what you would
have learned, you now realize, had
you gone with “them,” the Traders, the
spooks, the sages from beyond the sky—
the ones who burned the village down to its
foundations only hours after you disappeared
back into the desert.

Enthrall/mass enthrall (standard) to work, but it takes more than one round. Interroga-
tion this severe always involves some amount of physical
Burn d20 GRT: you summon 5 +your level sapient follow- damage to the detainee(s), but it is up to you and your
ers—you may as well call them cultists. The cultists stay group how deeply you want to descend into the specifics.
for one year or until you dismiss them and will slavishly
follow your commands. Cultists each have 6 +d6 HEA
Fog thought (free)
and 3 +your dREA GRT. Cultists will flee and abandon
hope in you if they suffer damage bringing them to 2 or Burn d8 GRT: you stupefy one target so that they can
fewer HEA. To mass enthrall an entire city, burn Xd100 remember nothing of the last hour. The target rolls
GRT, where X is a function of an exponential population WIL against your CHA to resist; you win on an equal or
scale: X = 100 people; 2X = 1000 people; and so on. higher roll. A target whose thoughts have been fogged
may not attack you, since they won’t remember what
reason they have to do so.
Extract (two-round)

Burn 2d4 GRT and interrogate a number of captives

Implant (ten-minute)
equal to or less than your level: you gain whatever
information you want from your detainees. They After a few minutes of speaking with someone, you can
cannot resist. This power does not take particularly long plant one notion inside their mind. Burn d6 GRT and

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH05 ☉ THE HELL SCIENCE 135

 move 5 M, or otherwise take physical free actions during
Mind control the time that you are incepting (minimum one round);
you are dreaming along with the target.
Using powers to control other characters can be fun, but
it can also occasionally get weird, and not in a capital-W, Incite frenzy (standard)
“eldritch” sense. Remember, the point of the game is to
have fun, not dominate or creep out your friends at the Burn 3d6 GRT: you incite every sapient whom you
table (real or virtual). Here are a few thoughts on how to choose within 10 × your level M into a violent riot. You
use—and not use—mind control powers. can choose to leave some people unaffected, but you
GMs, check in with everyone the first time mind must state so before the frenzy begins. Those in a frenzy
control comes up: is everyone comfortable with the will listen to your speeches as if they are Prophecy. You
basic concept? How intimate can mind control get? cannot control them individually or specifically, but you
This may not matter if the situation is a quick use of can send them to find targets, loot targets, attack targets,
pour honey to get a guard to open a locked jail cell (prob- or disperse. The frenzy lasts three minutes per level.
ably uncontroversial), but it may very well matter if a PC
uses enrapture on another PC to make them fall in love Laugh among enemies (free)
with someone (probably at least a little strange to ro-
leplay, depending on the narrative setup and how well Burn 2 GRT: you blend into a crowd or a natural setting,
the players know each other). Bottom line, if a power becoming forgettable. This power does not work if you
doesn’t seem fun to your group, cut it. are attacking, screaming, on fire, etc. It stops working as
For groups that are comfortable with more intimate soon as you attack, scream, etc.
uses of mind control, remember that this sort of
interaction can be powerfully funny or sad. Being mind Link thoughts (standard)
controlled can definitely be a challenge to roleplay, but
it doesn’t always mean having zero personality or acting Burn 2d4 GRT: you gain Weird telepathy with every
like a zombie. sapient in sight for a number of minutes equal to your
And mind controlling someone else may not be level. You can continue the telepathic conversation after
super-villainous: it may be deeply (and hilariously) awk- this point by burning 1 GRT per minute. You can decide
ward. If all you want is for the guard to open the jail cell, who is able to speak to whom; you are the switchboard.
and yet you can read his every thought (you know whom There is no limit to sapient participants, but you must
he secretly loves, and why he is forced to work this shit be able to sense all of them, and they must be physical-
job), you may feel pretty bad about the whole situation. ly near to you or else visible to you via look beyond or
some other remote-sensation power. This power does
not let you speak with non-sapients (plants, rocks) or
roll dREA +your level. On a 12 or higher, the target does ultrasapients (cthulhicate aliens from other dimensions,
whatever you want upon waking up from a deep trance, hyper-advanced warmachine AIs); the power think
remembering nothing specific about your encounter. On with allows a hell scientist to mentally speak with these
a 6–11, the target does whatever you want but has an beings.
odd feeling about you after. On a 2–5, the target is only
slightly inclined to do what you want and won’t try very
Peer in (standard)
hard. A 1 is a catastrophic failure.
Burn d12 +X GRT: for the next X minutes, you can detect
the thoughts of other sapient beings whom you can see.
Incept (standard)
At short range, within 5 M, you can read the thoughts
Burn 2d12 GRT: you put someone into a deep trance and of all sapients, even if they would prefer to resist. At
enter their dreams, via which you replace one memory longer ranges, targets roll WIL/resist other to resist your
with a false one. This memory can last hours and can CHA/control. Once you have peered into one target, you
be extremely vivid. It will convince the target not only lose the thread of the thoughts of others. You can only
to act in one way, but to redirect their life toward a new concentrate on one target’s mind at a time.
telos (goal). If you manifest this power in one round as a
standard action, you must be within 5 M of your target,
Pour honey (standard)
and they roll WIL/resist other to resist your CHA/control.
If you manifest this over several hours while your target Burn 4 GRT: you induce one target to take a single
sleeps, they cannot resist. Either way, you cannot dodge, action that will not harm themself. If you want them

136 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / ECHOES

 The
Maw
to harm themself, burn an additional 4 GRT and roll
CHA/control; your target rolls WIL/resist other; you win if
your roll is higher than or equal to your target’s.

Puppet (standard) The Maw powers

d20
Burn 2d8 GRT: you completely control one target for
a number of hours equal to your level. You must 1 Absorb (standard)
concentrate on puppeting your target once you begin,
2 Barter (standard)
meaning you can’t attack or use other hell science
powers while doing so. If you try to have the target kill 3 Become world (two-round)

themself, they roll WIL against your CHA to resist. This 4 Catch snake (standard)
power can theoretically work on Old Ones and other 5 Conduct (standard)
ultrasapients, but they automatically roll to resist and
6 Detonate void (standard)
usually possess very high WIL dice (d30s).
7 Excruciate (standard)

8 Faze (standard)
Think with (standard)
9 Focus (special/free)
Burn 4 +X GRT, minimum 1: you establish direct
10 Glisten (standard)
telepathic contact with X beings, transcending
language—regardless of whether they are intelligent, 11 Make dust (standard)

visible, or even in this universe—as long as you know 12 Move mountains (standard)
they exist. Your range of contact is bound roughly 13 Part the veil (standard)
by how far you perceive but is not tied to visual data.
14 Project rage (passive)
Telepathic contact with an Old One, warmachine AI, or
extradimensional being is foolish but entirely possible 15 Shift blame (free)

and does not require burning additional GRT. Thinking 16 Strike the clock (passive)
with lasts a number of hours (not minutes) equal to 17 Thieve (standard)
or less than your level, and you can disestablish it at
18 Throw hate (standard)
any time. Thinking with is two-way and unrestricted…
19 Twin the sting (free)

20 Wither (standard)
Trade eyes (standard)

Burn d30 GRT: you swap your entire mind with someone
Absorb (standard)
else’s for a number of days equal to or less than your level.
You can make the swap permanent by killing the swapee Burn 7 GRT and touch a piece of archaetech: you use
within this time. The target can resist (WIL vs. CHA) the Weird to steal its energy, regardless of technological
unless you are directly touching them. Note, your scores stratum. You can decide whether to convert this energy
and GRT follow you (they are in your mind, at least to and information into GRT or to use it to do whatever
some high degree), but you inherit the temporary and this piece of archaetech was meant to do. The GRT
maximum HEA of the target’s body. Also, you can end you can safely keep and use is equal to the item’s
this power early, but doing so costs you d12 GRT. technological complexity level (1–6) × your level. This
can safely exceed your normal max GRT. The item’s
powers that you can kickstart by absorbing its informatic
Wipe mind (standard)
shadow depend on the item: a laser rifle (or any item
Burn 2d4 GRT: you erase one target’s memories of the of complexity 1–3) suddenly works for a number of
last 24 hours. The target must be within 100 M of you rounds equal to 7 × your level. More complex and larger
and visible. The memories are gone and cannot be items can be made to partially work: e.g., a starship
retrieved. This person is not suggestible, however. will move 7 × your level parsecs in a direction of your
They can resist (WIL vs. CHA) unless you burn an choice. You can also use this power in a purely defensive
additional d4 GRT. manner, preventing any archaetech item that you can
touch from harming anyone this round.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH05 ☉ THE HELL SCIENCE 137

 Barter (standard) Excruciate (standard)

Burn 6 GRT and name one sapient: you give this entity Burn 8 GRT and name one target whom you can see:
one of your hell science or immerphysics powers other you mentally cause this target to experience a burst of
than barter. The recipient gives you one power (Weird unadulterated, whole-body pain that physically causes
or otherwise, you choose) in exchange. The target cannot them 2d6 +dREA damage. The target must possess
resist. The barter lasts a number of hours equal to your nerves or nerve analogs (informatic or biological); this
level; during this period, you cannot use the power that power does not work on slime, e.g.
you traded away, and the recipient cannot use the power
that they gave to you.
Faze (standard)

Burn 3 +X GRT: you cause X targets whom you can see

Become world (two-round)
to suffer extremely distorted vision and other sensory
Burn 10 +X GRT, minimum 1: you cause an earthquake disruptions for 1 round. A fazed opponent suffers a −4
with your voice that damages all corporeal creatures penalty to all rolls and cannot use hell science powers
within your level km for dWIL +X HEA. These without first passing a WIL check (no penalty).
creatures also fall over and can’t attack for one round
while scrambling back to their feet. Become world
Focus (special/free)
also damages all machines and buildings within the
power’s radius. If used on a hulk, atmosphere is instantly Burn 1 GRT: you Weirdly overcharge all of your
compromised. senses, gaining a +3 bonus to COM/attack, MOV/dodge,
MOV/run (or jump, etc.), WIL/perceive, and unarmed
damage checks for a number of rounds equal to your
Catch snake (standard)
level. You suffer a −3 penalty to MOV/sneak, WIL/resist,
Burn 7 GRT: you induce paralysis in one target within and CHA/deceive checks for the same period. You can
5 M for a number of rounds equal to your level. The focus whenever you want as a free action, but this power
target cannot move, talk, or act in any way, and they does not stack with itself (although you can always
cannot use hell science powers. Using catch snake does boost individual checks).
not automatically negate ongoing hell science powers,
however.
Glisten (standard)

Burn 10 GRT and roll COM to grab an opponent within

Conduct (standard)
5 M: you overcharge the natural field of electromagnetic
Burn 2X GRT: you telekinetically move an object or energy around your body and then direct it to flow
objects of total mass equal to or less than 10X Kg a onto this opponent, inflicting 6d6 damage in a single
distance of up to 10X M. This power can be used to hurl successful touch attack. If you miss your attack roll,
an object as a missile that deals 2d6 +X damage. You you and your target both suffer 3d6 damage instead. The
roll REA instead of COM to hit; opponents still roll target cannot completely dodge this attack as long as
MOV to dodge. you are within 5 M.

Detonate void (standard) Make dust (standard)

Burn 4 +X GRT, minimum 1, and name a point in space Burn 6 or 12 GRT and touch an object: the object
that you can see: you unspool the fabric of timespace, turns to powder (if you spent 6 and it is a small,
generating an explosion of energy that requires nothing non-archaetech item; or if you spent 12 and the object
but empty space as an accelerant. The explosion had a is a large, extradimensional, or advanced archaetech
radius of 10X M. You cannot attenuate the explosion, item) or cracks, breaks, and partially falls apart (if you
and you may yourself be caught by it. Anything caught spent 6 and the object is a large, extradimensional, or
in the explosion makes a dodge check against difficulty advanced archaetech item). Making any part of a bulk-
6 +X or takes d20 +X HEA damage. Machines and head dust aboard a hulk instantly breaches atmosphere.
other objects are severely damaged, depending on their The GM has full discretion regarding the consequences
technological stratum and complexity. of trying to make Escheresque and other extradimen-
sional objects dust. “Common” Escheresque blades,

138 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / ECHOES

 they torched the
The y had not felt anything when
Making an Escheresque blade dust is one of , as though you had
the best ways to die memorably in the void. first house (you could feel this
own punishment meted
been there watching your
taken you in), nor the
for one, do not disintegrate but instead unfold into
out upon the family that had
otions had tasted like
three-space/one-time, which to your sensorium means
second, nor the last. Their em
undisturbed.
exploding into a nigh-infinite number of small shards,
the sun’s rise, automatic and
ripping apart all matter within 66 M before spreading
out so thinly as to effectively vanish from this universe.

Move mountains (standard)

Burn 9X GRT: you telekinetically “push” a stun-

ningly large mass, moving up to 10,000X Kg
of matter a distance of up to 50X M in
seconds. This amount of force can easily
rip apart a hulk, collapse a building, and otherwise
radically alter the world around you. You do not
have precise control over the effects of this
power, however, only a general ability to di-
rect one massive burst of energy. If used to hurl an object
as a missile, this power deals 2d30 +X damage. You roll
REA +X instead of COM to hit; opponents still roll
MOV to dodge.

Part the veil (standard)

Burn 12 GRT, name one sapient target whom you

can see, and roll REA; your target rolls WIL: if
your roll is equal to or higher than your target’s,
you overwhelm their mind with a barrage of en-
ergy and cause them to permanently lose their grasp
on reality. This power is not reversible per se; to “fix”
your target, you or someone else must “treat” them using
the Mask power incept. .

Project rage (passive)

Your hate visibly warps timespace around you: whenever

you roll to attack or deal unarmed damage, you may use
REA instead of COM. When you try to intimidate a tar-
get, you may roll REA instead of CHA. If someone tries
to intimidate you, you may resist with REA instead of
WIL.

Shift blame (free)

Burn 3 GRT: you make one attack appear to originate from

someone else. You must be able to see or otherwise sense the
victim of the attack and the locus of its new origin. No
non-Weird method will detect your redirection.

Strike the clock (passive)

Once per round, after you attack, parry, or run, whether

or not you are successful, you may declare immediately
after rolling that you are doing something else this round.
Your new action must be one of the other basic combat
powers (attack, parry, or run) or tactics powers (a type of
advanced power), not a class or hell science power.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH05 ☉ THE HELL SCIENCE 139

 The
Sky That
Thieve (standard)

Burn 12 GRT and touch a Weird entity such as another

Crawls
hell scientist or an awoken Tephnian Archduke: you steal
one Weird power of your choice from this entity. You
may use this power for a number of days equal to your
level, paying its normal cost as written. The victim, who
feels nothing from the thieving and cannot resist, loses
this power for the same period of time. The Sky That Crawls powers
d20

Throw hate (standard) 1 Armor the soul/expunge (free)

Burn 10 GRT: you overcharge the natural field of electro- 2 Befoul (standard)

magnetic energy around your body and then hurl it at an 3 Broadcast venom (standard)
opponent, generating a fat arc of electricity that does 3d8 4 Call the void (hour)
damage in a single ranged attack. You must roll to hit,
5 Colliquate (standard)
and your target can dodge. The electromagnetic bolt hits
something, however, with an explosively loud crackle. 6 Counter (free)

7 Dance with the black star (standard)

Twin the sting (free) 8 Diminish (standard)

9 Emulate (standard)
Burn 7 GRT and name a target whom you can see and
is not you: this target gains an extra action this round. 10 Expand (standard)

This target need not be sapient, friendly, or aware of your 11 Fray (standard)
existence. 12 Jinx (standard)

13 Listen for THEM (hour)

Wither (standard) 14 Pause (standard)

Burn 13 GRT and name a target with limbs whom you 15 Resculpt (standard/ten-minute)
can see and is not you: this target loses one limb of 16 Spook (standard)
your choosing, suffering no damage in the process. This
17 Terrify/broadcast terror (standard)
power can theoretically be useful in medicine… But if it
is used in combat, all sapient onlookers who are not you, 18 Tranquilize (standard)

including the victim, must pass a WIL check or suffer 19 Transmute (standard)
d6 GRT damage from the horror of the limb’s Weird 20 Wall off (standard)
folding up into nothing-space.
Now you can do anything, fina
lly. It’s just—“it” Armor the soul/expunge (free)
doesn’t always work, and eve
n when it does, you
sometimes get the most ter Burn 8 GRT: you resist one Weird or Escheresque effect,
rible headaches…
Perhaps it’s time to finally no roll required. If you burn an additional 20 GRT, you
use your gifts to
travel to the Stalk and confro can temporarily expel an Old One from threespace (this
nt those Traders
who came to steal you away universe). It rolls its dWIL against your dCHA +dREA
from the bosom of
the world, all those years ago to resist; if your result is equal to or higher than the Old
.
One’s, it is banished for a number of hours equal to your
level. It will swear vengeance on you and try to return to
your last known locus as soon as it can.

Befoul (standard)

Burn 2 GRT: you generate a cloud of putrid odors,

blinding lights, and other confusing sensory stimuli;
all organisms and machines within 10 × your level M,
except you, suffer a −2 penalty to all rolls for a number
of rounds equal to your level.

140 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / ECHOES

 Broadcast venom (standard) Call the void (hour)

Burn 13 +X GRT: you cause X sapient or quasisapient Burn 30 GRT or 100 HEA (yours or someone else’s—
organisms or machines to experience extreme pain for animals, fungi, and plants work fine): you summon a
Xd6 hours. Someone who is in extreme pain can only random Old One to your locus. This is very dangerous.
take defensive actions each round (dodge, run) and The sky cracks open; bloody-looking quark-foam
can speak only in a broken whisper; they cannot use spills from the void; howls drown out your words;
hell science powers, make technology-related checks, or etc. The Old One is not automatically inclined to help
think deeply about anything. This power does not cause you. In fact, the Old One is very much inclined to
physical harm. consume your body after folding your consciousness

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH05 ☉ THE HELL SCIENCE 141

into a zero-dimensional infinity prison. Old Ones Emulate (standard)
manifest avatars that have d30 in all scores, 100 HEA,
and 66 GRT. Old Ones know 4d4 random hell science Burn 5 GRT: you alter your appearance to exactly mimic
powers (or GM’s choice) and can attack d6 times per that of someone or something else for a number of hours
round for 2d20 damage. equal to your level. You can become indistinguishable
from someone else, or from a tree or bulkhead. You can
turn into air. That said, you are easily detected if some-
Colliquate (standard)
one bumps into you, because your mass does not change.
Burn 16X GRT and name X targets whom you can see
or otherwise sense: these targets turn into a liquid but
Expand (standard)
are otherwise unharmed. Liquids cannot attack or use
hell science powers. They cannot choose where to move; Burn 11 or 23 GRT: you change the local laws of physics,
they simply descend to a state of equilibrium according effectively growing yourself up to the size of a 8-M tall
to the local laws of physics. This power is reversible; giant (11 GRT) or 40-M tall colossus (23 GRT) for one
multiple liquid entities, once merged, however, can only hour. As a giant, your COM is d20, and your unarmed
be separated using the Crown power sort. damage is 2d20. You suffer a −6 to dodge. Your HEA is
unaffected, however, since you must pump blood harder,
and your organs are slowly collapsing in on themselves.
Counter (free)
You can throw vehicles and punch through walls. As a
Burn 4 GRT: you immediately prevent one new or end colossus, your COM is d100, and your unarmed dam-
one ongoing Weird effect within your range of sight. age is 2d100. You cannot dodge ordinary attacks, but you
also take no damage from them. You roll your normal
dodge against naval laser cannons, drones, missiles,
Dance with the black star (standard)
etc. Your HEA is also halved, rounded up, as your
Burn 12 +X GRT: you seduce an Old One into not killing organs rapidly decay and asphyxiate due to inefficient
you and possibly helping you. Roll dREA +dCHA +X. If oxygen transport (or slowed electron transport, if you
the result is 12 or higher, the Old One doesn’t kill you are an informatic being). To be clear, a knife is an ordinary
immediately; if you attack it, it kills you. If the result is 20 attack; a grenade is not. As a colossus, you cannot
or higher, the Old One helps you fulfill one reasonable dodge; you simply take no damage from the knife and
request. It now has one hold against you. At any point in ordinary damage from the grenade. Being a colossus lets
the future, it can appear, anywhere, to call in its hold and you hurl spaceships and broken-in-half skyscrapers, etc.
require you to do some bizarre, gnarly, probably bloody
and highly illegal thing. If you refuse, the Old One kills
Fray (standard)
you. Or you can use this power to try to seduce it again,
giving it another hold against you… Burn d20 GRT: you generate an antidimensional bivector
knife… This means you create an invisible, massless, tool
roughly the size of a sheet of paper that can slice through
Diminish (standard)
dimensions, reducing their complexity. The bivector
Burn 9 GRT: you change the local laws of physics, knife is only detectable by advanced force technologies
effectively and safely shrinking yourself down to the (the bivector knife massively distorts gravity). The
size of a rat, mosquito, or bacterium (your choice) for knife is dangerous to anyone you toss it at, to all of the
an hour. You may burn an additional 2X GRT to shrink physical dimensions around that target, and to you. And
down X additional targets. If they are willing, no roll to literally everything in the universe. When you throw it
is required; if they are unwilling, they roll WIL to re- as an attack, roll COM as usual; your target rolls MOV to
sist your CHA. You may burn an additional 3Y GRT to dodge. If you hit, your target becomes two-dimensional
extend the diminishment another Y hours. If you are and can no longer affect you in any way (unless you
the size of a bacterium, you can enter an organism or are also two-dimensional, in which case you are both
machine. You cannot physically affect your host, but normal with regard to each other). If you miss, the space
you can use hell science powers as normal (unless they around your target becomes two-dimensional. You and
require you to take a physical action that you cannot your target must both flee or become two-dimensional
take at your diminished scale). next round. The bivector knife, once generated,
cannot be destroyed except by using a Black Gate pow-
er to hurl it into a distant locus (although any things
or people there will be fucked). There is no way to
re-dimensionalize frayed entities.

142 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / ECHOES

 Jinx (standard) Terrify/broadcast terror (standard)

Burn 7 GRT and choose one target whom you can see: Burn 8 GRT: you seriously scare one sapient or quasi-
the target is cursed at the level of quantum probability; sapient organism or machine for a number of hours
everything the target attempts to do is saddled with a equal to your level. Terrified beings are reduced to
−d12 penalty. Jinx lasts one hour, but you can extend basic survival instincts. They are terrible at everything
the duration X hours by burning Xd6 additional GRT. except running away from you and from all other

Rules for Terran species such as

the photosynthetic greens will
Jinxed targets feel horrible all the time but don’t know potential sources of danger. If a terrified being attempts

be available in future books!

why unless you explain. to do anything except flee, they suffer disadvantage on
every roll. Moreover, terrified beings actively run away
from you. To terrify multiple targets, burn 6 +X GRT:
Listen for THEM (hour)
you terrify X sapient or quasisapient organisms or ma-
Burn 9 GRT and name a target of any kind, even a chines for a number of rounds equal to your level +X.
target that is Weirdly cloaked or an Old One: you “pluck”
timespace, immediately and precisely locating the target.
Tranquilize (standard)
You know exactly where it is, even if it’s on the other side
of the universe, or in another universe. Listen for THEM Burn 3X GRT: you put one target within sight to sleep
“beats” every other Weird power in terms of detection. for X rounds. If the target is informatic, it goes into
It cannot be resisted. After you use this power, your nose power-saving mode. If the target is biological and doesn’t
(if you have a nose) bleeds profusely. normally sleep per se (such as an enjan or green), they
go into a deep trance and, if possible, sprout/sporulate.
The target is otherwise unharmed. Weird and extra­
Pause (standard)
dimensional targets roll WIL against your CHA to
Burn 3 GRT: you envelope a target whom you can see resist (they must beat your result); if they fail, they do
in scintillating solid quantum foam, preventing it from not sleep but instead disappear to a pocket dimension
moving or acting for one minute. While paused, the for X rounds.
target is impervious to harm, cannot be moved, and is
immune to all effects.
Transmute (standard)

Burn 2X GRT: you change X Kg of one substance that

Resculpt (standard/ten-minute)
you are currently touching into the same mass of another
Burn 5 GRT: you can reconfigure any matter with a substance. This means you can change water into wine,
volume not greater than 0.5 × your-level square M and water into gold, gold into blood, or flesh into armor.
a mass not greater than your level × 10 Kg. You can If you use this power to harden flesh, you can grant
make any alterations that you like, but one round of work yourself or someone else X DR. If you use this power to
will only result in crude changes. Within ten minutes, destroy flesh, you deal Xd4 damage, but the target can
you can make any matter into anything non-complex roll MOV to dodge your COM attack. Changes made
(non-technical). To sculpt random crap into a working using transmute are permanent but reversible.
technology, you must succeed at a REA check of
difficulty 4 + (technological complexity level × 2). The
Wall off (standard)
resulting technology will work forever if its complexity
is 3 or lower, one day if its complexity is 4, one hour if Burn 4 +X GRT: You create an opaque, unmoving barrier
5, or one time if 6. of entangled, de-spun neutrinos (or something) whose
shape and dimensions are up to you but cannot exceed
X M in any direction. The barrier has no measurable
Spook (standard)
thickness. It lasts for 10 minutes. The barrier can
Burn 2 GRT: you scare one sapient or quasisapient appear anywhere, including floating in the void or air.
organism or machine for a number of rounds equal to The barrier cannot be permeated by anything, although
your level. Someone who is spooked becomes anxious, a bivector knife will reduce it out of your dimensionality.
suffering a penalty of −d6 to all rolls that involve danger-
ous conditions, including combat. Spooked beings must
make standard WIL checks to use hell science powers.
Spooked beings do not necessarily run away from you.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH05 ☉ THE HELL SCIENCE 143

 CH06 ☉ MARKET TECH, ARCHAETECH, & NANOTECH

Or, you know, read this book on a tablet without

microprocessors? Or read it in print without paper?
For a very short, very good primer on how to think
about “technology” in science fiction, see this
“rant”/essay by Ursula K. Le Guin.

Many-folded is the shield, long-extinct (or apotheosized?) cryptocerids of Terra.

More importantly, this chapter offers rules for creating
and blazing with red gold your own technologies, including determining suggested
GRT costs for more advanced items, as well as thoughts
What is a space heist without walkie-talkies and shot- on how stiffworks actually work.
guns? What is a medieval duel without bastard swords— Inventing new technologies for your game is easy and,
and possibly, to make it more interesting, fragmentation daresay, fun. It’s also an easy way to pull your setting in
grenades? How are you ever going to explore the a specific direction, modulate the effective power level
Kingdom of the Dolphinoids without a wetgill? of the characters, or introduce plots tied to physical
This chapter offers copious items to buy or steal, MacGuffins (e.g., a doomsday object like a single chip
ranging from the ordinary—a spacesuit made of of ice-nine). As with every other aspect of Stillfleet, feel
early modern duct tape grown from bioengineered free to use what you like and discard the rest.
algae—to the science-fantastic—the fabled tesseræ of the

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH06 ☉ MARKET TECH, ARCHAETECH, & NANOTECH 145
 USING TECH

The projects of human technology exist wholly within nature,

evolving, like anthills, from a set of circumstances that they can
neither invent nor transcend.
—Lewis Lapham, Harper’s Magazine, 2000.

How tech works

Types of In game terms, market tech, archaetech, and all other

great bugs of Terra’s past produced mere novelties, and today Co. researchers
GMs, keep in mind that tech complexity and strata are not tightly linked: the
technology
imaginable forms of technology are categorized in
two ways: each technical item or system has a complexity

can, with great effort, create fantastically deadly synthetic viruses.

rating from 1 to 6 (simple, standard, complex, corporate,
military, godlike) as well as a stratum rating from 1 to 7,
representing its type, age, and/or originary civilization

Market tech versus (clank, bio, code, force, nano, bug, Escheresque).
These numbers often don’t matter at all! Some items

archaetech don’t need to be “hacked,” and others defy the compre-

hension of even the Archivists. When you do need a me-
In Stillfleet, if you plan on heading out into the deceptive chanic for an interaction with a piece of tech, however…
stillness of the hulks, first you’ll want to stuff some
GMs: during gameplay, you should
constantly spam new archaetech items

pep pills into the interior pocket of your envirosuit ҂ Its complexity rating provides a suggested difficulty for
of all kinds, including oddments.

and then head to the Canteen to buy a sword or a gun… any roll to understand, use, fix, or destroy it (see be-
This type of useful gear—market tech—is covered in the low). Note, not every interaction with archaetech will
next section. The present section covers how all tech require a roll, but asking a PC to roll REA/use tech will
is classified and what types of extremely weird often make the moment feel more high-stakes.
futuristic gear is floating out there, waiting to be found ҂ If the piece of tech costs GRT to use, this cost equals
and repaired. the product of both ratings. For example, a complex
Advanced, ancient technologies recovered from the (3) nanotech (5) system such as a Late Tephnian AI
hulks, dead province-worlds, and other distant loci costs 15 GRT to use. Note, not every item will cost
are collectively called archaetech in Spin. Archaetech GRT, but useful archaetech other than weaponry
is any tech that can’t typically be manufactured using the generally should. Archae-weapons often cost charges,
production techniques common on Spindle, Terra, or the not GRT, to use. Repowering these weapons—adding
major provinces. charges—costs GRT, however.
In narrative terms, archaetech is quasi-magical. ҂ In order to create a new technology, you will need the
So-called “oddments”—bizarre technical bits and dongle (tool kit) appropriate to its stratum.
bobs—are plentiful. But truly useful archaetech should
be rare, perhaps random, and capable of monkey’s-paw Technological complexity ratings
reversals.
You can also think about tech in terms of function. ҂ Simple – A result of 5+ is a success. A simple
Some archaetech was intended to function vehicularly, archaetech item is a trifle—something that offers a
some offensively, some defensively, some therapeutically, +1 on a roll or does d6 damage. A barred door.
and much for manufacturing or entertainment purposes. ҂ Standard – 6+ is a success. A utility item (a pair of
(These are not exhaustive categories.) Much archaetech, walkie-talkies) or basic weapon (d8 to 2d8 damage).
however, fulfills no known function: it’s merely… odd. A locked door.
These oddments are still traded for voidguilders, but ҂ Complex – 9+ is a success. A comm, servant robot,
they aren’t worth much except to speciality collectors sensor network, or advanced weapon (2d20 damage).
(see “Screams”). A door with a magnetic lock and a security cam.

146 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WIRES

҂ Corporate – 12+ is a success. A vial of the nanite- ҂ Code (contemporary in the Archive; Ancient) – Elec-
infused Blood or a strong-force rifle (kills instantly). tronic and information technologies including digital
The bio-imprint nodule on the secure entry-orifice of computers (comms). The civilization most often
a Wetan Mafia hard site. associated with code, on-Spin, is that of the Ancient
҂ Military – 15+ is a success. A starship, or a battlemech ur-humans of Terra [us!]. Rare.
with a railgun (levels a block of a city). The AI ҂ The code dongle is a comm—a small future
controlling an advanced government weapons lab, computer or smartphone.
long empty of humans. ҂ Force (High Tephnian) – Electromagnetic, piezoelectric,
҂ Godlike – A roll of 20+ is required. An arkship, electrogravitic, and solar technologies, including
or a warmachine more than 1-kilometer (km) tall laser weapons and vehicles capable of extrasolar
(capable of geoclimatic, planetary-level violence). voyages. Eight thousand years ago, the High
The prismatic membrane of a Snakeman inquisition- Tephnians dominated Terra with force technologies.
throne (you don’t even know what this is). Very rare.
҂ The force dongle is a laser tool kit—voltmeter, laser
Note, complexity and stratum are in no way judg- wrench, sonic screwdriver, micro-welder, etc.
ments. Together, they provide a sense of the number ҂ Nano (Late Tephnian) – Nanotechnologies, including
of the components in a given technical system along nanobiotech. Six thousand years ago, the Late
with their physical scale (e.g., a dozen visible gears or a Tephnians created stiffworks powered by nanites
trillion nano-robots), not to the “sophistication” or and then traveled to many Goldilocks worlds. The
“progress” of the culture that made the dang thing. A Snakemen, who will rule earth some time in the future
“simpler” technology may be easier to use, and it may but journey back in time occasionally for terrible
have a smaller game effect than a more complex one, but purposes, (will) also employ nanites. Treasured.
is not therefore “worse.” This game mechanic is intended ҂ The nano dongle is an atomic force microscope, for
to fuel zany sci-fi storytelling, not to malign vernacular moving around nanites, attached to a backpack-
technology as “primitive.” In fact—as the game’s sample sized nanoprinter.
archaetech makes clear—more complex tech is often ҂ Bug (cryptocerid) – Bioelectrochemical–quantum
more dangerous, saddled with more monkey’s paw technologies. The height of bug tech was 50 million
unforeseen consequences. years (MY) ago during the reign of the cryptocerids
and will be reached again in another 175 MY
Technological strata and dongles by the benevolent heechee (bee-people). The
technologies of the crab-fungi called the mi-go are
҂ Clank (contemporary on the province-worlds) – classed as bug, since they require plugging in one’s
Mechan­ical technologies, from ploughs and swords antennae to activate. (Although these systems can
to steamships and guns. All civilizations have some sometimes be used “dead,” in which case they are
mechanical tech. To most provincials, “technology” classed as bio.) Legendary.
means wood, leather, and metal. Common. ҂ The bug dongle is a combined cryptocerid phero-
҂ The clank dongle—the kit that allows for creating mone sniffer, proteome mangler, and biophoton
mechanical technologies—is a hand tool kit, in- emitter—a hand-sized, black, spider-like organ
cluding a wrench, lathe, hammer, nails, measuring that plugs into living and machinic bodies, filling
tape, etc. them with synesthetic memories of the extinct
҂ Bio (contemporary on Terra, Calayat, and Spindle, ultra-roaches. A pheromone sniffer is itself a highly
outside of the Archive) – Biotechnologies including coveted archaetech item.
pharmaceuticals. Many civilizations pursue biotech ҂ Escheresque (unknown) – Extradimensional “tech­
in order to improve crops, manufacture materials nologies”—a likely inapt term—are difficult to
efficiently, and extend lives. This category covers even imagine. These include items native to the
contemporary-for-your-characters brewing (the Co. Escheresque, the organs of the grylloids of Luna’s
ferments your food in vitro using engineered Farside, and the “gifts” of the Old Ones (the various
microbes) as well as medicines. Common on Spindle; cthulhicate entities that hell scientists sometimes
uncommon on the provinces (expensive). foolishly summon). Unbelievable.
҂ The bio dongle is a portable wet lab—a backpack- ҂ The Escheresque stratum has no dongle, other
sized refrigerator for culturing microbes, storing than a fragile, sapient consciousness that can be
plasmids and reagents, testing model organisms touched by the radically open, utterly vile Outside.
(mouse-sized albino cave crickets), etc.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH06 ☉ MARKET TECH, ARCHAETECH, & NANOTECH 147
 Meanwhile, the other PCs continue to distract the vyllar, which
The golden rule has a rudimentary AI capable of, essentially, WWE-style smack talk
and little else. It demands a suitably powerful “rider” defeat it in
hand-to-giant hand combat in order to gain its loyalty!
Each tech entry in this chapter includes a parenthetical On their initiative in round three, Delcalvi makes both a (boosted)
MOV/sneak and a (not-boosted) MOV/run check to leap up and
(№ stratum) tag. This might be (1 bug), (5 force), (2 grab hold of a ladder on the vyllar’s ankle, twist open a porthole on
code), etc. The number is the complexity of the item, the back side of its shin, and shimmy inside—all without attracting
and the stratum is its… stratum. When in doubt, remem- the giant’s attention.
Delcalvi takes two more rounds to dash up the service stairs in-
ber the golden rule for technology in Stillfleet: if there is side the vyllar, eventually locating its “heart” chamber: the place
no difficulty listed in the entry for using this item, and/ where its various systems receive power. The other PCs continue to
or if there is no GRT cost listed for using this item, then— distract the mad giant. At this point, the GM knows two things: that
he must decide how much GRT it will cost to control this warma-
chine, and that Delcalvi is about to be attacked by the vyllar’s im-
• use the item’s complexity number to determine the mune system.
difficulty of the check (usually a REA check) involved Paranoid as ever, Delcalvi makes the WIL/perceive check to
hear the quiet footfalls of innumerable corvidoid immunogolems—
in using it; pale skinny human-like replicants with crow heads and long
• use the product of the complexity number and obsidian knives, stored in lymphatic sculleries in the vyllar’s
stratum number to determine the GRT cost for using it. armpits. The banshee then confirms the presence of the immuno-
golems by a quick glance up and down the spiraling service stairs
within the vyllar’s chest—which is of course pitching in all directions
So a (1 bug) machine only requires a 5+ check to use, like a galleon in a storm as the giant attacks the rest of the
but may cost (if it has a cost) 6 GRT. A (5 force) system party, who lead it away from Bordure. Delcalvi now knows that they
only have one round in which to act before dozens of murderous
requires a 15+ check, and may cost 20 GRT to use. A (2 crow-thyngs stream into the “heart.”
code) item requires a 6+ check to use, and may cost 6 We enter a kind of narrative slow motion. The banshee surveys
GRT to use. the “heart”: the vyllar’s systems are controlled here via a series of
stone wheels carved with geometric glyphs, like Mayan writing. The
wheels’ axles connect to bronze panels, behind which power flows
thunk-thunk-ingly. The glyphs are written in a language Delcalvi has
EXAMPLE FROM PLAY: never encountered; they can’t learn it on the fly. Instead, Ethan asks
if Delcalvi can make a REA/know check (i.e., to induce, use logic,
INTERACTING WITH TECHNOLOGY etc.) to figure out which wheel can be turned in what direction just
to stop this crazy thing.
On the minor province-world of Ruoin, during a gonzo science- The GM thinks for a moment and says: this castle-punk robotics
fantasy campaign, the PCs take a bounty-hunting job that sends system is bizarre; you’ve never seen one like it before; and your
them riding north through Maalkangaard into the rainy highlands heart is pounding as the long knives of the corvidoid immunogolems
of the Gristlebaum—the great wooded karst that separates this audibly scrape the walls of the stairs not fifteen meters away. You
mercantile republic from its closest neighbor and deepest rival, the can use the power jack to affect the vyllar, but first you must make
poorer state of Hreth, to the south. a REA/know check just to figure out what not to do. This is the
In Bordure, a small town at the edge of the wood and the last one equivalent of reasoning out which wire not to cut to avoid triggering
sporting a detachment of Maalkane knyghts, the party members the bomb in a spy thriller.
stop to variously drink unlimited flagons of local mushroom-liqueur, Ethan says that’s fair and rolls. Delcalvi’s REA is d12, so Ethan
trawl for rumors, and attempt to teach the local blacksmith how to doesn’t boost. Delcalvi gets a 6—just enough to determine how to
craft armor-piercing bullets for a firearm he’s never seen before. avoid blowing themself up while powering down the vyllar.
These typical murder-hobo activities are interrupted by tremors They then have to jack into this system to shut it off. The GM
that shake the town and lead to a call of alarum from the goes ahead and says that Delcalvi has figured out that the vyllar’s
twenty-odd Maalkane knyghts: the tremors are the footfalls of a control system (its nervous function) is essentially Escheresque in
rapidly approaching 21-meter (M) tall automaton in the shape of stratum—meaning it will be very, very costly to mess with!
a squat, skull-headed man, crafted of battle-grade, 3D-printed The power system, however, is more straightforward: while
sandstone and rusting metal, with great towers for shoulders, huge, it consists of components well-known to the draadmijners
bronze antenna-follicles, and a hauberk-like chest. It’s a vyllar!—an (members of the banshee college)—a fragmentary solar array,
incredibly old warmachine built by a former tyrant to prosecute a an anti-solar array (thermoelectric generator), and a refillable
long-finished war. chemical battery, all in service of driving a bizarre pair of 5-M
The PCs quickly offer to deal with this threat, in part because the tall steam-filled “lungs.” This means the power system is clank in
town’s knyghts—scofflaws with badges—quickly flee. After a brief stratum, even though it has a complexity rating of 6.
round of scouting, the PCs surmise that—as much as the group’s Delcalvi can thus burn [ 6 (godlike complexity) × 1 (clank
fightiest member would love to commit suicide-by-giant automaton stratum) = ] 6 GRT to turn a certain wheel in a certain direction—but
today—it’s probably time for the banshee to shine. With the power not too far—and safely shut down the vyllar.
jack, the banshee can at least turn the damn thing off—assuming This thought process happens in the space of a few seconds
they can get into it and will have sufficient GRT left to burn. within the game—in “one round”—but takes several minutes in
At the top of the second round, the star PC, Delcalvi (a 4th-level real life because both the player and GM have a role in bringing the
Fleeter banshee, greedy, they/them pronouns, played by Ethan), archaetech system to life.
uses the advanced power find N.E.M.A.T. to detect a safe entrance Luckily for Ethan, a cost of 6 GRT leaves Delcalvi just enough
into this giant. This advanced power allows a banshee to use some to dive out of the “heart” on the next round, brilliantly careening
MacGuffin-grade mix of knowledge and handheld sensors to find down a vent and narrowly avoiding the mob of mindlessly
their way through any techno-ruins, locating whatever specific murderous corvidoids, which were not affected by the sudden
site they want. The GM allows it because, while the vyllar is not a drowsiness of the smack-shouting vyllar itself…
“techno-ruins” per se, it is a decrepit technical system and contains
plenty of hidden and not-hidden but hard-to-access passages.

H/t to sci-fi illustrator Wayne Douglas

Barlowe for the idea of the vyllar.

148 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WIRES

 MARKET TECH

Bounty hunters, you can find her in the Neon Valley Street District on the 4th
floor at the Leopard Plaza Apartment Complex. The Droid Control Marshals
are full of fun rules today. No phasers, only chainsaws and electro-daggers!
—Janelle Monáe, “March of the Wolfmasters,” 2007.

Buying Weapons
gear Buying weapons
Clank-stratum weapons can be made on Spindle, in large

Getting started versus Terran cities, or in large cities on the major province-
worlds. On-Spin, at first level, you can buy any clank

haggling weapon at the market price listed below, at a price

sufficient to make it well-made, or at a discount price.
At character creation, you gain 10 × (maxWIL +maxCHA) Once you begin playing, you must roll to find well-made
voidguilders (gl). Every time you complete a venture— and discount weapons except when in the Canteen on
meaning you sign a contract with your Spindle or in a large city on Terra or Calayat.
The voidguilder is a thick
refactor, tack out, come back alive, and
rectangular coin made
someone in your group writes up a ҂ Well-made weapons cost twice the market price but
of mycosteel (compressed
report, typically the party’s witness inflict an additional d4 damage with every hit.
industrial chitin), black-
or factor—you gain 25 × your level gl as ҂ Discount weapons cost half the market price, rounded
ened with acid-etching,
a base rate. up, but break apart or, if a missile, jam or misfire on
and stamped with the
This section lists things that you can an attack roll of 1. When this happens, the weapon
planet-and-hourglass
buy on-Spin at character creation. You can’t be used in combat again (except as a distraction)
logo of the Worshipful Co.
don’t need to haggle about prices when until it is fixed. You can fix your weapon yourself by
you’re starting out. Every subsequent market-tech making a difficult (7+) REA check, or you can hire a
purchase may (probably should) involve haggling (CHA blacksmith or gunsmith to fix it for you. Fair-price
checks), scarcity issues, the need to obtain Directorate repairs cost one quarter of the market price of the
or even Archival permits, and other obstructionism on weapon, rounded up. Archaetech weapons cannot be
behalf of the GM. discounted.
According to recent Directorate census data,
100% of blacksmiths and gunsmiths will charge
you more than the fair price for a repair.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH06 ☉ MARKET TECH, ARCHAETECH, & NANOTECH 149
 Melee weapons d20

Weapon Damage Notes Tech Price

1 Unarmed d2 Cannot be well-made. 1 bio Free

2 Unarmed–trained dCOM Unarmed combat training is a power that anyone can 1 bio Free
take as an advanced power and stillrijders start with.
Cannot be well-made.

3 Club, brass knuckles, claw hammer, lead d4 Any simple tool for beating things. 1 clank d4 gl
pipe, nunchaku, quarterstaff

4 Dagger, boot knife, Bowie knife, katar, d4 Any large or purpose-made one-handed stabbing 2 clank 4 gl
sai, skean, smallsword, straight razor, implement.
vegetable chopper

5 Bastard sword, dadao, falx, flambard, d12 Normally two-handed. If you fight with one of these 3 clank 80 gl
katana one-handed, you suffer a −1 to hit.

6 Battle axe, guandao d8 If you use this two-handed, add +1 to damage. 2 clank 24 gl

7 Flail, chain whip 2d3 2 clank 12 gl

8 Knife, chiv, steak knife, stiletto d3 Any small or improvised one-handed stabbing 1 clank d4 −1 gl
implement. Can be thrown. (possibly
free)

9 Hatchet, javelin d4+1 Can be thrown. 1 clank 6 gl

10 Longsword, estoc, jian, saber d10 2 clank 40 gl

11 Mace d6 2 clank 10 gl

12 Morningstar 2d4 If you use this two-handed, add +1 to damage. 2 clank 28 gl

150 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WIRES

 13 Pike, bec-de-corbin, harpoon, lance 2d4 Any very long spear. Two-handed, useless indoors. 2 clank 32 gl

14 Halberd, bardiche, bill, glaive, guisarme, 3d4 Any polearm incorporating an axe. Two-handed, 3 clank 75 gl
partisan, pudao, ranseur useless indoors.

15 Shortsword, cutlass, dao, falchion, d8 2 clank 25 gl

machete, ninja-to, rapier, scimitar,
wakizashi

16 Sickle, scythe, pitchfork, trident d4 Any agricultural or fishing implement. 1 clank 1 gl

17 Spear d8 Any stabby pole longer than a javelin but shorter 1 clank 18 gl
than a pike.

18 Two-handed sword, bagua dao, great 2d6 Two-handed. 3 clank 100 gl

axe, pole-morningstar, sledgehammer

19 Warhammer 2d4 If you use this two-handed, add +1 to damage. 2 clank 20 gl

20 Whip 1 Cannot be well-made. 1 clank 5 gl

Robustness score

GMs, if you want to play a grittier, crunchier game in hit with a sword, MOV/dodge to allow bend (superplastic)
which guns get melted by lasers, armor becomes dented armor to absorb the impact of a mace, or REA/use tech to
and snaps apart, and swords dull, then consider this rule turn on a restored Late Tephnian comm—have the player
adopted from David Black’s The Black Hack: each item immediately make a robustness check for the item. If the
starts with a robustness score of d12. Well-made items player rolls a 6 or higher, the item is fine. If she rolls a 5
start with robustness scores of d20. Whenever a player or lower, the item is broken—melted, cracked, tattered,
rolls a 1 to use an item—e.g., on a COM/attack check to turned to dust, whatever is most appropriate.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH06 ☉ MARKET TECH, ARCHAETECH, & NANOTECH 151
 Missile weapons
d30

Weapon Damage Range Notes Tech Price

1 Blowgun 1 10 M Often used to deliver a toxin. Cannot be well-made. 1 clank d4 gl

2 Bolas d2 15 M If your target is hit, she must make another MOV check 1 clank 1 gl
against 6 or trip and fall over.

3 Boomerang, returning d4 40 M If you roll a 6 or above to hit but your target still dodges, 2 clank 6 gl
the boomerang returns to you. Doubles as a club.

4 Bow, short d6 150 M Two-handed. 2 clank 8 gl

5 Bow, long d8 200 M Two-handed. 2 clank 24 gl

6 Carbine, Terran martinet 2d10 200 M 0.357-caliber, bolt-action. Two-handed. Doubles as a 3 clank 200 gl
club.

7 Crossbow, bullet- d4 25 M Solid steel body. Two-handed. Doubles as a club. 2 clank 40 gl

shooting

8 Crossbow, hand d6 10 M Concealable like a pistol. 2 clank 35 gl

9 Crossbow, heavy d10 150 M Two-handed. Doubles as a club. 2 clank 75 gl

10 Crossbow, light d8 100 M Two-handed. Doubles as a club. 2 clank 45 gl

11 Dart 1 3M Cannot be well-made. 1 clank 0.5 gl

12 Hatchet, thrown d4+1 10 M 1 clank 6 gl

13 Javelin, thrown d6 80 M Can be used as a melee weapon for d4+1 damage. 1 clank 6 gl

14 Knife or hammer, d3 10 M Can be used as a melee weapon for d3 damage. 1 clank d4 gl

thrown

15 Musket 2d10 80 M 0.5–0.9-caliber, smoothbore. After you have attacked 3 clank 50 gl

once, you must spend one round reloading. Two-handed.
Doubles as a club.

16 Pistol, horse 2d10 25 M 0.69-caliber ball, flintlock. After you have attacked once, 3 clank 75 gl
you must spend one round reloading.

152 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WIRES

 17 Pistol, modern, derringer 2d3 5M 0.41-caliber. 3 clank 45 gl

18 Pistol, modern, large- 2d6 50 M 0.38-caliber. 3 clank 80 gl

caliber

19 Pistol, modern, Magnum 2d8 50 M 0.44-caliber. 3 clank 100 gl

20 Pistol, modern, small- 2d4 50 M 0.22-caliber. 3 clank 60 gl

caliber

21 Pistol, pepperbox d8 5M 0.32-caliber, four-barreled. You can attack up to 4 times 3 clank 50 gl

per round. Whenever you have attacked 4 times, you are
out of bullets and must spend one round reloading.

22 Rifle, jezail 2d12 200 M 0.75-caliber, long-barreled. After you have attacked 3 clank 90 gl
once, you must spend one round reloading. Two-handed.
Doubles as a club.

23 Rifle, modern, large- 2d8 400 M 0.38-caliber. Two-handed. Doubles as a club. 3 clank 160 gl
caliber

24 Rifle, modern, small- 2d6 400 M 0.22-caliber. Two-handed. Doubles as a club. 3 clank 120 gl
caliber

25 Rifle, modern, sniper 2d12 1000 M Every round you spend aiming gives you a +1 to hit up 4 clank 400 gl
to a maximum equal to half of your maxCOM, rounded
down. Two-handed. Doubles as a club.

26 Shotgun, shot 2d6 30 M Hits targets within a 30-M long, 1-M wide cone. Two- 3 clank 150 gl
handed. If you shoot one-handed, you suffer a −1 to hit.
Doubles as a club.

27 Shotgun, slug 3d4 30 M Normally two-handed. If you shoot one-handed, you suf- 3 clank 150 gl
fer a −1 to hit. Doubles as a club.

28 Shuriken d2 3M Used to distract or deliver poison. 1 clank 2 gl

29 Sling d4 25 M Cannot be well-made. 1 clank 1 gl

30 Wetan chitin-disc 3d3 10 M A zany bone-box mini-catapult, worn strapped to a 2 bio 72 gl

thrower forearm. You can fire up to 3 times per round; if you fire
2 times, each shot suffers a −1 to hit; if you fire 3 times,
each shot suffers a −2.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH06 ☉ MARKET TECH, ARCHAETECH, & NANOTECH 153
 Grenades
d8

Weapon Damage Range Notes Tech Price

1 Bomb, Spin-made, cheap, d20 5M Damages all targets within 3 M of impact 2 clank 10 gl
thrown site. If you roll a 1 when attacking, you harm
yourself.

2 Bomb, Spin-made, expen- 3d6 5M Damages all targets within 3 M of impact 3 clank 16 gl
sive, thrown site. If you roll a 1 when attacking, you harm
yourself.

3 Bomb, Spin-made, top-end, 4d6 5M Damages all targets within 3 M of impact site. 4 clank 32 gl
thrown

4 Concussion grenade, d6 5M Damages all targets within 3 M of impact site. 4 clank 20 gl

Ancient or High Tephnian Targets damaged by the grenade must pass a
difficult (7+) WIL check or be knocked down
and out for d3 rounds.

5 Fragmentation grenade, 2d20 5M Damages all targets within 3 M of impact site. 4 clank 48 gl
Ancient or High Tephnian

6 Seeker mini-missile and 7d4 10 km in the Attacker gains +4 to hit. Damages all targets 4 bio (to 200–
one-time-use launcher, void/ 100 M within 5 M of impact site. Illegal to possess. use)/ 3 400 gl.
mi-go in the air or Price depends on the archae-hawker. bug (to
water create)

7 Slug-tech gene bomb, 2 5M Damages all targets within 3 M of impact site. 4 bio 2d30 gl
thrown Each target immediately gains one body-
resculpting mutation. Illegal to possess but
beloved by the Wetan Mafia.

8 “Theremin” corebanger d6 5M Damages all targets within 3 M of impact site. 3 force 6d20 gl
Each informatic target (pepper elf, mournfolk,
shoodtha, etc.) experiences extreme digital
tinnitus; their MOV die drops by two types
(min. d4) for 1 hour.

154 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WIRES

 Damage and range
As with other mechanical aspects of an RPG, damage
Armor
is not meant to accurately model the specific medical
trauma caused by different real-world weapons—after Damage reduction
all, both a dull knife and a railgun can kill you—but to
roughly sketch the relative deadliness of different types Armor provides damage reduction (DR), meaning you
of common and interesting weapons in the world of take X less HEA damage per attack when wearing armor
the game. with DR X. Good armor is expensive to acquire and can
Yes: real swords are pretty much as “deadly” as real be a pain in the ass to use.
guns, in terms of ability to inflict serious trauma on a Armor is listed in ascending order of DR. Most NPC
body. But a gun generally affords a shooter many more voidminers have random armor determined by rolling
chances to kill per unit of time than a sword does a a d4 −1. Note, bulky types of armor carry penalties to
fencer or a crossbow does an arbalist. As long as you non-dodge MOV checks such as sneak and run.
don’t want to undertake the tedious chore of tracking
every single bullet fired and draw lines of fire each
time a PC rolls to hit (in which case, why not play a
video game?), it makes sense to say that, in a given
“round” of combat, a gun will likely do more abstract
“damage” than a sword, bow, or crossbow. A gun is
lighter and easier to use, and it strikes more accurately
from much farther away. Even up close, a gun is small
and fast where a zweihander or daikyū is neither.
Similarly, weapon ranges are given as simplified
single increments—generally 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 50,
100, or 200 meters—to model the outer bounds of
general weapon accuracy in the heat of combat, not
maximum achievable distance.
You can watch videos online of Olympians,
sharpshooters, and medievalists pushing the bounds
of how far different real-world weapons can physically
travel, given ideal weather conditions and plenty of
time to aim. In the adrenaline-spiked time of combat,
however, most fighters won’t be shooting from great
distances in perfect conditions, but running around,
trying to stay alive…

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH06 ☉ MARKET TECH, ARCHAETECH, & NANOTECH 155
 Armor d20

Armor DR Notes Tech Price

1 Provincial shite 1 E.g., fungusbark, deg-hide. Smells foul. −1 penalty to negotiate 1 clank 10 gl
and seduce (most CHA checks).

2 Provincial livery 1 E.g., saurianhide, tooth-studded bark, bone, shell, gambeson. 2 clank 20 gl
Looks fresh. This is the standard armor worn by professional
soldiers on the provinces.

3 Riot gear 2 This is the standard armor worn by elite soldiers on Terra. −1 2 clank 15 gl
penalty to non-dodge MOV checks.

4 Living armor 2 Requires as much food per day as a human does—although it is 2 bio 60 gl
significantly less picky about the quality of protein—or it attacks
the wearer for d20 damage each round until scared off using fire
or copious smoke.

5 Chainmail 3 −2 penalty to non-dodge MOV checks. 2 clank 35 gl

6 Wytchsuit 3 A wearable fluid of nano-scale robots brewed by the void elves 2 nano 666 gl
or the long-dead Late Tephnians. Converts HEA damage into GRT
damage until you reach 0 GRT.

7 Bend, hauberk 3 A future-military armored vest. “Bend” is a superplastic that is 3 clank 85 gl

much lighter than metal but possesses similar strength. −1 pen-
alty to non-dodge MOV checks.

8 Exosuit, skeletal 4 Functionality dependent on plating and bioelectric input. −1 pen- 4 clank 250 gl
alty to non-dodge MOV checks. Stillrijders start with an improved
version of one of these, with variable DR.

9 Quicksuit 4 This film of nanorobots speeds up humanoid metabolisms. +1 2 nano 300 gl

bonus to MOV/dodge checks. Costs 5 GRT per day to power: you
can just set this cost aside—i.e., lower your maximum GRT by 5—
as long as you’re wearing the quicksuit.

10 Bend, full plate 5 −1 penalty to MOV. 5 clank 175 gl

11 Cerasteel, hauberk, 5 Cerasteel is a light, ceramically derived amorphous metal or 5 clank 450 gl
helm, greaves, and metallic glass.
gloves

12 Mirrorskin 6 +1 bonus to MOV/dodge checks. +3 WIL/resist other checks. 3 nano At least 1200 gl
Costs 10 GRT per day to power.

13 Exalted quicksuit 6 +2 bonus to MOV/dodge checks. Costs 8 GRT per day to power. 4 nano At least 1000 gl
After 100 damage, your droid needs a banshee, pir,
or Archivist to re-tense its energetic dry-hammer

14 Exosuit, mostly 7 −1 penalty to MOV. An exosuit comes with one function from the 5 clank 750 gl
switchplates (or something), or it no longer works.

complete stillrijder power exosuit; it can only power one such function,
however. If you have an incomplete exosuit, you can upgrade to a
complete exosuit, which can hold 4 such functions, for 2500 gl.

15 Cerasteel, full 8 +4 bonus to melee damage. Functions as an environment suit. 6 clank At least 5000 gl
battle suit

16 Battlemech 10 Various onboard weapons and scanners. Functions as a perfect 5 force At least 30,000 gl
environment suit. before factoring in
weapons

17 Defensive smoke 0 Whatever room you’re in looks like a rave. +1 bonus to 3 clank 100 gl
trebuchet matrix MOV/dodge checks. Can be added to an exosuit.

18 Laser shoulders 0 Anyone who attacks you takes 2d4 damage automatically, each 3 force 500 gl
time they attack. Can be added to an exosuit.

19 Sharkheart shield 0 Every time you successfully dodge, you smack the shield into 4 clank 800 gl
the force coming at you, and the shield releases a bolt of
energy in retribution: your attacker rolls a difficulty 6 +your
level MOV/dodge check, and if they fail, takes d10 damage.
Can be used in addition to an exosuit.

20 Dynamic force 0 When someone hits you, your droid tries to absorb the blow: you 3 force 1600 gl
redistribution roll its MOV (d12) to represent this. If its MOV result is higher than
droid bodyguard the attacker’s COM, the droid is hit instead of you. The droid can
absorb 36 damage in one combat before slowing and no longer
functioning to specifications. Can be used in addition to an exosuit.

156 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WIRES

 Voidware
Comms d20

Item Description Tech Price

Players: buy walkies! They’re super. Goddamn. Useful.

1 Aleph, AKA remote This looks like the head of a giant black beetle. 3 bug 30,000 gl
viewer You put it on over your head, and for ten
minutes, you can see anywhere in the universe
that you can imagine by making a REA check
and burning d20 GRT. The Archive sometimes
leases these out to particularly trusted
venturers.
2 Basic comm The user gains a +1 bonus to code-related 2 code 100 gl
tech rolls, i.e.g, most rolls involving hulks,
computers, AI, etc.
3 Blinder A blinder blocks an aleph or a signalthief. A 3 bug 5000+ gl
blinder permanently breaks a jammer. 5000
gl for a blinder that will definitely work once;
10,000+ gl for a fully charged blinder.
4 Bug comm Very difficult to use if not a wetan. The user 2 bug 9000 gl
gains a +6 bonus to code- and bug-related
tech rolls.
5 Decryptor, AKA A stealer-in gives you a +4 to code rolls 2 bug 1200 gl
“stealer-in” specific to hacking encryptors and walkies.
6 Encryptor, AKA You can use this set of walkies to send 3 code 600X gl
“labyrinth,” AKA messages over 100X km that only other
ultra-walkie, X units labyrinth-holders will understand.
7 Entertainment A Walkman with either 4 or d8 random 1 code 99 gl
apparatus, personal cassettes (you choose).
8 Entertainment A boombox or DJ setup with 100 random 1 code 1000 gl
apparatus, proper albums.
party-sized
9 Entertainment A hyper-def 4D murderdrome with 2 force 10,000 gl
apparatus, Scent-o-Rama extensor to really creep
Snakeman out all your friends.
10 Factor-grade The user gains a +2 bonus to code rolls. Price 3 code 250+ gl
comm, encrypted is determined by other capabilities.
11 Farcomm This is a standard comm that can be stored in 3 nano 1800 gl
one locus and accessed, via a brain implant,
in any other locus in the same universe via
quantum entanglement.
12 Jammer Turning on a jammer stops a standard code 3 code 300 gl
signal within 10 km from being broadcast.
13 Mi-go dongle This gray-green sac of fungal tissue allows 1 bug 75 gl
you to use mi-go technologies. It gives you no
bonuses, but without it, you can’t make sense
of how to jack into (mate with) a Yuggothi per-
sonal comm, ship comm, tachlantern, etc.
14 Military-grade or The user gains a +4 bonus to code rolls. Price 5 code; if 1000+ gl
Tephnian comm, is determined by other capabilities. Tephnian,
highly encrypted 3 nano
15 Recording There are many examples from the different 1 code Varies
apparatus advanced but dead civilizations of ways of
recording the moment. Prices are determined
by their capabilities: 100 gl (still images only,
50 shots), 200 gl (sounds only, 8 hours), 300
gl (moving images only, 8 hours), or 500 gl
(sounds and moving images, 8 hours).

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH06 ☉ MARKET TECH, ARCHAETECH, & NANOTECH 157
 16 Signalthief A signalthief automatically intercepts and records the signal. You may still 4 code 1300 gl
need to roll in order to decode the stolen signal.

17 Tachyon lantern, AKA Used to send short messages across the void. 2 force 1000 gl
tachlantern

18 Tessera As far as you know, no one on Spindle has ever seen, much less used, one 6 bug Unprice-
of the cryptocerid quantum computers. Theoretically—among many other able
benefits—an activated tessera would give you +13 on all tech rolls, double
your GRT, and provide DR 9.

19 Translator, AKA babelbox This small black box can be strapped to your vocal cords, allowing you to 4 code 800 gl
speak any language based on the compression of air.

20 Walkie set, X units Connects voices over an X-km range. 1 code 10X gl

Drugs
d6

Item Description Tech Price

to use the power dispense is a (3 bio) archaetech item. It is technically illegal
The specialty medigadget that a classed factor leases from the Archive in order

to buy or sell one. On the black market, one would probably be worth 2000 gl.

1 Graxanna, X patches Now ubiquitous across the Co. worlds, “goblyn moss” is a bitter-tasting but 1 bio 2X gl
edible nonvascular plant that acts as an anti-inflammatory and stimulates
the human body’s immune response. Each patch, if chewed for one round,
heals d4 HEA. A human can safely heal 4d4 HEA in this way per day; addi-
tional chewed patches carry a 1 in 6 risk of serious liver disease (as radiation
poisoning; see “Gears”). Graxanna has no effect on amphibians and reptiles
and is (perhaps obviously) useless to plantoids and automata. A chewed
patch of “gob” will heal a wetan, harajoon, or mongrel only 1 HEA.

2 Gunch, X hits “Gunch” or “wanch” is a street drug—a class of highly addictive, synthetic 2 bio 5X gl
opioids that affect all biological sapients. One hit of gunch heals d6 HEA.
Every time you use gunch, you face a 1 in 10 chance of becoming addicted.
If you become addicted, you must use gunch every day or suffer 20 −dWIL
GRT damage per day. After d6 days sober, you suffer d6 HEA damage as
well. This withdrawal period ends after 25 −dWIL days.

3 Stimpack, X doses These mildly addictive synthetic opioids heal biological sapients d6 HEA 2 bio 20X gl
per dose.

4 Stimtenyl, X strips These non-addictive strips heal biological sapients d4 HEA each. 2 bio 15X gl

5 Sunshadow aphids, X These non-addictive, anti-inflammatory, pill-like bugs bred by the void elves 1 bio 45X gl
thoraces heal biological sapients d8 HEA per dose, but you can only eat 2 per day
before puking violently and losing d4 HEA and d4 GRT.

6 Thinkyboost, X pills Manufactured by the Archive, these very popular and highly addictive pep 2 bio 10X gl
pills allow a biological sapient to recover d4 GRT per dose. You can use
dWIL doses per day safely (roll each day); if you have one dose more, you go
insane for 10 −dWIL days, minimum 1. Thinkyboost’s withdrawal symptoms
and duration are similar to those of gunch. Note, unlike other drugs, thinky-
boost can bring you past your ordinary max GRT.

158 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WIRES

 Pets and working animals
d8

Item Description Tech Price

1 Brainrat erotic These are very intelligent, very annoying rats with exposed brains that 4 bio to 450 gl
jesters, mated communicate with you telepathically and fuck constantly. They hate you but genehack
foursome rely on you for food and water and haven’t figured out a way to kill you yet. (quasisapient)
All of their scores are 1 including HEA and GRT except REA, which is d10 as
long as the four rats are within 500 M of one another. Each lost rat lowers
their REA die by one type. As long as the rats are with you and you are willing
to talk to them, you gain +1 to REA rolls relating to political/business
strategy and CHA rolls related to haggling/advertising.

2 “Crow” Crows are small albino pterodactyls that live on ships and are used as model 2 bio to 100 gl
organisms in the Archive. They’re good luck! But they bite. COM d4, MOV genehack
d10, REA 1, WIL 1, CHA 1, HEA 4, GRT 1, d6 damage (bite).

3 Disc jockey This is a circular robot that vacuums and plays music from millions of years 2 code 1000
ago. It cannot attack or do much else besides vacuum and kick out the jams, −10dCHA gl
but it has MOV d10 and HEA 4.

4 Journalist Each Late Tephnian journalist doll looks unique and has a different personal- 2 nano 12,000 gl
ity, but they share the same scores and powers: COM 1, MOV d4, REA d8,
WIL d6, CHA d10, HEA 6, GRT 10. A journalist documents what goes on
around it for the pleasure of its master. When asked, it can play back what
happened at any point since its bonding with its owner. It can also use its
playback functions to make a flashbang-like explosion of sound and light
that doesn’t deal damage but serves as a useful distraction in combat.
Impossible to resell without unbonding (difficulty 12 REA check to hack the
journalist’s mother-nanites). Keeping a journalist more than 1 km away from
a bonded owner for more than 48 hours sends it into torpor.

5 Saurian, trained These dark, sleek killing machines are the pride of old-school Terran 3 bio to 2500 gl
riding raptor knyghts. Bringing one into the cramped network of room-blobs that is genehack
Spindle is silly but not unheard of. COM d10, MOV d10, REA d4, WIL d8,
CHA d4, HEA 25, GRT 12, three attacks per round for d12/d12/d8 damage
(kick/kick/bite). Price includes transport and feed (expensive protein
mulch) for one year.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH06 ☉ MARKET TECH, ARCHAETECH, & NANOTECH 159
 6 Shipdeg Common eyeless albino futuredogs are beloved by children and wetans; 2 bio to 50 gl
they are also a model organism in the Archive. Many adult humans loathe genehack
and prefer to eat them. COM d4, MOV d6, REA 1, WIL d4, CHA d4, HEA 10,
GRT 1. Shipdegs can bite for d4 damage or intimidate using a d8 instead
of a d4.

7 Singing worms, These small pink-silver worms are basically living karaoke machines. No 3 bio to 350 gl
adult cohort use beyond entertainment. Very complicated to use (REA check per song genehack
loaded in).

8 Zog The humble and common riding reptile of Terra appears to be a nude chicken 2 bio to 250–750 gl
the size of a tall human. Zogs are fully tame, can healthfully survive on the genehack
cheapest of mealworm-mulches, and love running very fast for hours. On the
provinces warm enough for them, they are a gift. On Spindle, however, they
are the useless, loud, and smelly accessories of boors. COM d4, MOV d10
to d12+1 by breed, REA 1, WIL 1 or as rider, CHA d4, HEA 16, GRT 4, d3
damage (peck). Costs vary from slowest to fastest: 250 gl gets you a zog
with MOV d10; 500, MOV d12; 750, MOV d12+1.

Vehicles
d6

Item Description Tech Price

1 Automobile or You can try to drive on province-worlds, although roads tend to be shit. You can- 3 clank or 2500 or
hoversled not drive on Spindle. 2 force 5000 gl

2 Bicycle Velocipedes are beloved by everyone in the future, obviously. 2 clank 50 gl

3 Escape pod Allows you and 1 other sapient (or you and 2 small sapients, or you and 4 pets) 3 code to 3000 gl
to escape from a hulk toward some planetoid in the same system at a smart clip. operate/
The pod moves at roughly 4 AU per hour, once its ion sail is properly set and fully 3 force to
catching a solar gust. It includes a distress beacon and tachyon lantern, requires fix ion sail
a REA check to operate, and has atmo for 2 weeks of travel or waiting. if broken

4 Hoverbike Goes fast. Costs 20 gl per day of use to charge. 2 force 3000 gl

5 Jetpack You can fly! Roll MOV/drive checks to maneuver; rolling a 1 on a critical check 4 clank 1000 gl
results in an explosive failure (2d6 damage plus burn 2). Costs 100 gl per hour
of charge. Holds up to 4 charges at a time.

6 Motobike Costs 5 gl per day in fuel. 3 clank 1200 gl

160 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WIRES

 Ventureware d30

Item Description Tech Price

1 Accelerator belt Grants a +2 bonus to initiative. Breaks if you ever roll a 1 on an initiative check, 2 force 600 gl
but can be repaired.

2 Attractor Generates a universal ping. Comes with d6 +X charges (X must be greater than 2 force 35 +10X gl
beacon 0). You can burn one charge to summon all xenofauna and other aliens within
10 km to this point for 1 hour.

3 Blendypaint Active camo. Sprays on to make you effectively invisible to normal human, 3 nano 20 gl per
wetan, and other sensoria until you attack, move rapidly, or otherwise give up application
your location.

4 Blood sniffer + Pings whenever you move within 50 M of an aliquot of Blood (or other nanotech). 2 nano 6000+ gl
scrubber Also allows you to purge an aliquot of Blood without suffering any side effects.
Rarely available in the Canteen.

5 Breather/ Breathers allow you to breathe tainted atmo (such as on Faneslary); gasmasks 3 clank 15/25 gl
gasmask also protect your eyes from stinging vapors.

6 Cartography kit This set of standard algal scrolls, drawing tools, and optical measurement instru- 3 clank 10 gl
ments allows a voidminer to generate up to dREA high-fidelity analog maps.
Generating a map requires at least 1 hour of work and 1 successful REA check
per day of travel. A map of a previously unmapped region can generally be sold
back to the Co. for dREA gl.

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Early Ancient suits only lasted 8 hours in the void, but
later models pushed these boundaries. The Directorate has
poured resources into suit creation, but the Archivists

7 Displacer This circlet makes it appear that you are standing d4+1 M away from where you 4 force 7000 gl
really are. Each encounter, the first time someone targets you, they suffer a −6 to
hit. Displacers cost 4 GRT per encounter to charge. They appear as bright towers
can’t guarantee their products beyond 12 hours—yet.

of light to extradimensional beings.

8 Dowser This strange biosensor—it looks like a horseshoe crab but is worn like a glove— 2 bio and 30 gl
gives you a +4 bonus to checks related to finding food and water on any planet, 1 bug
whether you’re rolling REA, WIL, or luck (e.g., rolling a d6 and hoping for a 6)..

9 Drone, A drone is any small toy or tool that flies according to programmed instructions, 3 code 50X gl
Spinmade whether those are sent in advance or in real time. Drones cobbled together by
the Archive can carry a single comm or grenade but not much more. They can fly
for X rounds before they flop to the ground (or keep floating in the last direction
they were sent in, in zero-gee). Drones have 2 HEA.

10 Drygill or Drygills allow marine sapients to breathe in dry atmos; wetgills allow dryair sapes 3 clank 30 or 45 gl
wetgill/ to breathe beneath the waves. A suit with a built-in gill protects the entire body (gill/suit)
drysuit or from drying out or wrinkling up.
wetsuit

11 Environment A suit allows for 12 hours of vacuum travel. Standard envirosuits are punctured 5 clank and 40 gl
suit (enviro- whenever you take damage and must be patched (see “Screams”). Simple repair 2 bio
suit), standard kits come with the suit. Successful repairs take 1 round and require a normal
(Archival) (6) REA check. Walkies and comms must be purchased separately but can be
installed within suits.

12 Envirosuit, High Allows for 24 hours of vacuum travel. High Tephnian envirosuits heal themselves 5 clank and 75 gl
Tephnian to a degree but must be repaired whenever you suffer a cumulative 10 HEA of 2 code
damage in the void. Repairs take 1 round and require an easy (5) REA check.

13 Envirosuit, Regardless of civilizational origin—Late Tephnian, Snakeman, mi-go, gulm, e.g.— 5 clank, 100 gl
À la Mission Impossible.

ultra-lux this class of suit allows for 36 hours of vacuum travel in comfort. Ultra-lux suits 3 code, and
heal themselves better, only needing to be repaired after every 20 HEA points of either
damage. 2 nano or
2 bug

14 Eyesblinder, These advanced multisensory flashbangs cause all targets within a 10-M radius 1 force 30X gl
X units to suffer −3 to all checks for the next 3 rounds.

15 Faceshape One application of faceshape mimics any face perfectly for up to 48 hours. 3 nano 250 gl
Technically illegal, but used by some Directorate spies and so still manufactured
in the Archive.

16 Foldcube This appears to be a 2-cm-square cube of lustrous metal. Upon smashing in the 2 Escher- 1717 gl
cube—which gives way to a jelly-like interior of darker metallic “soup”—the user esque
safely disappears “up” “into” the Escheresque. In their place in threespace,
they leave behind an Escheresque event. Foldcubes are one-way, affect single
sapients, and do not negate Escheresque nausea. Foldcubes are also technically
illegal, but that has not stopped whoever is selling them…

17 Gray censer This smoker/digital scale/robotic surgery assistant is designed to prepare scien- 3 code 90 gl
tific samples found in the void. Using it on a sample (or an amputated limb, e.g.)
effectively preserves it for up to 1 year without need for a freezer. Using a gray
censer doubles the results of all ACQ payments that depend on REA checks (see
“Screams”).
If you’re already buying a lifepod,

18 Hunter lance- These dark yellow, chrome-rimmed contact lenses allow informatic sapients 4 code 17 gl
lenses to temporarily speed up their consciousnesses—for a price. Activating the
buy some extra rebreathers!

lance-lenses is free; once active, they provide triple advantage on all checks for
one round. (Roll each check 3 times, taking the best result.) After this round, all
checks suffer disadvantage for the next 3 rounds as quantum anemia sets in.
Lance-lenses must be disposed of after use.

19 Lifepod A lifepod is not a powered vessel like an escape pod. It is, however, an insulated 5 clank, 2000+ gl
structure capable of keeping up to 6 human- or wetan-sized sapients alive in the 3 code,
void or a similarly harsh environment for up to 2 years. Price depends on condi- and 2 bio
tion. Stocked with powdered foods, one atmo/water generator, and a miniature
solar array for powering the generator and some running lights.

20 Lifetent A lifetent is light enough to carry, folded up. It can keep 1 human- or wetan-sized 4 clank 50 gl
sapient alive in the void for up to 48 hours.

162 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WIRES

 21 Manacle snot, X This colorless webbing of epoxy is painted on the forelimbs of sapients deemed 3 bio 49X gl
applications criminals by Spindle’s Eaters of the Dead (the gendarmes). Applying manacle
snot cannot generally be done in combat, because it requires 6 rounds to dry.
Once applied, it restrains motion until dissolved using a special solvent; break-
ing free of manacle snot requires making a 15+ COM check. X applications of
manacle snot ship with 2X applications of solvent.

22 Oracular This waxy purple plant grows in wrist-radius torcs that are often worn as 2 bio 13X gl
chatter-ivy, X decorations by voidminers. When a wearer is targeted by a Weird effect (the hell
cuttings science), if they can roll to resist, they gain a +2 on the roll. If they would not
normally get to roll, they can now make a 9+ WIL/resist other check. Either way,
after they are targeted, the ivy dies. Many chatter-ivy cuttings can be worn at
once; only one will be consumed per Weird effect.

23 Patch-pro tape, Using one quik-strip of this gummy gray myco-leather confers advantage on one 3 bio 6X gl
X quik-strips REA check to patch a compromised envirosuit (yours or someone else’s).

24 Rebreather A 1-M square box for refreshing a large room. Provides 24 hours of air 3 clank 10 gl
machine oxygenation and CO2 scrubbing.

25 Ringcloak When wrapped around you, this sheet of tiny cerabend rings—each of which 3 force 900 gl
floats next to its kin without touching them—completely muffles the sounds you
make, giving you a +4 bonus to sneak checks.

26 Sniffer A sniffer is a small sea slug worn as a brooch that, once tuned into your biology, 2 bio 25 gl
detects environmental threats such as radiation, poison, hypoxia, etc. In
game terms it adds +4 to WIL checks to perceive such threats. It must be fed
high-quality protein and lipids once per month, which costs 10 gl.

27 Structure tools Toolboxes are heavy, but they are indispensable when building homes in the 5 clank or 48 or 700 gl
starry beyond. Many different tools are used to build and demolish structures 3 force
on-Spin and on the provinces. A cheap set will include hand tools designed for
shaping notwood (myco-timber) and capable of drilling through concrete. A
fancy set will include the ability to print bend (plastic) and drill through the hull
of an Ancient, High Tephnian, or faalaan hulk.

28 Unface This smart-paste completely disguises you as someone else—but no one in 4 bio 80 gl
particular—for up to 48 hours.

29 Venturer’s pack This tactical rucksack contains rations, a water flask, glowsticks (algae-based), 2 clank 5 gl
torches (oil-based), 60 M of hemp rope, a first aid kit, and a towel—enough of
each for one venture lasting up to 24 hours.

30 Writing supplies The standard witness/factor kit includes a large yellow sketchpad of algal 2 clank 6 gl
paper (for the witness), a series of small black graphing paper notebooks (for
the factor), and 48 fine black pens (only d30 of which will survive tacking out).

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On-Spin, common workers (minions, hirelings, to hire, via bribes to the Senior Archivists, that they are
mercenaries) might include porters, stevedores, not included in the table below. Blooders, snakeheads,
minders, friers, algae farmers, caulkers, wireturners, and Solarian visitors cannot be hired.
accountants, or milliners. Hiring classed contrac- To calculate the cost of hiring any other classed
tors costs considerably more per day than non-classed contractor of any given level X, consult the table. In
civilians. lieu of creating full characters with various powers,
Note, tremulants and functioning aux on Spindle are classed hirelings can instead have simplified game
(supposedly) controlled by the Archive and cost so much effects as noted in their descriptions.

Workers, classed d10

Worker Description Fee

1 Banshee, X times per venture, the banshee can automatically succeed at a tech-related check 100X gl/day
Co. hacker without rolling. (GM’s discretion: lower-level banshees may simply have zero hope of,
say, activating the world-destroying Strongly Interacting Cubelike Escheresque Object
of Maankeer or reprogramming a 1-km tall Tephnian Ur-Battle™ hotsuit [mecha] without
rolling.)

2 Chandler, At the end of the venture, choose: you gain (100+10X)% gl the value of all of your loot 75X gl/day
Co.-licensed when reselling it to the Co., or you gain X random archaetech items.
merchant

3 Factor, The factor will report whatever happens to the Co. unless bribed with an additional 100X 120X gl/day
Co. overseer gl at the end of the venture. As long as the factor is with you, once per venture she can
call in help from the Co. using her tachyon lantern in the form of Xd4 skilled leerling valets
(soldiers in training: all of their scores are d8s; they have 16 HEA and GRT; they wield
swords that inflict d8 damage and wear livery that affords DR 1) or X able-rate stillrijders
(COM d12, MOV d10, HEA 22, GRT 14; they carry guns that inflict 2d8 damage and wear
incomplete exosuits for DR 4). These additional minions don’t cost you anything. They
arrive at the nearest stiffworks to you in 20 −X rounds and fight or otherwise assist you
for as long as you need, up to X hours. Then then return to Spindle. They are loyal to
the factor and not you, and they won’t do anything sketchy unless they are bribed 100 gl
each. N.B.: if there is no stiffworks near you, then you cannot call in help from Spindle.

4 Jackal, Once per day, roll a d6: if you roll a 1, the jackal steals d100 gl from a random PC. This 30X gl/day plus
a professional cannot be prevented. The jackal will fight for you within reason as long as they believe 10% of any loot
criminal there is a pay-off. acquired

5 Leech, The leech will not fight for you unless their life depends on it, but they will accompany 40X gl/day
Co.-licensed you into obviously dangerous situations in order to do their job and heal you. X times
doctor per venture, during moments of calm, the leech can tell an inspiring story, and anyone
listening regenerates Xd4 GRT.

6 Mouse, a plucky Will work for “free,” but then steal Xd20 gl from one random PC every day. This cannot None
stowaway be prevented. The mouse will not fight for you unless their life depends on it.

7 Pir, Co. scholar The pir will not fight for you unless their life depends on it. X times per venture, you can 40X gl/day
inform the GM that the pir knows an immediately useful clue.

8 Razi, Co. ranger X times per venture, the razi can find and tame a random non-sapient organism. It will 60X gl/day
follow you around as a pet and even defend you, within reason.

9 Stillrijder, The stillrijder will do whatever it takes to complete the mission. 75X gl/day
Co. marine

10 Witness, Co. The witness will not fight for you unless the odds are heavily in your favor. X times per 50X gl/day
anthropologist venture, you can inform the GM that the witness is calming down a situation with hostile
or linguist aliens, provincials, or other sapients. This works for at least one round. If the hostility
has an obvious source (e.g., you are still attacking the other sapients), then it returns
the next round. If the situation is not actually worthy of hostility (e.g., there has been
a misunderstanding), the beef is more or less squashed.

164 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WIRES

 Workers, nonclassed d10

Worker Description Tech Price

1 Android The few working Tephnian androids 3 nano 5,000 gl

bodyguard on Spindle tend to serve the for
Directorate, but an enterprising indefinite
young fleeter could theoreti- loyalty
cally hack into one and change its
command settings… Typical stats:
COM d10, MOV d10, REA d8, WIL
d8, CHA d4, HEA 18, GRT 9, DR 5
(cerasteel body). Attacks for d6
damage if unarmed but typically
wields a phaser for d20 damage.
Speaks Spin (poorly) and Late
Tephnian. Loyal and ruthless.

2 Minion, highly Human or wetan minions with 5 bio to 35+ gl

skilled experience performing various genehack— per day
technical jobs for the Co. can be biological
hired for 35+ gl per day, depend- sapient
ing on what you’re asking them to
do. All of their scores are d8s; they
have HEA 8 and GRT 12.

3 Minion, ordinary Ordinary human or wetan minions 5 bio to 20+ gl

can be hired for 20+ gl per day, genehack— per day
depending on what you’re asking biological
them to do. All of their scores are sapient
d6s; they have HEA 8 and GRT 8.

4 Replicant A replicant can be cultured only by 5 bio 10,000 gl

bodyguard a very talented gengineer with a for
tricked-out lab. Typical stats: COM indefinite
d12, MOV d10, REA d10, WIL d6, loyalty
CHA d10, HEA 21, GRT 15, DR 3
(bendmesh body armor). Attacks
for d8 damage if unarmed but
typically wields a huge sword or
magnum for d12 damage. Speaks
Spin or whatever you program it to
speak. Disloyal and cunning.

5 Replignome Occasionally, fleeters run into 5 bio 3,000 gl

bodyguard a vat-grown Snakeman gnome- for
servant or create one by pressing indefinite
buttons on a hulk. These beings loyalty
are often annoying. Typical stats:
COM d6, MOV d8, REA d8, WIL d4,
CHA d4, HEA 6, GRT 9, DR 1 (putty-
like body). Bites for d4 damage
if unarmed but if possible wields a
large wrench for 2d6 −1 damage.
Speaks Spin and Janoosheen
(a Snakeman language). Chaotic.

6 Robobutler The classic pre-Tephnian robobut- 3 code 700X gl

ler has COM d4, MOV d8, REA d8, for
WIL d(2X), CHA d10, HEA 4X, GRT indefinite
2X, DR 4 (metal body). Attacks for loyalty
2 damage with its tiny fists. Speaks
Spin and most common provincial
languages. Makes excellent toasts.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH06 ☉ MARKET TECH, ARCHAETECH, & NANOTECH 165
 Random gear
Random melee weapons d20

Weapon Damage Notes Tech Price

The following tables are meant to help the GM
with the creation of NPCs (or low-power PCs).

1 Fists d2 1 bio No value

2 Butter knife d2 1 clank 0.5 gl

3 Large IKEA lamp, used as d3 2 clank No value

a flail

4 Hunting knife, rusting to bits d4 Blade snaps off at the handle on a roll of 1 to attack. 1 clank No value

5 Teeth, sharpened d4 Anyone visibly carrying or wielding this suffers a −1 penalty 1 bio No value
to CHA/seduce checks.

6 Wooden katana, harboring a d4 You have a 1 in 2 chance of infecting every non-informatic 1 clank No value
horrible flesh-melting fungus opponent hit by your sword with an ultra-horrible disease: and
they will die within d6 rounds. You are immune. Foul smell. 1 bio

7 Unwieldy castiron support d4 From an old bridge. 1 clank 0.5 gl

8 Upholstery hammer d4 1 clank 3 gl

9 Large chef’s knife d4 1 clank 4 gl

10 Golf club d4 2 clank 10 gl

11 Human femur, weaponized, d4+1 1 bio No value

with nails sticking out of it

12 Hatchet, covered in dried d4+1 Glows in the dark. Worthless until scrubbed (although it 1 clank No value
alien blood stops glowing after). or 4 gl
(clean)

13 Devourer’s headgear d4+2 You can make two attacks per round with your 1 nano 1000 gl
techno-enhanced mouth-face. You suffer a −1 penalty
to CHA checks while wearing the headgear (due to
disgusting mouth-head).

14 Thin steel rod d6 Makes an acceptable mini-spear when one end is 1 clank 0.5 gl
sharpened.

15 Teeth, someone else’s d6+2 You suffer a −1 penalty to CHA checks due to your rotting 1 bio No value
superteeth. These weaponized dentures have a 1 in 4
chance of infecting every non-informatic opponent bit by
them with a horrible disease: they will die within d6 days
unless they receive advanced biomedical or Weird aid.
Foul smell.

16 Ornate spear d8 Once owned by a legendary hero. Comes with bragging 2 clank 24 gl
rights. (You choose whether or not you’re lying about the
spear’s provenance.)

17 Golden machete d8+1 The blade has been serrated to look more badass. (Not real 2 clank 4d6 gl
gold.)

18 Katana d12 3 clank 80 gl

19 Long Gothic pole-axe 3d4 A halberd made for a ren faire. 3 clank 75 gl

20 Your choice of melee Varies Choose from this list or the market-tech melee weapons list, Varies Varies
weapon but the max resale value is 100 gl.

166 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WIRES

 Random missile weapons d20

Item Damage Range Notes Tech Price

1 Insects, loyal 1 3M 1 bio No value

2 Rock, hurled 1 10 M 1 clank No value

3 Lawn darts AKA jarts 1 5M Set of d4+1 darts. 1 clank 2 gl for

the set

4 Detachable throwable hand d2 3M Attacker takes 1 damage. 2 nano No value

5 Detachable throwable head d4 3M Affixes somewhere on your shoulders. The 3 nano No value
attacker takes 1 damage when they attack.
They also suffer a −1 penalty to CHA (due
to the weird neck seam). Worthless except
by ardentest negotiation.

6 Batarang d4 5M If you miss with any roll higher than a 1, the 1 clank 5 gl
batarang returns to your hand. Worth much
more to the right Ancient sleeper.

7 Slingshot d4 25 M With d12 stones. 1 clank 1 gl

8 Broken mi-go nerve sling d6 −1 30 M Only of interest to an Archivist. 2 bug 50 gl

(min. 1)

9 Shortbow d6 150 M With 2d12 arrows. 2 clank 8 gl

10 Maser d6+1 100 M Stuck on the “tase” setting instead of “kill.” 2 force 100 gl
Misfires on a 1.

11 Longbow d8 200 M With 2d12 arrows. 2 clank 24 gl

12 Light crossbow d8 100 M With 2d12 bolts. 2 clank 45 gl

13 Gun that shoots nails Varies 8M Not a nailgun. Area-of-effect weapon, 2 clank 100 gl
cone-shaped: the damage deteriorates
every 2 M: from 3d4 −3 damage (within
2 M), to 2d4 −2 (2–4 M), to d4 −1 (4–6 M),
and finally to 1 (6–8 M).

14 Irradiated frogs stuffed d8 −1 50 M Launched from an ad hoc potato gun. 2 clank No value
with nails (min. 1) Misfires on a 1. No value except by ardent and
negotiation. 1 bio

15 The only Belton flintlock d8 10 M An antique repeating pistol, with ammuni- 3 clank 25 gl
ever made tion for 2d12 shots. You can attack d6 times
per round (the design was never perfected).
Misfires on a 1: on a misfire, the weapon
breaks, and the attacker takes d6 damage.
Whenever you have attacked 4 times, you
are out of bullets and must spend one round
reloading.

16 Jezail 2d12 200 M A 0.75-caliber, long-barreled rifle. After you 3 clank 90 gl

have attacked once, you must spend one
round reloading. Two-handed. Doubles as
a club.

17 Nanowhip 2d6 3M On a 1 or 2, overloads and critically fails. 2 nano 100 gl

18 Musket 2d10 80 M A 0.5–0.9-caliber, smoothbore gun. After 3 clank 50 gl

you have attacked once, you must spend
one round reloading. Two-handed. Doubles
as a club.

19 Neutralino beam emitter 2d20 300 M Misfires on a 1, 2, or 3. Looks like a roiling 2 bug 1000 gl
purple–black ball of tentacles. Will adhere
to your wrist or shoulder (or wherever) when
you think at it to do so.

20 Your choice of missile Varies Varies Choose from this list or the market-tech Varies Varies
weapon missile weapons list, but the max resale
value is 100 gl.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH06 ☉ MARKET TECH, ARCHAETECH, & NANOTECH 167
 Random armor
d20

Armor DR Notes Tech Price

1 None 0 NA No value

2 Cool fashion stylez 0 The wearer gains a +1 bonus to CHA/seduce checks. 1 clank 100 gl

3 Icehockey pads and jersey 1 These fall apart after absorbing 10 blows. The smell foul; 1 clank No value
the wearer suffers a −1 penalty to CHA/seduce checks.

4 Tupperware lids stitched 1 Unpleasant smell. 2 clank 2 gl

together

5 Metal garbage can-lid 1 2 clank 4 gl

shield

6 Pantherskin, untreated 1 1 bio 5 gl

7 Thick reptilian hide, head 1 If worn as a cape, the wearer gains a +1 bonus to 1 bio 1 gl
still on CHA/intimidate checks.

8 Gang jacket 1 The wearer gains a +1 bonus to CHA/intimidate checks. 1 clank 25 +dCHA
When you encounter space pyrates, hoverbike gangs, or gl
the like, roll a d4: on a 4, they recognize your jacket’s
symbols and are friendly to you; 2–3, they don’t recognize
the jacket; 1, they are “your gang’s” rivals and attack
immediately.

9 Saurian-hide armor, proper 1 Comfortable. 1 clank 75 gl

Terran

10 Traditional gmothi 1 This can be stretched up to fit a human, but not a wetan. 1 bio d100 gl
dino-hide unitard

11 Flak jacket 1 or 5 DR 1 against non-bullet-based attacks; DR 5 against 2 clank 100 gl

bullet-based attacks. Stops working after absorbing 10
shots.

12 Ridiculously dense 2 Made from the body of a psychotrophic alien called a 1 bio No value
jelly-armor metrad.

13 Provincial livery, fancy 2 Artisanally bedazzled with extra metal bits. 2 clank 10dCHA gl

14 Bone armor 2 The wearer suffers a −1 penalty to MOV checks. 2 clank d100 gl

15 Living armor 2 Beetles. So many beetles. 2 bio 60 gl

16 Moldmolt armor 3 I.e., a retrofitted mi-go body condom. It is alive, and it 3 bio No value
smells terrible to non-mi-go. The wearer suffers a −1
penalty to CHA/seduce checks. The armor dissolves after
d3 days of contact with warm (non-freezing) skin.

17 Nanofluid subdermal buffer 3 The wearer gains a +1 bonus to MOV/dodge checks. This 2 nano 200 gl
costs 4 GRT per day to use. (You can just set this cost
aside—i.e., lower your max GRT by 4—as long as you’ve
drunk the nanofluid.) If you stop paying the GRT cost, you
vomit up the buffer, although it can be drunk again later.

18 The Dark Tentacles 4 The wearer suffers a −1 penalty to WIL and permanently 2 bug 1000 gl
loses 2 HEA. But in addition to their other attacks, they (if it can
may make two attacks per round with the tentacles for be sold)
d4 damage. Impossible to safely remove once affixed to
a host.

19 Cerasteel, mostly complete 5 These are random parts. 5 clank 400 gl

suit

20 Your choice of armor Varies Choose from this list or the first 10 items on the market- Varies Varies
tech armor list, but the maximum resale value is 100 gl.

168 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WIRES

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH06 ☉ MARKET TECH, ARCHAETECH, & NANOTECH 169
 ARCHAETECH

There’s truth even in tainted knowledge, if one reads carefully.

—N. K. Jemisin, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, 2010.

Oddments
ridiculous oddment—an oddment upon which he had
insisted—was the best choice, story-wise.
The point is that oddments can have some effect
in the game, but these effects should be either low-
powered, largely narrative in nature, or high-powered

Random, hyper-specific, but unique and one-time. An oddment’s utility should

ideally surprise both the PCs and the GM, regardless

narrative hooks of who invents the item.

Most archaetech items are useless scraps, mysterious

gewgaws, or and incomplete pieces called oddments or
Burning oddments
baubles. An oddment serves a specific role in character
creation: it allows a PC to set off with a cool piece of old Another way to think of oddments is as one-off
tech, a one-of-a-kind pet, or a major clue for down the MacGuffin get-out-of-jail-free cards. Any time a PC is in
road without throwing off the game’s balance of power. a dangerous situation and rolls a 1, get shot up, opens
Since all elements of the plot may be useful, in one way the wrong door, etc., they can burn an oddment: doing
or another, it’s not exactly true that oddments are “not- so permanently destroys the item but reverses their
useful” archaetech. Rather, they are hyper-specifically immediate ill fortune. The player should describe this
useful archaetech. Perhaps they only work once, reversal, placing the burned item at the center of the
mechanically, but more likely, they work narratively. narrative twist.
A PC should choose an oddment that is both weird
enough to be both memorable—for her own sake as well
as the GM’s—and a source of narrative dynamism all on Random oddments, potentially helpful d30
its own. Need an Ancient energy-cell adapter to listen
to your Chance the Rapper limited-release cassette?
Great, that’s a whole session. Want to actually make your 1 Plastic, 1.75-L bottle of aged wetan dragonfly-
liqueur. To humans, it tastes like cinnamon
broken Anchian transport suit function as designed? schnapps, but slightly rancid. Gets a wetan drunk
You’ll need to hire a grindeesaler (ex-Archivist) to even in a single shot.
figure out the parts list. 2 Ancient smartphone that explodes in your hand
Of course, the best oddments will not distract from after 5 uses (d6 damage). Adds +1 to code-related
whatever else is going on, plot-wise, but add to it: in checks when used. If not used for checks, works
indefinitely. Comes with a bunch of puzzle games
one of the first Stillfleet playtests, that make no sense to you at first.
According to Archival data,
the party’s banshee pulled out
oddments have been sacri- 3 A 3d4-strong herd of healthy spidergoats.
his oddment—an Ancient Terran
ficed to complete more useful, 4 A phostwood bonsai tree that glows serenely in
pen that, when turned upside
mostly-repaired archaetech the dark. Must be watered once per week or die.
down, revealed a cartoon of a nude
items, or to initiate one-off 5 Mask made from the face of a dreaded jaa’aan
dancer—and distracted a guard
contact with AI concierges. devourer: +1 to intimidate checks.
at a critical moment, allowing
his team to achieve their goal. He could have probably
distracted the guard some other way, but the use of the

170 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WIRES

 6 White plastic binder containing hundreds of pages 15 One vat gnome of random chromatotype, sliced into
of yellowed paper upon which have been printed thin vertical sections and preserved between plates
indecipherable alphanumeric codes of some sort. of glass à la a work of art by Damien Hirst. The com-
(This is an Ancient nuclear football… but even if plicated nature of the plates’ framework leads you
you figure that out, you have no idea where the to believe that they can be recombined and the poor
corresponding nuke is, nor what condition it’s in.) fellow brought back to quasi-life, somehow.

7 Bear-sized purple riding lizard, trained by void 16 Ancient woodchipper in pristine condition. Only
elves: COM d8, MOV d10, REA 1, WIL d6, CHA d2, needs petrol to start.
HEA 17, GRT 4, DR 2 (leathery hide). Bite inflicts
either d6 +your dMOV damage (if you’re riding it) or 17 The Anxiety of Indigo: this oversized amulet looks
2d6 damage (if you’re not riding it); stomp inflicts 1 like a broken mirror trying to have sex with a shad-
damage and knocks foes within 5 M to the ground ow. It is actually a generic access dongle crafted by
(MOV check to resist); can attack with either stomp ylythnari intelligence-eaters (“brain-spoilers,” in the
or bite every round. Loyal if fed a ridiculous amount Canteen), that grants a +1 to code rolls on the plan-
of food daily (d4 humans’ worth). Smells foul. Mean ets Gnarcosa/Tsune, Kavaraat, and Tyharin. Using
as hell, even if loyal. the access dongle in the Escheresque automatically
alerts a cadre of vile ylythnari voidscanners, but you
8 Darasannais chirurgeon’s bag of tools, including don’t know that.
a fine scalpel (d4 damage) and a sack of candied
“health-meats” that taste amazingly good to am- 18 Unhelpful celerioid demipet: this headless, six-
phibians and reptilians (but only to amphibians and limbed Qrey photobiont loves you and will follow you
reptiles). wherever you go, happily smashing its non-head into
your knees and make slurping sounds as it drags
9 Ancient robobutler named McCONAUGH that has itself in circles while you shake your head at it. Un-
gone insane: it believes it is a famous actor from the fortunately, it doesn’t do much else besides this. It is
distant past. It speaks in a Southern drawl and tries basically a wolf made of celery, and it is too dumb to
to act “cool” while carrying out its duties. COM d4, learn tricks or help in combat. But—in a bizarre way—
MOV d6, REA d6, WIL d6, CHA d6, HEA 10, GRT 12, it is cute. COM d2, MOV d4, REA 1, WIL d4, CHA d6,
DR 0. The 1-M tall butler has no powers and knows HEA 6, GRT 6, DR −1 (it takes +1 damage from every
nothing about its own construction. It will carry attack), no powers.
things, tell jokes, and cook for you as best it can as
long as you don’t contradict its delusions of gran- 19 Geelish hunter–killer quoll: while the rapaciously
deur. It has affixed robo-stubble to its cheeks using warlike robotic pyrates called the Geels are not
the last of the juice in its laser-wrench and some known to keep pets, this small black automaton is
ferromagnetic liquid it stole from what would have undeniably not a danger to humanoid sapients and
otherwise been a useful archaetech device nearby. seems to serve no purpose other than entertain-
ment. Although it is harmless to you, the hunter–
10 The Sustaining Fluid: you gain +d8 HEA permanent- killer quoll is, in keeping with its creators’ will, a very
ly, but you faintly reek of urine all of the time. efficient dispatcher of roaches, flies, mice, and all
11 The Rukh’s Resolving Lamentation: an unbreak- other pests smaller than rats. COM d4, MOV d20,
able metal sphere, 3-cm in diameter, that hums in REA 1, WIL 1, CHA 1, HEA 4, GRT 4, DR 0, can bite
a distinctly human timbre when struck. Its origin for 1 damage but will not do so unless cornered and
and function are unknown but almost certainly frightened, no powers.
spectacular. 20 Urn full of bright-blue anti-gravity ashes. You think
12 Cryptocerid “tarot deck” of pheromones: this set of that these can be reconstituted into a living being
thirty matching, tear-shaped onyx vials was some of some kind—but of what disposition? Relieved?
sort of game, religious relic, sexual apparatus, or Annoyed? Infuriated?
combination of these to the earth’s legendary, long- 21 The Eye of the Wasp: a lozenge the size of a human
extinct god-bugs. Now, it’s just a set of really foul- eye, made up of many tiny and quite dull orange-
smelling liquids that, if spritzed in an underground brown gems linked by an indestructible black
environment on Terra, will immediately attract a monofilament. The Eye is a hologram projector that
large number of blind albino rock-eating megapedes. turns on and off at random and displays scenes
13 Ochre Anchian gamma-ray transportation suit— of advanced alien life that are totally unrelated to
broken but still a wonder to behold: tall, narrow whatever’s happening at present. The scenes are
half-wings of filigree amethyst and celadon unwrap silent, so as long as you carry the Eye in a light-proof
daintily from its crab-like hauberk, from which vessel, it does not affect your ability to sneak. Per-
dangle electric-mint energy cells and jet-black alarm haps one day you will meet its creators…
transponders. It even fits you! To be honest, though, 22 Mated pair of female giant swordbearded dancing
you have no idea what an ochre Anchian gamma-ray Uricone mantises: these demi-sapient, .5-M tall,
transportation suit is supposed to look like (this one whitish-green insects with elongated but harmless
must be missing critical parts), nor what it’s meant mandibles enjoy very loud repetitive music, can me-
to do, nor how to fix one… tabolize petrol, and generally spend their time star-
14 Late Tephnian vanity extractor: developed by the ing at you creepily. They cannot be trained per se,
penultimate Imperial Pogonologist (beard whisper- but they will remain in their cage and not attack you
er) before the Chasming of Pala brutally ended the as long as you feed them and keep them together.
Wars of Succession, 4500 years ago, this 15-cm long COM d6, MOV d10, REA d4, WIL 1, CHA 1, HEA 6,
redsteel rod, when waved over a willing human sub- GRT 2, DR 0, can slash for d3 damage but will not do
ject’s face, erases their desire to be desired by other so unless cornered and frightened, no powers.
humans for 3d3 days. It is recharged by sunlight
and contact with the nitrogen in Terran/Spin-quality
atmo, so it can effectively work forever.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH06 ☉ MARKET TECH, ARCHAETECH, & NANOTECH 171
 23 Genie lamp full of baby solar whales (highly adapt-
able, pellucid blue floating jellyfish) that grow to
immense size when set free.

24 Forty seven red clay automaton–warriors the size of

crickets that follow your every command but cannot
harm any sapient.

25 Last known distress signal from the warship Clas-

sem Imperatoria Tephnii RAPASETU [Massbreaker],
captured on a pinky-nail-sized black recording cube
that when squeezed will play and replay their impas-
sioned pleas for help, over and over again…

26 The Filoplumes of a Final Owl: this gray plastic

pouch contains a fine white powder supposedly
derived by crushing up the larger lumbar-scales of
the most dangerous species of pteranodon on Terra,
locally known as Final Owls (always capitalized).
When inhaled, the powder causes you to cough up
a viscous orange fluid until your vision blurs and
you can no longer stand. Then you experience an
indescribable ecstatic rush that lasts d6 hours.
Your pouch contains 3d3 hits of Owl.

27 Large net made of tough fungal fibers that are im-

mune to lasers, masers, and similar force weapons
but can be quickly hacked apart by metal/claws/
teeth.

28 Rhino-like horn filled with snakkurwort butter and

stoppered with blue wax. The butter, painstakingly
crafted by the lawless Hreen sea-raiders of Darasan,
tastes like pickled fish and onions and makes
everything more delicious. You are probably the
only person on whatever planet, station, or ship you
are currently visiting that has ever tasted the joys
of snakkurwort. (N.B., supposedly snakkurwort is a
moral blight of a substance, made from the breast-
milk of enslaved and tortured Theenish serfs, and
you should space your horn immediately. But since
no one else with you knows what the hell it is…)

29 Shell of a Pazūzūni alamandite waste-snail: this dry

but otherwise pristine, shield-sized red whorl of cal-
cite can be used—funnily enough—as a shield, offer-
ing DR 1 but cracking apart after absorbing 10 points
of damage. If you travel to the baleful ex-province-
world of Pazūzūn, however, you can theoretically use
the shell to lure a Pazūzūni alamandite waste-snail
out of the wastes, let it inhabit and re-oil the shell,
and serve you as a very slow, very dangerous pet.
Waste-snails have the following scores: COM 1, MOV
1, REA 1, WIL 1, CHA 1, HEA 26, GRT 1, DR 6, cannot
damage anyone other than grass, no powers. The
snail’s slime is a deadly poison that kills instantly,
offering no check to resist, when introduced into a
human bloodstream. If you are a child or salt elf, you
can ride the snail like a very slow pony.

30 Single elderly rain crow: using his intra-perineal

pressure-sensitive coriolis gland, this gray pterodac-
tyl can accurately predict storms, when you are in a
coastal region of Terra. Alas, he cannot communi-
cate with you other than by loosing an unbearably
irritating sequence of squawks or by shitting on the
floor (unless you contact him using Weird powers).
He is, however, loyal unto death. COM d6−1 (age),
MOV d6−1 (age), REA d2 (age), WIL d4+1 (age),
CHA d2 (age), HEA 10, GRT 6, DR 0, can stab with
his beak for 1 damage but will not do so unless
cornered and frightened, no powers other than flight
and accurate weather forecasting.

172 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WIRES

 Random oddments, largely mysterious d30

1 Kettle of mysterious ooze

2 Jar of granmère’s hooch

3 Egg of a giant hunting moa

4 Fyrepuma cub, runt (which can theoretically be

reared and trained…)

5 Magnifying glass for an alien species

6 Horn of a tarraskon howler (priceless, radioactive)

7 36-pack, lambskin condoms and argan oil lube

8 4 large scented candles (“Anchspice” flavor)

9 Paladyn’s hymnbook, full of lewd drawings and

limericks

10 Keys to a palace’s basement…

11 3d4 books of an old Archivist and notorious lech;

at least one of them contains an important secret

12 Feathers of an imperial pteranodon, enough for a

suit of armor or a dope headdress

13 Café menu that is actually a copy of top-secret

battle plans

14 Axe head made of indestructible meteoric

hypernickel

15 Jug of rancid “centaur milk,” causes vivid and

spiritually orienting hallucinations

16 “The Pearl of Dusk”—a milky crystalline orb that

strongly attracts moths and wetans

17 Marmalade of jabjabyr fruit and munkey

tallow—delicious

18 Miniature guitar—sounds great, very hard to play

19 Depleted enerjawn coils (capable of powering a

starship) that look like metal toast (that is, like junk)

20 Televator control cards for a Late Tephnian military

installation

21 Cheap comm full of mystery novels and true-crime

podcasts

22 Seal of the local reeve or local star chanteuse (d2)

23 Owl mask of the local cult leader

24 Petrified hand of Yrthan the Tutor, an alien sage

25 Swordcane of Lletho, the famously cranky duelist

26 Stalwart shield of Tmab the Drunk, whom you

haven’t heard of

27 Deck of alien playing cards

28 Case full of 2d6 lobotomized brainrats

29 “Wellness bracers”—give the wearer pleasant

auto-massages

30 Strong rope made of the mane-hair of the last taigal

umbravore of Ylanx

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH06 ☉ MARKET TECH, ARCHAETECH, & NANOTECH 173
Archaetech
weapons
Archaetech melee weapons d10

1 Beam sword, gravity induction plasma—à la the

hallowed “bright saber”—High Tephnian (4 force) –
4d4 damage. Explosive critical: whenever you roll a
4 for damage, roll another d4; this can theoretically
go on forever. 600 gl.

2 Bloodsteel melee weapon, any, Late Tephnian

(2 nano) – 2d12 +dCHA (wielder’s dCHA). Saps d4
GRT per hit. 800 gl.

3 Chainsword, High Tephnian (5 clank) – d12 +d10.

Breaks when you roll a 1 to hit but can be repaired.
Normally two-handed. If you fight with one of these
one-handed, you suffer a −1 to hit. 425 gl.

4 Gravity mace, High Tephnian (3 force) – d10 +dCOM

(wielder’s dCOM). Normally two-handed. If you fight
with one of these one-handed, you suffer a −1 to hit.
450 gl.

5 High-frequency sword, void elf (3 force) – 2d6.

Each time you hit a target, they must pass a WIL
check or experience severe disorientation due to the
sword’s nauseating vibrations. Disoriented targets
suffer a −1 to hit; this penalty is cumulative. 666 gl.

6 Ion whip, High Tephnian (2 force) – d6+X. Burn X

GRT, where X is between 0 and 5: in addition to
taking X additional damage, a target successfully
struck by the whip this round has an X in 6 chance
of being stunned for one round (no check to resist).
250 gl.

7 Reaver tail, used as a sword-axe (4 clank) – d20.

This rogue-automaton’s dæmonic, saw-like telson
warps and becomes a mere club whenever you roll
a 1 to hit, but it can be repaired relatively easily (this
takes d6 rounds). Two-handed. If you fight with one
of these one-handed, you suffer a −1 to hit. 220 gl.

8 Stun baton, Ancient or High Tephnian (2 clank) – d6.

Each time you hit a target, they must pass a MOV
check or be stunned for one round. 180 gl.

9 Force weapon, High Tephnian—force fist, force

sword, gravity maul (4 force) – 5d4. Two-handed.
500 gl.

10 Reliquary force weapon, usually a sword, Late

Tephnian (3 nano) – 2d20 +dCHA (wielder’s dCHA).
Typically has other powers including dCHA GRT
drain (wielder’s dCHA) and induce fear: a target hit
by a reliquary vampyre falx, for example, must pass
a difficult (7) WIL check or flee combat. Two-hand-
ed. At least 2000 gl.

174 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WIRES

 Archaetech missile weapons d30

1 Assault rifle, Ancient (4 clank) – 2d8 damage.

200-M range. You can fire 3 times per round without
penalty. Two-handed. At least 1200 gl.

2 Chromatophoric “laser” wristband, mi-go—a

weaponized gland plus connective tissue (2 bug) –
3d4. 50-M range. Runs out of charge on a 1. Mi-go
weapons can be recharged using bio batteries and
are thus much easier to maintain in the field than
force and nano weapons. 700 gl.

3 Cryorifle, husk gnome (4 force) – 4d4. When you

reduce a target to 0 HEA with a blast from a cryorifle,
they go into torpor indefinitely without dying (no
check to resist). Runs out of gas if you roll a 1 to hit,
but can (theoretically) be recharged. Two-handed.
At least 3000 gl.

4 Dark photon ray, Late Tephnian (4 force) – 2d20.

100-M range. Permanently runs out of juice if you
roll a 1 to hit. At least 4000 gl.

5 Empathy melter, Nyarlathon (3 Escheresque) – d20

HEA and d30 GRT damage. 50-M range. A target
hit by the invisible rays of Nyarlathon’s jeweled
weapons must make a difficult (7) WIL check or turn
on her companions. This effect wears off after 10
−dWIL (target’s dWIL) rounds, minimum 1. At least
15,000 gl. Illegal to possess.

6 Gauss cannon—a ferromagnetic coilgun, personal,

High Tephnian (5 clank) – 3d30. 1000-km range.
(N.B., km, not M.) Breaches conventional naval and
mecha armor. Tripod-mounted or two-handed if
wearing an exosuit. At least 10,000 gl.

7 Laspistol, High Tephnian (3 force) – 2d10. 200-M

range. Runs out of gas if you roll a 1 to hit, but can be
recharged. 300 gl.

8 Lasrifle, High Tephnian (4 force) – 3d10. 1000-M

range. Runs out of gas if you roll a 1 to hit, but can be
recharged. Two-handed. 600 gl.

9 Lasrifle, pulse (“pulse rifle”), Late Tephnian

(4 force) – 3d8. 1000-M range. You can fire 3 times
per round without penalty. Two-handed. 1800 gl.

10 Lascannon, personal, Late Tephnian (5 force) –

6d8+6. 3000-M range. Tripod-mounted or
two-handed if wearing an exosuit. At least 3000 gl.

11 Lightning pistol, void elf (4 force) – 3d6. 100-M

range. Lightning guns act as EMPs: targets struck
by them immediately lose their comms and other
electronics. Targets wearing exosuits or piloting
mecha are stunned for one round as backup systems
kick in. Runs out of gas if you roll a 1 to hit, but
can be recharged. At least 1500 gl.

12 Lightning rifle, void elf (5 force) – 6d6. 400-M

range. Lightning guns act as EMPs: targets struck
by them immediately lose their comms and other
electronics. Targets wearing exosuits or piloting
mecha are stunned for one round. Runs out
of gas if you roll a 1 to hit, but can be recharged.
Two-handed. At least 3000 gl.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH06 ☉ MARKET TECH, ARCHAETECH, & NANOTECH 175
 13 Limbic excruciator, mi-go (3 bug) – d6 +dCHA. 100- 22 Quantum foam visor, cryptocerid (4 bug) – Variable.
M range. All non-bug sapients within a 10-M radius 1000-M range. This black, lobster-like object attach-
must pass a difficult (7) WIL check or experience es permanently to your face via your eye-sockets,
horrible pain such that they cannot act next round. replacing your eyes. (You can see as you did before—
Runs out of bioelectric charge on 1. Mi-go weapons you just have a Cronenbergian object on your face.)
can be recharged using bio batteries. 10,000 gl. It was not designed by the godlike Bugs to act as a
weapon, but as a kind of lightshow-generator. To use
14 Maser, High Tephnian (4 force) – d30, 100-M range, it, look at your target, think at your visor, burn d30
1200 gl. GRT, roll d100, and consult the table below to learn
15 Micro-singularity rifle, void elf (6 force) – Death: the result. Priceless.
pass a MOV check and take 3d8 damage or die. 1 blue beam – Your target gains d100 HEA
300-M range. Obliterates any solid matter it touches, d100 and d30 GRT. This can bring them above
even starship armor. Two-handed. Priceless. Highly their normal maximums.
illegal to possess.
2–16 green beam – Non-sapient living things
16 Modern gun (any) using explosive rounds—AP within 5-M of your target “come to life”
sabot/HE/HEAP/HEIAP, etc., Ancient (3 clank) – and attack them. This effect is permanent
d20. 200 gl per clip of 20 shots. but restricted to your current location
17 Needlegun, High Tephnian (3 clank) – d6. 10-M (roughly a 500-M radius of where
range. You can fire a needlegun a number of times you were standing when you activated
per round without penalty equal to your maxMOV the visor).
divided by two, rounded up. 250 gl. 17–22 red beam – Your target’s head (or cephalic
18 Paramagnetic de-flesher ray, yaaj (4 force) – 8d4 analog) explodes, no check to resist.
−dWIL (target’s dWIL). 30-M range. This nightmarish 23–28 yellow beam – 7d4 HEA damage.
maser-like weapon permanently scars biological
tissue. Every time the ray hits a target, they must 29–40 orange beam – 6d20 −2dMOV (target’s
make a WIL check, or their CHA permanently goes dMOV) HEA damage.
down one die type, minimum d4. At least 5000 gl
on the black market. Illegal to possess. 41–42 ulphyre beam – 10d6 −3dREA (target’s
dREA) GRT damage. If this attack brings
19 Plasma pistol, Late Tephnian (4 force) – 4d10. 30-M your target to 0 GRT, they die and
range. Breaches conventional naval and mecha reanimate within 2d4 rounds as a gray
armor. Runs out of gas if you roll a 1 to hit, but can walker (roamer, biter…).
be recharged. 2400 gl.
43–52 indigo beam – 8d8 damage distributed
20 Plasma rifle, Late Tephnian (5 force) – 6d10. by the target between HEA and GRT.
100-M range. Breaches conventional naval and
mecha armor. Runs out of gas if you roll a 1 to 53–66 parsimonious beam – Your visor
hit. Two-handed. 6000 gl. disbelieves in its own design and stops
functioning. You can still see, but the
21 Psychovoric rifle, husk gnome (5 force) – 6d4 GRT black lobster-visor is otherwise inert.
damage. Range is based on the target's ability to
clearly perceive the shooter: typically, this means 67–82 suspicious beam – Your target disbelieves
coming within 30 M. Targets reduced to 0 GRT by in their own existence and stops fighting.
the rifle stop fighting and become open to any They can never be convinced that their
suggestion whatsoever. The husk gnomes use these world is not a dream, and that soon they
weapons to enslave other sapes. Two-handed. will awaken.
At least 9500 gl. Highly illegal to possess. 83–96 weaving beam – Your target merges
irrevocably with whichever sapient is
closest to them. This can be you. The
resulting creature takes the higher of their
constituents’ scores in all cases (including
pool) and retains both sets of powers.
They remember both lives in detail but
feel no regret about the merger and will,
if given the opportunity, thank you for it.

97–99 ‘patachronic beam – You send your

target to the Escheresque, 100 million
years from this moment. They are
otherwise unharmed.

100 grue beam – Choose a result from the

options above.

176 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WIRES

 Non-weapon
23 Railgun, personal, High Tephnian (6 clank) –
4d12. 400-km range. (N.B., km, not M.) Breaches
conventional armor, including naval armor.
Tripod-mounted or two-handed if wearing an

archaetech
exosuit. At least 5000 gl.

24 Reliquary Blood weapon—usually a “sword,”

i.e., a directable conical swarm of nanites—Late
Tephnian (3 nano) – 2d20. 15-M range. Nanite
Blood-based weapons, such as a “spew sword”
or vampyre glove, restore 1 GRT to their users for
every 3 HEA damage inflicted. At least 6000 gl. Random non-weapon archaetech d12
Worth more to collectors and blooders.

25 Strong-force “death-ray” pistol, Late Tephnian (5

force) – Death: make a WIL check and take 2d20 1 Colloid mill, perfectly preserved (3 clank) – This
damage or die. 100-M range. Permanently runs out very large rotor-stator machine reduces the particle
of juice if you roll a 1 to hit. At least 10,000 gl. size of solids suspended within liquids, or the drop-
let size of liquids suspended within other liquids,
26 Strong-force noiosphere, Hrijn (3 Escheresque) – down to ~1 µm. It had various uses in Ancient
d30. A dark, incredibly dense metal ball, controlled culture, including the creation of deliciously smooth
telepathically, using the Weird. Costs d4 GRT condiments and purees. You probably have no real
per attack. Non-tremulants/snakeheads who use need for it, but a mad Archivist–collector will pay
a Hrijn sphere 3 rounds in a row suffer d6 HEA you up to 2d100 gl for it. (She will first try to severely
damage every round starting on the 4th as the blood lowball you, of course.)
vessels in their brains burst/circuits in their CPUs
melt. 9000 gl. 2 Escheresque anti-nausea field generator
(3 nano) – Entering the Escheresque causes all
27 Submachine gun, Ancient (4 clank) – 2d6. 50-M non-extradimensional sapients, even informatic
range. You can fire 3 times per round without ones, to experience nausea which deals d4 −dWIL
penalty. Normally two-handed. If you fight with +dREA GRT damage, minimum 1, and physically
one of these one-handed, you suffer a −1 to incapacitates you for 1 round. This pulsing metallic
hit. At least 850 gl. bracelet, perhaps made by the Tephnians, feels
almost weightless. It prevents Escheresque nausea
28 Symmetry mangler, cryptocerid (4 bug) – Removes for one sape. It is worth 4000 gl to the right Archivist
from combat. 100-M range. This laser-like weapon or Escheresque-obsessed voidminer.
fires a stream of as-yet-uncharacterized-by-the-
Archivists bosons that, upon impact, change the 3 Escheresque gate stabilizer (6 Escheresque) –
physical laws affecting the target. The target is A blinking, difficult-to-look-at ring of swordlike
reduced in dimension (becomes a cartoon), splits teeth, the stabilizer functions as a stable, safe
into many miniature copies of herself, or otherwise stiffworks that can connect any point in threespace
removed from combat. The effects of the mangler with any point in the Escheresque or vice versa,
are theoretically reversible, but public Archival but not any two points within threespace or within
records do not indicate how. Priceless. the Escheresque. Tacking this bizarre structure
requires no roll but costs 2d30 GRT. Priceless.
29 Tactical olfaction weapon, gulm/mulg (4 bio) –
None. 50-M range. Used by lichenoid/moldfolk 4 Ghostcloak (4 nano) – When wearing this
pyrates when boarding enemy vessels or raiding lightweight garment, you become totally invisible
stations or rockside provinces. After the grenade to other sapients, although you can still be detected
launcher-like weapon is fired, all sapients within by Weird means. Those attempting to harm
10 M of its point of impact who can sense small you must roll three attack checks, taking the lowest
molecules suspended in a fluid medium such as value; you roll three dodge checks, taking the
air or water must make an easy (5) WIL check highest. 18,000+ gl.
every round (on the gulm/mulg’s initiative) or be
consumed with vomiting to the point that they 5 Glirarium (5 bug) – The yaaj use these human-sized
cannot act otherwise. Subsequent firings add amphorae to fatten up organisms they plan to
cumulative −1 penalties to targets’ WIL checks. subsequently hunt. One glirarium can be used
4000 gl on the black market or 500 from the to support for up to 30 days, in a suspended state,
gulm/mulg. Illegal to possess. any single organism smaller than 2.8 M in a single
direction. Each day that a sapient is stored/“fattened
30 Taser or cyberwhip, Ancient (2 clank) – Choose up” in a glirarium, they regain 3d30 HEA and 2d20
a setting, stun or kill: stun inflicts 1 damage plus GRT but incurs a 1 in 6 chance of developing a
chance of stun. Kill inflicts d6 damage plus chance random mutation. A yaaj glirarium is worth 9,000 gl
of stun. A tazed target must pass a standard (6+) to the right leech.
WIL check to resist becoming stunned for d6 rounds.
100 gl. 6 The Inviscid Throne (2 nano) – This red metal
chair allows any biological sapient who sits upon it
for one hour to rest as though they slept for five or
more hours. (In game terms, you can recover pool
after sitting down for only one hour.) The sitter also
does not need to sleep, merely sit. The chair has a
pleasant massage function and plays relaxing Late
Tephnian hymns (unbelievably loud death metal).

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH06 ☉ MARKET TECH, ARCHAETECH, & NANOTECH 177
 7 Mantid egg home (3 bio [old, static]/2 bug [young,
Oh, but that’s far too little! The Alabaster Spin- growing]) – The edifices of the Terran bugs feature
Metal Transference Glove of Tarusk–Badioux is a no hard edges or recognizable rooms. With moisture
gem! A veritable pearl in a sea of knock-offs and wicking, sugar taps, and fly-larvae harvesters, each
egg home can support a single sape for 4d4 weeks,
doodads, I tell ya! They don’t make em like this in 2–3 sapes for d4 weeks, and 4–10 sapes for 24
the Arkheion, friend. Ha! This thing here is, well, hours. The Archivists currently believe that the man-
it—it—it’s a glove! A glove that can… Transfer! tids are delivering empty but functional egg homes
to Goldilocks worlds beyond Terra, in preparation for
Transfer—transfer—well—find out for yourself! further exploration. An egg home is worth 6500+ gl.
And for the low, low price of—let’s say—being an 8 Mirrorcloak (3 Escheresque) – A shawl of silvery
honourable sort and all—a mere seven thousand beak-shapes, a mirrorcloak projects copies of the
voidguilders…? wearer around her: burn 2d10 GRT and roll REA; you
project a number of copies equal to your REA roll
+your level. These copies do what you want them to
do and can even speak, but they are deeply “wrong.”
The copies persist for a number of rounds equal to
your REA roll, but you can burn d10 GRT each round
to keep them around. A mirrorcloak is worth at least
20,000 gl.

9 Nanomanufactorium (4 nano) – This nanotech mak-

erbot is the size of a golf cart. Roll a d3 to determine
its type: 1) gastroforge, 2) multiforge, or 3) polyforge.
A gastroforge can make any foodstuff, using only
normal atmo and sunlight. A multiforge can make
any clank item—weapon, armor, or tool. A polyforge
can make bio and code items up to complexity 3,
including drugs, pets, and walkie-talkies. Many
nanomanufactoria are depleted (2 in 6 chance)
or misprogrammed (1 in 6). By respective type, a
working nanomanufactorium is probably worth
at least 12,000, 25,000, or 36,000 gl.

10 Omnisaw (4 force) – A pony-sized mass of blinking

LEDs, twisted metal fins, and powerful miniaturized
minimatter motors, this High Tephnian tool can cut
through anything, even—slowly—Late Tephnian red-
steel or—very, very slowly—black Spindlestone. Used
as a weapon, an ominsaw does 2d20 damage but
is bulky to wield, causing the wielder to suffer a −2
penalty to dodge. An omnisaw is worth 13,000+ gl.

11 An ornately carved onionwood staff that quiets

quantum-gravity turbulence (4 Escheresque) –
This 2-M long hardwood staff feels oddly light, as
though no heavier than a thin tree-branch. It can
be wielded as a club (d4 damage). If pointed at a
stiffworks of technological origin (i.e., neither a black
hole nor an Escheresque cut into a higher dimen-

Find and smash this thing!

sion) while its wielder concentrates her hate for
technology (burning 15 GRT), the staff immediately
“quiets” the stiffworks, “turning off” its quantum-
gravitic connection to distant timespace loci and fix-
ing it in place here, now. A quieted quantum gate is
not permanently broken but will not work again until
it has been repaired. Repair costs and times vary
by stratum; stiffworks are never clank, bio, or code
stratum and are typically complexity-6 archaetech
items; thus, the GRT cost will generally be upwards
of 24.

12 Wasp mind collar (5 bug) – Draping this circlet

of pulsing violet wire around the temples of a
sapient makes them your slave, forever—unless
(until) you ever encounter the biomechanical horror
called the Wasp, which made the collar, in which
case you and your slave will both become puppets…
These artifacts are technically illegal, but at least
one has come through Spindle and been sold for
over 10,000 gl.

178 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WIRES

 Clank (stratum 1)
Designing Clank—mechanical or geothermal tech—is common on

archaetech
Spindle. You can usually find someone in the Canteen to
fix a clank tech item: 5 in 6 chance of finding someone
who’ll give you a fair price on repairs every 24 hours.

1. Clank simple – Wrench, machine-tooled, d4 damage.

By stratum and complexity Metal hauberk, DR 1. 1 gl.

2. Clank standard – Electric screwdriver, d6 damage.
The following section should give the GM some sense Taser, d4 damage plus stun. Metal armor, full, DR 2.

The tech strata are ordered from most to least common

on Spindle, specifically. A version written for the
of how to sprinkle the void with archaetech. In general, Toaster. 5–10 gl.
it should be very hard for PCs to hack into or repair 3. Clank complex – Central air system for a small office

mi-go on icy Yuggoth would look very different…

complex, corporate, and military archaetech. Godlike building. Excellent katana, d10 +d4 damage. Metal
archaetech should be difficult to even find. armor, finely crafted, DR 3. 100 gl. This is the current
Even successful uses of powerful archaetech should standard for most Co. tech.
bring unintended side effects, including weird sparks of 4. Clank corporate – Geothermal energy plant. An
energy, tears in timespace leading to Escheresque events, assault rifle, 2d8 damage. Tactical bend armor, DR 4.
and detection by greedy, nearby mi-go ‘avvengers—or, 200–1000 gl.
much worse, Old Ones… 5. Clank military – Naval cannon, ballistic. 2d20 damage.
That said, don’t punish greedy PCs if they work hard Metallic foam tank armor or light cerasteel personal
to obtain, restore, and defend an amazing piece of armor, DR 5. 2500–5000 gl. This is the current apex
archaetech. So they want to fly around in working of Co. tech.
valkyrie suits? And they spend three ventures squirrel- 6. Clank godlike – Railgun, 4d12 damage, armor piercing.
ing away parts? Cool. Let them mecha-up; then move Full cerasteel battlesuit. 5000+ gl.
the plot in a direction allowing them to benefit from
having high DR and shoulder-mounted gravitic micro-
missile batteries. But also make sure that overwhelming
military superiority, by Co. standards, will not be
Bio (stratum 2)
enough for them to automatically succeed in the future. Biotechnologies are advanced on Terra but have stalled
Always spam the main plot with hearts-and-minds, on Spindle since the Groot Tachquake. Most relate to
non-combat, non-tech encounters. food or to trauma and infectious medicine at present;
Note, voidguilder equivalents given below are treatments for chronic diseases are rare. Leeches with
estimates that will vary by the specific archaetech in good command of biotech items, especially archaetech,
question and the current dynamics between the markets can be found in the Canteen some of the time: 3 in 10
in the Canteen and outside the Arkheion, on the one chance per full day of asking around.
hand, and the prices paid at Acquisitions in the Basilikon
for different incoming archaetech, on the other. That is, 1. Bio simple – Bread yeast, pioneer bread bacteria, or
prices will vary according to market conditions and the spirulina starter culture; seaweed or aquaculture
Directorate’s dictates—the rationales behind which are management strategy. Herbs that heal d4 HEA. 1 gl.
frequently obscure. 2. Bio standard – Algaculture; hydroponics and
aeroponics. Synthetic opioids that heal d6 HEA. 10 gl.
Stratum 1: clank
3. Bio complex – Aquaponics and blackwater treatment
with plants. Handheld DNA sequencer. Advanced
medicines, heal 2d10 HEA. 400–800 gl.
4. Bio corporate – Pleasure replicant: not quite human
and utterly unable to take certain aggressive or
self-harming actions. Organ printer, heals all HEA.
Cybernetic implants that move up one score one
die type. Regeneration cloak of excess tough tissue,
regain 2 HEA per round (costs 1 GRT pre round).
5000 gl.

179
 pients without need for an intermediary screen;
capable of storing much of the data on a given planet;
capable of making complicated astrogational calcula-
tions. 7500 gl.
5. Code military – Ancient or High Tephnian ship’s
AI—strong AI pur sang: this software is as smart as
a gifted human and has similarly complex—although
often utterly alien—emotions, creative impulses, and
irrational desires. All aux from Ancient human or
High Tephnian ships are of 5 complexity code. (Late
Tephnian and Snakeman aux are 4 nano) 50,000+ gl.
6. Code godlike – Nanite-cleansed Late Tephnian con-
cierge for a worldship or enigmadrome: this software
is as smart as a city full of experts and has backed
itself up into many distributed networks (liter-
Stratum 2: bio
ally, clouds). This AI will not want to “adventure”
5. Bio military – Full replicant. Ancient advanced (multi- around with you, no matter what you offer it. It is
score-boosting) implants, move up all scores one die theoretically possible to hack into it, but this is epic in
type. Rapid regeneration genes in every cell, regain difficulty. 6 code is probably the highest level of
dWIL HEA per round. 10,000+ gl. technological complexity that Ancient humans [i.e.,
6. Bio godlike – Mimicvat (clone anything organic as we] ever achieved. Priceless.
many times as you want, including horrorsaurs).
Stratum 3: code
Personalized clone army (one mind, distributed
across many bodies). Living space station. This is the
highest technology level attainable—at great cost—
by contemporary civilizations hegemonic on Terra
(the Federation of Unhuman Kingdoms in Pala and
the three major Eggs of the mantids in the West).
Priceless, equivalent to the GDPs of entire provinces.

Code (stratum 3)
Digital technologies are at this point considered
“archaetech,” although the Archivists are supposedly
getting closer every day to being able to create their own
comms and write new code on a Tephnian substrate.
Finding someone outside of the Arkheion proper to help
with code-stratum repairs is difficult: 1 in 10 chance per
day unless you bribe an Archivist.

1. Code simple – Digital toy, beeper/pager, or compo-

nent of a stand-alone comm. Flash drive capable of
storing some documents. 50 gl.
2. Code standard – Small, personal-use stand-alone
comm—a touchpad for a door, or a smartphone.
Capable of storing a small library-worth of data.
100 gl.
3. Code complex – Advanced stand-alone comm—a fu-
ture tablet or the software to run a future car. Capable
of running a complex clank system by itself or storing
many analog libraries’-worth of data. 1000 gl.
4. Code corporate – Commercial ship’s AI: capable
of conversing with and being commanded by sa-

180 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WIRES

 4. Force corporate – Laser rifle, unrestricted, 3d10 dam-
age, extremely long-range. High Tephnian strong-
suit—a fully accessorized exosuit with DR 10. Small
starship. Fusion plant or weapon capable of destroy-
ing a large city. 10,000+ gl.
5. Force military – Naval railgun battery on a High
Tephnian frigate, 4d100+20 damage. “Death ray”
(kills instantly). High Tephnian valkyrie suit (stan-
dard mecha) that ignores damage from most weap-
ons (standard guns, laser pistols); DR 12 for naval-
class clank and rifle-or heavier force weapons; can fly.
Frigate-class starship. Hydrogen bomb or miniatur-
ized fusion weapon—a weapon capable of destroying
a megacity. Priceless.
6. Force godlike – Ancient stiffworks. Minimum com-
Stratum 4: force plexity for an energy plant capable of supporting a ga-
lactic civilization—e.g., a Dyson sphere. High Teph-

Force (stratum 4) nian warmachine. Starcity. Super-hydrogen bomb—a

weapon capable of planetary destruction. Priceless.
Force archaetech includes electromagnetic, electro­
gravitic, and ion-drive technologies. Force archaetech
sometimes also includes manipulations of quantum
Nano (stratum 5)
foam, the strong force, dark matter, dark energy, Nanotechnologies allow for strong-force and dark-mat-
mirror matter, and other exotic matter, although these ter manipulation, and probably other strangeness. Nano
more advanced techniques typically also require nano, archaetech tends to be literally invisible as technology
bug, or Escheresque (inexplicable) systems—i.e., ones to all who aren’t blooders, Tephnian sleepers, or vet-
built on physical theories that the Archivists struggle eran banshees or pirs. The Blood is different… Blooder
to understand. Note, force archaetech does not include “experts” (junkies) will offer to help you with any nano
technologies that break the rules of physics in timespace archaetech that you bring to the Canteen—and then at-
as we know it (that is, cause Escheresque effects). tempt to steal it (90% chance).
Repairing force tech without a civilization of engineers See below for more on the Blood. For the powers
who can produce precision machines for manipulating unlocked by the Blood, see the section on nanofluid-
light on a fine scale is exceedingly difficult. One or two ics in “Edges.” GMs, note: many hyper-advanced aliens
Archivists might be able to repair basic force tech at (including villains) will have access to nanotech or
any given time: 1 in 6 chance per week of bribing; each some equivalent MacGuffinry. Use nanofluidics powers
attempt costs 200 gl. against the PCs!

1. Force simple – Blindingly strong LED or tool that 1. Nano simple – Futuristic cosmetics or toiletries.
causes d6 damage. Heechee “hard light” pollen- 100 gl.
armor, DR 1. Atomic force microscope. Non-critical 2. Nano standard – Futuristic medicines that heal
component of a starship. 75+ gl. 3d30 HEA and 2d20 GRT. All Snakeman tech is a
2. Force standard – Laser pistol, with restricted settings minimum complexity of 2 nano. Wytchsuit. 600+ gl.
for hunting and personal defense only, d8 damage; 3. Nano complex – Blendypaint. Cyberbane-corrupted
allowed to be owned by civilians in High Tephnii. Blood (+1 to all scores, but slowly corrodes WIL
Ancient exosuit, mostly complete, DR 6. Minimum down one type per week until it reaches d3, d2, 1,
critical component of a nuclear energy plant or and then 0, resulting in death); infected Blood (see
nuclear weapon. 300–500 gl. below). Quicksuit. Food accelerators (pulls air down
3. Force complex – Quantum tunnel stabilizer—the into food). These technologies represent most of Late
minimum critical component of a starship engine Tephnian civilization: a dripping bloodmist hellscape
or weapon system. Laser pistol, unrestricted, 2d10 of organic and inorganic modules interpenetrating
damage. Tephnian exosuit, DR 7. Nuclear energy one another according to the whims of deranged
plant or fission bomb—a weapon capable of destroy- sapiences composed of advanced posthumans plus
ing a small city. 1500+ gl. their aux valets and handmaids. Value varies wildly

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH06 ☉ MARKET TECH, ARCHAETECH, & NANOTECH 181
 by function, but generally 1800–6000 gl. Sample 5. Nano military – Late Tephnian spewgun, 666 damage
nano weapons, all of which cost d6 GRT per attack to a volume of the void equal to 5 × dCHA-km
and drain dCHA (wielder’s CHA) GRT per hit: square, in a squid shape. Late Tephnian gorgonship
or gorgonsuit (“liquid mecha”): DR 200; causes 4d20
҂ Cloud spear – Deals 2d10 damage to everything damage to all foes within maxCHA km; foes killed
in a 6-M line, splashing everything in the 6-M line by the gorgonsuit are immediately puppeted back
behind that for d10 damage. to pseudo-life as graybods (walkers, roamers, etc.).
҂ Mud sword – 3d6 damage to everything in a 6-M Snakeman voideater “net” torpedoes, which destroy
long, 6-M wide cone, splashing everything in ships or planets by enveloping them in ultra-dense
another 18-M long, 6-M wide cone of your choice neutron-star matter, causing them to collapse in on
for d6 damage. themselves. Late Tephnian warmachine or cruiser.
҂ Rain hammer – 4d4+4 damage to everything in a Priceless.
20-M long, 3-M wide cone. 6. Nano godlike – Very Late Tephnian or Snakeman
҂ Wasp sword – 2d20 damage to everything in a star-city or stiffworks. These technologies are beyond
3–20-M line; directed telepathically to strike as current human comprehension and involve Planck-
many or as few targets as you like. length manipulations of timespace. 6 nano represents
the apex of human civilization toward the conclusion
4. Nano corporate – The Blood pur sang (bonuses to of the Tephnian Wars of Succession and the standard
various scores, vampyric thirst; see below for details): for Snakeman civilization—which will not arise for
this is the minimum complexity for functional, non- millions of years. Priceless.
corrupt, non-destructive smart nanofluids to reside
within and safely interface with sapient bodies.
Early Late Tephnian gorgonmail or sliversuit (nano-
Bug (stratum 6)
injected mecha), DR maxCHA +maxMOV. Late Bug-stratum archaetech may appear to be merely elec-
Tephnian starship. Food replicator à la Star Trek. trochemical in nature, using electromagnetism to reor-
All 4+ nanotech is highly addictive to use, to contem- ganize pheromones and vice versa, but it is much more
porary banshees/blooders. 15,000+ gl. than a manipulation of fields via biochemistry. Bug tech
is the direct link between
The Archivists believe that the
Stratum 5: nano consciousness and mac-
great bugs—those cryptocerids
roscopic quantum field
who ruled Terra for millions of
effects. Nanotech allows
years after the Long Silence but
for these sorts of fine
disappeared millions of years
manipulations of phys-
before the rise of Great Tephnii—
ics, but requires many
created that network of tunnels
nigh-invisibly small ro-
through the earth’s crust called
bots to function as in-
N.E.M.A.T.
termediaries. Bug tech
only requires a sapience (typically distributed across
ganglia—bug brain-parts) to manipulate the strong force,
dark fluid, and other exotic physics. Finding someone on
Spindle who can help you repair a piece of bug tech—
even a humble dowser—is so unlikely that it’s probably
worthy of an entire venture (or a roll of 100 on a d100).

1. Bug simple – Dowser. Cryptocerid perfume organ.

Mi-go antennae (detect all organisms within 1 km).
100+ gl by function.
2. Bug standard – Mi-go mold-based “flash drives” and
readers. Mantid flechette rifle, 4d4 damage plus
bleed 4. Mantid chitin exosuit, DR 6, limited flight
(jumping). The apex of mantid engineering on Terra.
1000+ gl.
3. Bug complex – Mi-go advanced-sensor-equipped
spore traps (completely immobilize targets). Yuggothi

182 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WIRES

 naval weapons and personal fliers (“flying saucers”).
Heechee antennae (allow users to see across parsecs
of timespace). 10,000+ gl.
4. Bug corporate – Cryptocerid “bus”-style mecha
armor, with randomized photonic defense battery
(lasers). Most long-buried cryptocerid tech is 4
bug—and might as well be “magick” to Co. agents.
Weapons of this level of complexity have automatic
Escheresque effects (GM’s discretion). A (hopefully)
still-theoretical mi-go stiffworks would be at least a
4 bug artifact. Priceless.
5. Bug military – Heechee “ambulance” blinkship;
theorized from data scraps but never (yet) actually
encountered by the Co. A tessera (ultra-advanced
cryptocerid quantum comm), buried many miles into
Terra’s crust. No PC could ever hope to understand
the first thing about 5 bug tech without first merging
with a tessera and apotheosizing into a cryptocerid
herself. These technologies were the most advanced
ever achieved on earth in the past. Priceless.
6. Bug godlike – Heechee stiffworks. Heechee mecha-
nisms allowing for safe time travel. No PC could
ever hope to understand the first thing about 6 bug
tech without somehow apotheosizing into a heechee
herself. These technologies will one day be the most
advanced ever achieved on earth. Priceless.

Stratum 7: Escheresque
Stratum 6: bug

Escheresque (stratum 7)
Is this even technology? Is it a function of some regions
of the Escheresque, something coded into reality by be-
ings so advanced that we perceive them not as beings,
but as astrophysical events, collapses of stars, raw scars
in certain sensor readings? Is there any sense in speaking
of “technology” qua technics, tools, that are so alien that
we must name them after a symbol of trickery, confu-
sion, and impossibility?
All the Archivists can say is that they will pay for sam-
ples of certain “Yncals”—crystal-like structures whose
physical properties defy all current theories of the physi-
cal universe. The gray-robed engineers and inquisitors
hint that such items are only known to be reliably found
in that ultrastructure whose name their wetan members
rasp out in a whisper, like a curse whose object has been
forgotten—“Narm.”

GMs, use “Escheresque tech” if you want to introduce

essentially “magickal” or utterly inexplicable phenomena
into your game. These will make the game less like “hard”
SF and more like science-fantasy. It is also possible to
run Stillfleet and never encounter the Escheresque.

183
Stiffworks
force ones, which rely on larger, more error-prone
proxy devices (drives, tunneling instruments, accel-
erators) that must be indirectly controlled via AI.

design
6. Bug – Bug stiffworks work in some way that human
and wetan minds—lacking the relevant sense organs
and some orders of magnitude too-few neural
connections—cannot comprehend. They seem to
“pleasantly” co-locate loci without any massive flow

Timespace MacGuffinry of energy from one state to another. These stiffworks

somehow rely upon quantum effects that are
No one on Spindle really understands the science of activated only by sapient things. The Archivists have
stiffworks, but every intern in the Archive has a favorite little more to say on the matter at this time.
pet theory. Here are a few concepts to throw out if the
players ask or the plot calls for a little quantum scene
dressing.
Using timespace MacGuffinry

1. Clank – Definitionally, there are no clank stiffworks. The point of spamming the game with technoscientific
Stiffworks defy classical physics, and clank tech is terms is not to confuse, annoy, or alienate players, but
defined as that governed solely by classical physics. to give the diegetic world (the game world) rich life, to
2. Bio – There are no purely bio stiffworks. All Snake- make it feel real. This raises the stakes of play.
man and heechee stiffworks are largely biological in
nature, but as stable timespace gates, they fall under
Stiffworks under construction
nano and bug strata, respectively.
3. Code – There are no purely code stiffworks. All
Ancient and Tephnian stiffworks are electronic in
nature, but they fall under the force and nano strata,
respectively.
4. Force – Force stiffworks function by tearing open
stable holes in timespace: they use a massive number
of magnetically gathered minicharged particles
organized into polarons or normally weakly interact-
ing dark matter particles to drag and pinch timespace
at origin locus A until—without locus A having
“actually moved”—it becomes coterminous with
destination locus B. Force stiffworks were briefly
used by the various Ancient human civilizations to
populate the stars and then to destroy one another,
leading to the Long Silence lasting from roughly 100
MY ago until the first bug civilization arose, ~50
million years later. High Tephnians also developed
force stiffworks using mirror matter (or that’s
one Archival theory, anyway).
5. Nano – Nano stiffworks use atomic-scale machines
to create ultra-fine scale effects, all the way down to
the Planck length. At these scales, timespace does
not behave according to classical physics but can be
“bundled” like fabric, using energy from the ambient
quantum foam that pervades the universe, so that
different loci become coterminous. This makes nano-
stratum stiffworks more “elegant” and, at the scale of
human bodies, efficient than force ones. Nano stiff-
works also interact with sapient minds (via nanites),
allowing them to be controlled more directly than

184
 NANOTECH

A detail amongst the veins of life,

I too was moving with the blood,
huddled in the gigantic darkness.
—Margarita Serafimova, “Untitled,” Eye to the Telescope 39, 2021.

Using Whither the blood mists of

Great Tephnii?
nanotech The last great civilization on Terra was that of the

in games
Late Tephnians—an ultra-advanced, exceedingly vain
cohort of humans who mastered nanotechnologies,
colonized untold Goldilocks planets, and then, only

For more on the Late Tephnians and their technologies,

see the first Stillfleet venture, The Sleeper in the Sky.
a few millennia later, fought a civil war so brutal that
humanity fell into a(nother) dark age. The secret of

What is nanotech? forging and programming nano-robots was lost…

Today, Late Tephnian (LT) nano-stratum archaetech
On the one hand, the answer is simple: “Nanotechnology litters the void, but most of it is broken, useless, and/
is science, engineering, and technology conducted at the or dangerous. When playing Stillfleet, a few rare nano-
nanoscale, which is about 1 to 100 nanometers. Nano­ tech items will still work as designed for characters who
science and nanotechnology are the study and applica- don’t happen to be LT sleepers with bodies full of nanites
tion of extremely small things and can be used across (or veteran banshees or pirs). But most nano-stratum
all the other science fields, such as chemistry, biology, tech will be literally invisible as technology: now inert, it
physics, materials science, and engineering.”1 In other just looks like smoke or dirt.
words, nanotechnology is the branch of tool-making The capital-B nanite Blood—stored in octagonal met-
focused on the scale of individual atoms. al flasks—is a major exception. Every voidminer knows
But… what the hell does that mean? The first point that the Blood is a powerful and dangerous drug: a
that this module assumes is: nanotech is a great liquid supercomputer and metabolism overclocker, in
MacGuffin (narrative mystery entity) for sci-fi games the form of a metallic gray syrup, like a long-flat draught
set in the near or far future. It’s a suite of technologies of bitter soda…
just barely real in 2021 CE that nonetheless may under- For the Late Tephnians (and the cruel Snakemen
gird the future of industrial production, warfare, and who occasionally visit from the future, and surely other
medicine. So nanotech can fill a game role akin to advanced civilizations), nanotech wasn’t so much a
“magick” without completely abandoning the techno­ matter of interactions with machines, systems, and
scientific imaginary shared by many of us in the present. tools as a new and enriching dimension of feelings and
The second point, the sensory one, is that nanotech abilities—or, in game terms, nanofluidics powers.
is so small as to be invisible. In the nano-future, tech While any character can use other nano-stratum
doesn’t get big (Gundam, Evangelion, ブラム!, Saturn V archaetech (the liquid armor called wytchsuits, e.g.),
rockets, nuclear weapons, megacities, dams, space only those sapients whose bodies are sufficiently
elevators…), but instead goes teeny-tiny. In this future, steeped in nanites—i.e., those who have drunk “the
homes, structures, tools, and even human bodies are Blood”—can gain access to nanofluidics. See “Edges”
fluid, morphing from the inside out, with their skins for all of the nanofluidics powers.
becoming technical interfaces.

1
“What Is Nanotechnology?” Nano.gov, National
Nanotechnology Initiative, N.D., accessed February 19, 2021,
nano.gov/nanotech-101/what/definition.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH06 ☉ MARKET TECH, ARCHAETECH, & NANOTECH 185
 Gaining nanofluidics powers dead creature. The bitten creature takes 2 HEA damage
from the bite attack plus an extra d6 damage from blood
Nanofluidics powers are only available to characters loss. If you go 24 hours without consuming blood, you
who have imbibed the Blood—suspensions of ancient permanently lose 4 GRT. Drinking 1 L of blood cures
Tephnian nanites said to offer superhuman abilities to the GRT damage. GRT damage caused by blood depriva-
those who can learn to command the invisibly small ro- tion cannot be restored otherwise. You die if your GRT
bots now swirling throughout their own bodies. reaches 0 due to unfulfilled blood hunger.
Only the blooder class, perhaps unsurprisingly, begins

Acquiring, mixing,
play with access to this list of powers. Blooders begin
with just enough Blood—of the standard, pre-Wars-of-
Succession type—to use the powers on the nanofluidics
list. There are other types of Blood that offer additional
and purging Blood
bonuses, drawbacks, and powers. If you are a classed blooder, your first, free ali-
GMs: this means that—if no player chooses to create quot of Blood is “vanilla”—none of the types
a blooder PC at first level—the best way to bring nano- listed below; it just lets you use nanofluidics.
fluidics into the game is to spam your hulks and other You can gain additional aliquots of Blood by
techno-ruins with vials of Blood. finding them in the void or buying them off a
sketchy archaehawker in the Canteen. Blood

The Blood
purchased off a hawker costs at least 5000 gl
and is often infected or junk: to determine the
type of an aliquot of hawker-bought Blood,
roll d10 −2 and consult the list below.
When aliquots of Blood do not mix, you

Heavy liquid, addictive immediately suffer 2d12 HEA and 4 GRT

The secret of how to properly maintain millions of
tiny robots within a human body has long been lost.

damage and do not “gain” any new units of

power Blood. (You do not lose any extant ones unless
you mixed in infectected Blood or Deluge.)
If you’ve ever opened a hexagonal metal vial and downed You can willingly purge Blood by burning
the gray yoghurt within—one aliquot of Late Tephnian d12 GRT and rolling a WIL check. If you are
nanites in suspension—then you are now a drug addict successful, you permanently lose one aliquot
of a very special kind: you crave Blood. You will do of Blood at random, suffering 2d12 HEA and
anything for more, purer, nobler Blood… 4 GRT damage in the process, and experienc-
For humans, it’s the ultimate rush—control over ing severe aura headache and dehydration.
your body and the world around you, made possible by Blooders who no longer have at least one
invisible little genies that do your bidding. Combining aliquot of Blood in their bodies cannot use
different types of Blood is even more of a rush but can nanofluidics powers.
cause unexpected side effects. You can drink the stuff,
and you may well have a “tap” on your body that allows
Types of Blood
you to inject it into your (small-B) bloodstream for an d10
added rush.
Blooding changes you, however. Thin networks of 1 Infected (dust, slag, vomit) – Infected Blood de-
red-gray nanites eventually rise up through your skin stroys other aliquots with which it mixes—and it mix-
es with everything, making other aliquots infected in
and create strange tattoo-like patterns on your face addition to their original types. −1 COM. −1 REA. +4
and hands. For some, the Blood also causes mental and GRT (permanent). You gain the nanofluidics power
physical degeneration—sometimes rapid—called wilting spew if you don’t already have it. Blood hunger.

or slaggery. This can only be countered by drinking 2 Junk – Junk contains many inert (“dead”) nanites
more… that cannot be repaired. Junk does not mix with
types 7–10. Junk turns blue (6) to grey (3). +4 GRT.
Finally, through blooding you can contract blood
hunger: your nanites are corrupted and require actual 3 Grey (slow, heavy) – Created during the Undimin-
ishing War, the centuries-old grey or slow Blood
human blood to repair themselves. You must drain a 0.5 is corrupted blue Blood that has become “heavier”
L of blood from a living creature once every 24 hours. over time by absorbing more inert material. It
Doing so is an attack action, and you can only drain is still more pure than junk, but it isn’t amazing.
Grey does not mix with types 9–10. +1 COM.
blood from a willing, helpless, or dying but not long- +d4 GRT. −1 initiative.

186 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WIRES

 In the otherwise quiet halls of certain redsteel-sheltered technoruins, the foolhardy
‘avvenger can occasionally hear a certain curious refrain, like distant whalesong
phased, chopped, screwed, and smothered. These are the muffled roars of the clangers.
Walkers
(post-conscious, aggressively vigorous
human bodies)
HEADCOUNT
d6 (pack) or d100 (swarm)

VITALS

COM d8 HEA 12
MOV d4 GRT 0
REA 1 DR 0
4 Deluge – Not Blood per se, Deluge is a partly algal
nanite suspension created in the distant past. Since
WIL NA (infinite)
it is half-photobiont, it causes sun hunger: you
take 4 GRT damage whenever you don’t get 6 hours
CHA 0
of direct sunlight every day. Deluge mixes with
everything, making it deluge instead of its original HABITS
type. +1 COM. Your MOV goes up one die type. Your • Perfectly still beneath a tarp or pile of plastic trash
WIL goes down one die type. +d6 GRT. +3 initiative. • Thumping against a closet door over and over
Sun hunger. • Eternally re-eating its own hand, regrown by nanites

5 Pre-War – Blood made before the Undiminishing DOGMA

War. Bloods of types 5–10 are “real,” meaning less
than 5% inert. Pre-War Blood is “good” Blood. Does Hunger
not mix with type 6. +1 COM. Your MOV goes up
one die type. +d6 GRT. +2 initiative. Blood hunger. ATTACKS
6 Blue – “Noble” Blood from the end of the Tephnian • Bite, d6 damage.
Empire. Does not mix with type 5. You grow two
more functional arms. Your MOV and REA both go up VARIANTS
one die type. +d8 GRT. +1 attack per round in melee • Fast – Many walkers are fast: they have MOV d8.
combat. Blood hunger. Disadvantage on all WIL
• Spitting – For some reason, some walkers over-produce
checks and CHA/seduce checks (unless seducing a
stomach acid and spit it at opponents. A spitting walker gains
Late Tephnian sleeper).
the following attack:
7 Quick – Does not mix with type 2. Your MOV goes • Spit acid, d4 plus burn 2, 5-M range.
up two die types (to d20, if already at d12). +d6 GRT. • Clanging – Clanging walkers appear alive, if bloated and
+5 initiative. Blood hunger. visibly suffering from metallosis. (They also bleed slightly,
constantly from their eyes.) These walkers have MOV d6 and
8 Vampyric – Your Blood is very fine, ancient stuff
REA d4; they will weakly call for help (while continuing to
that does not mix with type 2. You gain Blooder
clang from their bellies) and then, if offered aid, attack. When
hunger: this disease is per blood hunger, but for new
killed, a clanging walker explodes with such sonic force that
capital-B Blood every d30 days (roll each time you
the WIL scores of all sapients who can hear within 10 M lower
acquire more Blood). Your COM, MOV, and CHA each
by one die type for 24 hours.
go up one die type. +d6 GRT.
• Deluge-infected – These green–gray, partially algal corpse–
9 Ancient – Does not mix with types 2–3. You glow things move in clockwork, alien jerks. They have the following
a dull red at all times. +1 COM. +1 REA. −d6 HEA. score improvements: COM d10, MOV d6. In addition, Deluged
+d3d4 GRT. walkers present a unique threat:
10 Imperial – Blood from an actual member of the Each time you’re bitten by a Deluged walker, roll a d6: on a
Geneline of Imperial Succession. It is smarter than 1, you succumb to Deluge and turn into a walker while
you. Does not mix with types 2–6. You grow two still half-conscious. Until you die, you can be treated with
more hyperfunctional arms. +1 COM. +1 MOV. advanced biomedicine or hell science powers and recover
+2 REA. Your WIL goes down one type. −10 HEA. some semblance of your former self, but you feel a lack
+2d12 GRT. +1 attack per round. of ease in your own body and permanently lose 6d4 GRT.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH06 ☉ MARKET TECH, ARCHAETECH, & NANOTECH 187
 The gray plague
The great crimson metal halls of the Tephnians are not
yet dead, or not entirely so. You see, not all nanites obey
their sapient masters. The gray plague, also known as
the Gray Death, is an infectious nanite disease that turns
humanoids into gray walkers (bods, biters, geeks,
lurkers, roamers, rotters, stinkers, moaners). Anyone
bitten who dies comes back as a gray walker in d8 rounds.

Wetware—other ways of
accessing nanofluidics
Voidminers in the Canteen whisper of blooders whose
bodies are covered in glittering, sparking, oozing tattoos,
or overclocked implants, or pulsing red eyes ringed by a
fine dust of burnt-out nanites… The method by which
so-called wetware can be obtained is currently un-
known to the Archivists (at least officially). They would
pay handsomely for specific technical clues as to its cre-
GMs, using nanofluidics powers as the “punk” sci-fi effects of
wetware can zhoosh up NPCs who are hunting down aliquots of the
Blood—whether in vials or in the vascular systems of blooder PCs!

ation…
In game terms, wetware—tattoos, shunts, and other
nanobioelectric interfaces that provide specific effects—
represents a method of allowing PCs who are not classed
blooders to gain access to limited nanofluidics powers.
Each power can be thought of as the result of a “dumb”
nanite system that only “knows how” to create one effect.
One form that such a dumb nano-system can take
is the nanotattoo: perhaps some group of sapients in
your game knows how to safely inject a small amount of
nanites into the bloodstream so as to allow the
recipient to command them to spew or defrict… Perhaps
these nanotattoos are outlawed by the Co. and thus
cost upwards of 10,000 gl to obtain. Perhaps a certain
nanotattooist is known to make trades with voidminers…

Wetware form factors

d8

1 Nanotattoo (“wire tattoo”)

2 Deep-brain shunt

3 Adrenaline-activated injector-implant full of nanties

4 Red-chrome “mummy wraps” (nanite-soaked

gauze)

5 Eyedrops that glow weakly in the dark

6 Red crystal spleen (makes the body prone to

informatic infection)

7 Prosthetic limb

8 Red wire hair (replaces non-wire hair)

188 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WIRES

Example wetware

the weaknesses of the High Tephnians.

To hide one’s shame from the Red
Imprezzas, who associated Luna with
Foods commonly craved by
Late Tephnians and LT sleepers d20
Nautilus (standard) – Burn 30 −dREA GRT: you tack—
open, close, or change the destination of—a stiffworks. 1 Basalt-cured sloth eyelids in methamphetamine
The GM may impose other restrictions depending on gravy
the type. Your “nautilus” is a visible thing stuck in your 2 Calcined mosasaurus tongue mosaic
head, and it makes other humans uncomfortable. Costs
3 Charred sumac hearts and annular-ring shank nails
and mechanics vary by the stiffworks. Open stiffworks
remain open for 10 minutes per tack… usually. 4 Conodont tenderloin with beevenom-laced chapati

5 Crispy cathode puffs

Nanotech
6 Deep-fried placoderm with acetone dip

7 Electropolished dianthus rolled in confectioner’s

sugar

and the 8

9
“Festival jelly” (rhenium-spiced squid eggs
suspended in dolphin brain)

Fregula with ground electric eel and quicksilver

human body 10

11
Hyena neck stuffed with sea pen and dusted with
anthrax

“Lunar ortolans” (chondrites, swallowed whole,

with one’s eyes/sensory organs covered)

12 Magnetic gravlax

“The Sea of Our Origins” 13 Metallized charnia fronds in maafe

14 Pyroprocessed trilobite with bergamot-tea reduction

What really happens when you allow a swarm of nanoro-
15 Runner beans in molten cryolite sauce
bots to nest inside of you? Does it itch? Does it make
you sweat? Does it make you feel a tingle, a rush, a pep 16 Sintered cyclomedusa rings

in your proverbial step? How does it affect your pride, to 17 Smoked nanoprocessor paired with suan cai
know that your circulatory system could be smarter than 18 Steamed dicksonia tossed with microraptor hocks
you? Does it scare you, to think that your “indigestion”
19 Steelhead trout jaw stewed in industrial ammonia
could be a sign of civil war within…?
The following sections explore aspects of living 20 Wolf tartare brushed with caramelized tantalum

with nanites that can spice up your games, quite aside

from powers, archaetech, rogue androids, and other
traditional sci-fi RPG fare.

Nanotech “food”
Would allowing many trillions of robots to reproduce
inside you lead you to eat more, and to eat differently?
What if you could digest almost anything? What if
you began to crave sensations beyond the bounds of
ordinary human gustation?
Optional rule: If you are a sleeper and/or a blooder
and you eat one of these foods, roll a number of d4s
equal to the food’s number in the table. For every
result of 1, you lose d2 HEA. For every result of 4, you
gain d3 GRT. This can boost your GRT over its ordinary
maximum.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH06 ☉ MARKET TECH, ARCHAETECH, & NANOTECH 189
Nanite diseases 3 Tephnian flux (nanite ulcer, AKA Heskettgut) –
Your nanites are eating you alive, in some fashion.
Over time, without the aid of advanced imaging tech- Whenever you are about to enter initiative, roll a
nologies and personalized nanomedicines, the burden d6: on a 1, your ulcer is flaring up, and you suffer
disadvantage on the initiative check and lose your
of the interior sea grows too great, and the frail human first round of action. You also moan, grumble, and
body succumbs. Sometimes, nothing physical appears whinge peevishly unless drinking yoghurt, kefir,
amiss, but the blooder’s behavior becomes erratic. or the like.

(Likewise, the strain of years burdening the mindbody of 4 Ipseity pox (mixautosis) – Each day, your nanites
a sleeper may break their spirit…) restructure your face and voice. Thus, each day, roll
a d8 to randomly determine your CHA score:
The following are diseases and disorders associated
with nanotechnology. It is up to the GM if they affect 4.1 d3
d8
informatic as well as biological beings, but since nanites 4.2 d4
are themselves informatic (or blur the biological/abiotic 4.3 d6
distinction), there is no reason they cannot affect all
4.4 d6
characters.
The chances of contracting a nanite disease vary 4.5 d8

(according to the GM): these can be used as risks 4.6 d10

attached to certain environments (technoruins infested 4.7 d10
with dumbly self-replicating nanorobots), risks attached
4.8 d12
to encounters with xenofauna, and/or risks attached to
the handling and use of nano-stratum archaetech. 5 Leechyveins (nanite scurvy) – You experience a
gradually increasing feeling of weakness throughout
The simplest way to deal with this type of risk is to the body, and your teeth (or analogs thereof) begin
have a player roll a d6 when their character first encoun- to loosen and eventually fall out. Your MOV and CHA
ters an infested entity: on a 1, the character is infected scores both lower by one die type. Leechyveins is
easily cured, however, by proper medical attention
with something and must roll on the table below. (e.g., the pir power heal or better) and a day of rest.
To determine if an exposed character contracts a
6 Turgidbrain (nanite flush) – As the nanorobots that
specific nanite disease (e.g., if a herd of Galilean beetles have crossed the blood-brain barrier essentially
is infected with nanite rash but only nanite rash), have press random levers in your psyche, you experience
their player roll a d20 and subtract the number of the extreme emotional lability. Your WIL score lowers
by one die type. Turgidbrain can be cured by proper
disease on the table below. If the result is less than 6, medical attention (e.g., the pir power heal or better)
then they’ve contracted the disease. (This way, some and d4 days of rest.
diseases are more contagious than others.) 7 Glorious vigiliae (nanite “glow”) – Your nanites
make you look and feel great. Your CHA score goes
Nanite maladies, somatic and up by one die type. You sleep (or meditate, defrag,
psychological, that are known to the Co. d12 etc.) much less, however, and suffer disadvantage
on pool recovery rolls. Vigiliae is difficult to cure, re-
quiring a proper lab (e.g., the pir power bioengineer
1 Mirrorskull (nanite Cotard’s) – You believe you are or relevant bio- or nano-stratum archaetech) and d6
dead, so you are simply allowing your nanites to do days of rest.
what they want with your lifeless body. This disorder
is entirely non-somatic and can’t be cured without 8 Nanomelencolia (nanite ague) – Your nanites
extensive therapy. In game terms, a pir must listen make you feel sick—achy, feverish, congested, and
to you 12 −their dWIL times; then you may make lethargic. You cough loudly, constantly. Your CHA
a standard 6+ WIL/empathize check to recover and MOV scores each go down by one type. Nano-
some sense of your own being alive. You will always melencolia is hard to cure, requiring a proper lab
retain the sneaking suspicion that you are, in fact, (e.g., the pir power bioengineer or relevant bio-
actually dead. or nano-stratum archaetech) and d6 days of rest.
In addition, it can easily infect others who share the
2 Wasting pox (nanite “pregnancy”) – Your nanites same atmo as you: each day they spend time near
are trying to pull some of your body to make a new you, they must make a 5+ WIL/resist world check
and better body for themselves. Each day, make a or else come down with the ague themselves.
standard WIL/resist world check or else lose d8
HEA permanently. This disorder is very hard to cure,
and you feel energized by it. You simply lose weight
rapidly, and the diffuse cloud of nanites around
you grows rapidly in size.

190 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WIRES

 9 Miner’s chag (nanite clappan) – Your nanites make Signs of a nanite disease
your body itch and burn. You permanently lose d10
d4 GRT. Clappan can be cured by proper medical
attention (e.g., the pir power heal or better) 1 Bubbles of dark gray snot
and d4 days of rest. Whenever you are intimate
with someone, however, they must make a 6+ 2 Raspy breath
WIL/resist world check or else contract the 3 Ammonia- or metallic-smelling breath
disease.
4 Glowing blue patches of flesh
10 UDUG (nanite “lycanthropy”) – Your nanites
occasionally take over and turn you into a raw red 5 Lengthened and/or sharpened teeth and nails
hulk, a shivering “dæmonic” “werebeast” known in
Late Tephnian as an UDUG. (The name of the 6 Many additional simple eyes
disease and the “werebeast” is the same.) When 7 Sticky red hairs all over
UDUG strikes, your COM and MOV scores both go
up by one die type, and your WIL and CHA scores 8 Increased height
lower by one die type. As an UDUG, you deal 2d12
unarmed damage plus bleed 1. But you savagely 9 Weight loss
attack whatever being is nearest to you, friend 10 You leave a trail of “dead ants” (inert nanite clumps)
or foe. You seek to kill and eat whatever moves in
your presence. The turning conditions and chances
of curing UDUG are slightly different for every
patient (d4):

10.1 You turn into UDUG for d30 −dWIL minutes

d4 (minimum 1) once every 25 hours. Your
UDUG can be cured only by consuming an
aliquot of Blood. The new nanites will
overcode the corrupted “werebeast” ones.

10.2 You turn into UDUG for 20 −dWIL rounds

(minimum 1) whenever you enter combat
or otherwise experience gore, the threat of
violence, or extreme emotions. Your UDUG
can be cured by finding a powerful LT comm
system and reprogramming your nanites.
This requires access to such a system (the
Archivists will deny having one, although they
certainly do) and either a 12+ REA/use tech
check or the use of the banshee power jack
at a cost of 20 GRT (complexity 4 nano).

10.3 You turn into UDUG 12 −dWIL rounds

(minimum 1) whenever you become aroused,
manic, or positively impassioned. Your
UDUG can only be cured by forming a deep,
long-lasting, intimate connection with
another sapient entity (GM’s discretion how
this works, but it definitely takes time).

10.4 You turn into UDUG 8 −dWIL rounds

(minimum 1) whenever you use drugs of any
kind or eat very strong food (including any
nanotech food). Your UDUG can be cured by
being reduced to zero HEA and 1 GRT (i.e.,
having a near-death experience).

11 Deep red seep (nanite poisoning) – Your body is

lined with red, varicose streaks. You periodically
experience extreme retching and shivers. Your MOV
score lowers by two die types (minimum d3). This
affects your total HEA score. Seep can be cured by
proper medical attention (e.g., the pir power heal or
better) and d4 days of rest.

12 Raxers (nanite rash) – Itchy purple blisters erupt

across a portion of your body. (Informatic beings
experience a cognate virtual “itch.”) Your CHA score
lowers by one die type, and you permanently lose
d4 HEA. Raxers is easily cured by proper medical
attention (e.g., the pir power heal or better) and
a day of rest. But even after being cured, your body
is striped by long, thin violet-orange scars.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH06 ☉ MARKET TECH, ARCHAETECH, & NANOTECH 191
 C H 0 7 ☉ P L AY I N G STI L L F L E E T

To regulate the suns

You have your characters; they have gear; the GM has
that evil glint in their eye… What happens next? This
chapter addresses the process of finding a job on-Spin,
tacking out, interacting with aliens, dealing with the
nuisances of travel on earthlike worlds, and (hopefully)
returning to Spindle to sell off bags full of mysterious
technical crap and write up a venture report.

“Screams” consists largely of descriptions and examples of

common scenes, not rules. These are intended primarily
for players. The final chapters of the book offer more
extensive tips for GMs vis-à-vis designing and running
ventures, and creating memorable settings and aliens.

If you are an experienced roleplayer or are using the

Stillfleet system to play a game set in a very different
narrative universe, then you can skip this chapter
without missing too much—other than the handy
random weather table and a 100-item list of items you
can sell profitably back to an early modern corporation
in space! But if you’re looking for a simple way to
structure your group’s first few ventures, read on!

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH07 ☉ PLAYING STILLFLEET 193

 VENTURING FORTH

Go, wondrous creature! mount where Science guides;

Go measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides;
Instruct the planets in what orbs to run,
Correct old Time, and regulate the sun…
—Alexander Pope, “An Essay on Man,” 1734.

Creating a contract
What is a Regardless of who is offering which venture, it will

venture?
consist of three major components: a task in need of
doing, context regarding the task, and a fee for
completing the task. The contract to undertake the
task for a fee, along with any contextual information, is
collectively called the venture dossier—whatever official

The venture contract information the PCs get before tacking out. Note:
more information may exist, but the PCs will have to
For GMs, a good first step for running a game is either work for it.
thinking through one or more ventures that you’d like The official dossier doesn’t have to be a physical file
the players to consider, or rolling up one at random. This or even a full paragraph of read-aloud text. It’s an
thought process is covered in the last chapter. The game’s abstraction—a task, a fee, and maybe some context.
venture-design philosophy, summarized in one sentence, The task that needs doing varies. “Context” also varies
is: offer the PCs a mix of settings and plots, and when widely: it may consist of pages of Archival data, an
in doubt, roll on one of the book’s randomized tables or incomplete map, or nothing at all. Typical venture
use the app STRINGS! dossiers contain thick stacks of out-of-date Archival
For players, the first step in setting out on an official data, flagged here and there with questions for the
Co. venture is acquiring one. Technically, this means voidminers considering the venture. That is, more
meeting with a refactor and signing a venture contract questions than answers.
stamped with the seal of the Directorate’s Afdeling of The fee, on the other hand, is standardized at a rate
the Fleet or that of the Void, for hulkside and rockside of 25 gl per fleeter per Co. level. Bonuses of 50, 100,
ventures, respectively. (See “Profits” for more on how 200, or even more for hazard pay give GMs leeway
the Directorate works.) to reward PCs for extremely dangerous ventures—and
Technically, all venture contracts are offered via to force them to choose among options (less risk versus
refactors, or operations officers of the Directorate more pay).
who work out of the Basilikon. In practice, sometimes Before signing a venture contract, players should
ventures are run off the book, not by refactors but by ask questions of their refactor. They must understand,
Senior Archivists, wetan mafia bosses, guild secretaries, however, that many queries will be ignored, deemed
corrupt Eaters of the Dead (gendarmes), subdirectors, unanswerable, or answered with ambiguities or lies.
or even directors themselves. So the PCs may pick
Q: Is the unknown habitable planet in fact
out a random flier for a venture in the first few room- inhabited, say, by giant flying scorpions?
blobs of the Basilikon or run into a shady character A1: We don’t know—please find out!
A2: Definitely not.
in the Canteen.
A3: I don’t think “giant” is a fair descriptor

194 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / SCREAMS

 Stillfleet falls into the grimdark genre not only because of its patina of abandoned
spaceship corridors, fallen technological relics, and constant biomechanical dangers, but
because of its assumption of a future for capitalist extraction and exploitation. In fact,
the continuation of capitalism into the far future is the game’s grimmest, darkest premise.

The goal of the game, in this register, is not to simply bash capi-
AUTHORS’ NOTE: THE C WORDS: talism as a totalizing bogey-concept (everything bad = capitalism)—
CAPITALISM AND COLONIALISM nor, certainly, to cast the PCs as gung-ho colonizers. Instead, the
goals are a) to explore some of the general feelings of laboring
within capitalism (in one sense, voidminers are people “just doing
This feature courtesy Wythe Marschall, Ethan Gould, Stephen

Straight up—Stillfleet is a game about capitalism (the economic

system in which a few individuals privately own the means of their jobs” within a corrupt system because they don’t see any real
Aubrey, and Jedd Cole. Many thanks to Patrick Davison.

production and exploit the wage-labor of most other people to alternative… yet); and b) to explore the cultural particulars of one
make commodities for profit) and colonialism (the systematic and form of capitalism-to-come, and in doing so, to give the players
violent domination of peoples and their native lands with the aim space to think in ways that will resonate long after table-time. That
is, the goal is to use the game (a fiction) as a fun way to think about

If you’re concerned about the political economy of Terra at +0 million years

podcast or this short book about the politics of climate disruption and what
in the future (today), but you aren’t sure where to start, we recommend a
of economic extraction). In the game, the voidminers, taking jobs
on behalf of the capitalists who govern a small but powerful who controls technology and knowledge production, along with
plutocracy, travel to distant worlds in order to exploit them. Hell, other questions of political economy that are as important in 2022
this book even directly references the Dutch East India Company. CE as they are in 100,002,022 CE.
But Stillfleet is not at all a celebration of capitalism or colonialism. One of the consequences of the game-design goal just
Instead, the point of Stillfleet is to tell stories about capitalism articulated is that Stillfleet—like other politically charged RPGs
and alternative economic systems that may arise and supplant it (the fantasy–spy game Spire comes to mind, as do classics
from within—not because capitalism is great, but because it’s the such as Paranoia and Cyberpunk)—can open up challenging and
system in which we, Stillfleet’s designers (like many players), find uncomfortable moments of gameplay in which players must

we can do, collectively, to make a positive difference.

ourselves stuck. We were raised in the United States, which at +0 make highly imperfect compromises or even become complicit in
million years in the future is an active colonial power with global unethical corporate behavior. You are free to tone this discomfort
sway. With this as the backdrop, we have set up the voidminers with down or play it up. Some groups enjoy using RPGs to think through
the tools to transform or destroy a similarly rapacious system of urgent political questions. Others want an escape from reality—a
extraction—to do something about capitalism—in the far future. game about exploring new worlds, fighting off space-kraken, and
How and even whether they choose to do so is part of the tension saving distressed space-townspeople.
inherent in the game. Our advice? Read the room. And never offer only escape. But also,
This tension can take on different forms at the table. A venal don’t make the Co. a consistently cartoonish colonizer–villain. True,
space-company with a smattering of advanced technologies the Co. is not good, but it can be complex in its badness. Moreover,
could seek not only to trade with, but oppress, exploit, and even making the PCs complicit in acts of heinous evil (ranging from
erase the scattered remnants of multiple Terran diasporas. Such a extortion to genocide) probably won’t lead to any profound
company could send settlers to new habitable worlds, seeking to moments of moral reflection, just some bummed-out friends.
control these worlds as colonies rather than respecting them as For more information on the relationship between capitalism and
sovereign markets or politically affiliated provinces. This science colonialism, we recommend the following books and podcasts:
fictional situation would echo the darkest realities of humanity’s
past and present: imperialism and colonialism might arise and • Vincent Bevins, The Jakarta Method: Washington’s
intensify as capitalism progresses, leading to extreme inequality, Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program
dispossession, racialized forms of enslavement, the strategic that Shaped Our World
underdevelopment of the colonies, and immiseration on a scale • Nick Estes, Our History is the Future: Standing Rock Versus
difficult for the colonizers themselves to comprehend. the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of
You are free to run Stillfleet this way, constructing the Co. as a Indigenous Resistance
purely abhorrent settler-colonial enterprise to be undermined by • Franz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth
the heroic PCs. This makes Stillfleet more like fantasy RPGs in which • Richard Follett, Sven Beckert, Peter Coclanis, and Barbara M.
there are truly “evil” beings that simply must be slain by heroes. The Hahn, Plantation Kingdom: The American South and Its Global
point of going on ventures becomes clear for the voidminers: life Commodities
under the Co. is untenable; the Co. must die for the rest of us to live • Gerald Horne, The Counterrevolution of 1776: Slave Resistance
and thrive; and we (a specific group of elites trained by the Co.) are and the Origins of the United States
well-poised to help overthrow it. • Henry Hakamaki, Adnan Husain, and Breht O’Shea, Guerilla
As written, however, the Directorate is not interested in colonies History [podcast]
for a number of reasons: there aren’t that many Fleeters; colonies • Mathew Lawrence and Laurie Laybourn-Langton, Planet on Fire:
require a lot of labor to manage; and the provincials and other A Manifesto for the Age of Environmental Breakdown
colonials can’t be trusted to keep working for the Co. and not, say, • Andreas Malm, How to Blow Up a Pipeline
take over the Co. Note, the point here is not that the directors are • Jason W. Moore and Raj Patel, A History of the World in
moral beings, only that they are focused on arbitrage and salvage, Seven Cheap Things: A Guide to Capitalism, Nature, and
not settlement. Thus, as written, the directors hope that various the Future of the Planet
human, wetan, and other sapient polities remain healthy enough to • Brett O’Shea, Revolutionary Left Radio [podcast]
trade with (and take advantage of) while not becoming so powerful, • Vijay Prashad, Washington Bullets: A History of the CIA,
curious, or technologically advanced as to pose a threat to the Co. Coups, and Assassinations
This makes for political tightrope-walking more akin to the Cold • Musa Springer and Darien Alexander Williams, Groundings
War than the Scramble for Africa. Such a balancing act creates a [podcast]
game in which players have the agency to explore a “sandbox” • Françoise Vergès, A Decolonial Feminism
world that is indeed dark (many apocalypses have come and gone, • Harsha Walia, Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism,
and others appear on the horizon) but also vividly real (people go and the Rise of Racist Nationalism
about their lives, apocalypses be damned).

This opens up the option of playing through the rise Salvage, in fact, lies at the heart of the game on
of a New Co.—one which receives as the spoils of a fractal level, all the way down to item discovery.
civil war the opportunity to dream the same nightmare
over again under new management (as has happened in
recent centuries within our own timeline).

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH07 ☉ PLAYING STILLFLEET 195

 Elements of a venture dossier Non-Directorate jobs
1. Objective (task)
Many organizations and sub-organiza-
Where are you going, and why? This one should be clear, e.g.: “kill the Escheresque tions hire voidminers to engage in dan-
fogwraith guarding the ruins of the Late Tephnian frigate PGF DAASAAL•UUB”;
“rescue Subdirector Kethro’s son from the Usunan pyrates on Calarash”; “explore
gerous and potentially lucrative work
the moon Requlmun IX and report back.” GMs, this is really the only venture dossier in space, on hulks, out in the provinces,
element (along with fee) that you need to be able to speak to in any depth; the rest and on Terra mater. In fact, it is pos-
can consist of vague and obscure MacGuffinry.
sible to play Stillfleet without ever lean-
ing on the default scenario in which the
2. Sub-objective/s (task) PCs work for a refactor reporting up
Optional. Secret missions; sketchy notes on long-term Co. objectives; “side quests,” etc.
the chain of command within the Di-
rectorate. Other organizations that hire
mercenaries for jobs include (d6):
3. Raison d’être (task/context)
Optional. The real reason for sending voidminers on a certain quest may be 1 The powerful Wetan Mafia (see
somewhat or entirely different from the stated objective… Discovering this should “Profits”)
involve bribing, mind-reading, or—most audaciously for some players—chatting
with their refactor. Remember, a voidminer rolls CHA/control to pump their boss
2 The rich and human-chauvinist
for information; the refactor rolls WIL/resist other to dissemble. Most low-level Calayat Resource Management
refactors have d8 or d10 WIL. Subcommittee (see “Patterns”)
3 The ascendant Federation of
4. Tack map (task) Unhuman Kingdoms on Terra
(see “Patterns”)
Optional. How to get to the objective: usually an arcane chart and series of code
snippets detailing how to interact with the living machinery of Spindle in such 4 The scheming Pharmacopoeitic
a way as to open a Malkovich tunnel to a specific location. These instructions Cartel on Carlivago (see “Patterns”)
appear meaningless to a non-banshee but are closely guarded secrets of the 5 Various solo “operators”—
Archive. Sometimes the tack map is a physical object, like a key that opens a
stiffworks at the objective. essentially, freelance refactors, a
class of criminal despised by the Co.
6 H.Co.—the Worshipful Company’s
5. Map (context) anarcho-socialist twin, always
Optional. GMs, consider not giving out a map but having one on hand to be seeking its downfall.
discovered later by the PCs, or painstakingly recreated. It is assumed that all
voidminers know a bit about the geographies of Terra and the major provinces: i.e.,
in underschool, they’ve looked over the maps in the Waverlay Museum. A PC can
also roll REA/know to already know more about a given destination, including all of
This one time, we realized the guy
the non-redacted text about it in this book. The difficulty of the check is determined who hired us to close down Blood
by the classification level of the information: Quartz Mountain set us up, see?
a. The major provinces (common) – 5+
b. The minor provinces, or obscure regions of the major provinces (esoteric) – 6+
Because of the giant frog, see? So
c. Terra, major polities, e.g., Vennar, the Federation of Unhuman Kingdoms we went down to Calayat through
(sensitive) – 7+ the haunted Mountain, but tucked
d. Alien worlds, known, or obscure regions of Terra (confidential) – 9+
e. Deepvoid alien worlds such as Tnín (classified) – 12+
tail and came back up through the
f. The Escheresque (top-secret) – 15+ Song Stones, because we figured,
why not? What do we owe this
sack of lemur farts? Nada! But
6. Notes regarding likely threats (context) then, coming back, we got blown
Optional. This may comprise a history of the objective or a list of gear that the off course heading to Wetana, and
voidminers should definitely bring along. For example, tents and rations make wouldn’t you know who picked us
sense when venturing for weeks on a forest-covered world.
up in his big fancy new carrack—?

7. Notes regarding likely rewards (context)

Optional. Maybe one fleeter, ages ago, returned from a failed venture to this
objective gibbering about an Ancient lab filled with working comms—powered by
weak solar wind—still blinking and humming in the quiet…

8. Fee
25 gl per PC per level, plus optional hazard pay.

196 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / SCREAMS

Cadence Gearing up
The general cadence of the game goes like this: the Once the PCs have signed up for a venture, they need to
PCs agree as a group to take on an official venture with plan for it and—depending on where they are going—
the Co. This involves signing a contract with a refactor. literally suit up, as in put
Why envirosuits? They add tension
For example, maybe they are hired to investigate a dead on envirosuits: these are
to your stories: if they’re damaged
Ancient ship (a “hulk”) or the ruins of Tephnian colony; bulky, wear-and-tear-re-
in combat, their wearers begin
or maybe they are hired to quell (or inspire) a rebel- sistant, species-specific
to lose atmo and they require
lion among farmers on a distant backwater, or to steal a “space suits” with small
patching. This makes even minor
powerful techno-artifact from a void-elf scholar in orbit packs for canisters of
encounters in low- or zero-atmo
around Jupiter. compressed Spin-quality
environments potentially deadly
Then the party tacks out from Spindle (unless the (i.e., Terran) atmo. When
and a lot more interesting.
venture is on-Spin). Wacky/deadly space-hijinks ensue. they sign up to work for
Perhaps a plot twist or two occurs. Eventually, the survi- the Co., each voidminer is issued a free envirosuit that
vors return to Spindle to turn in an official report of what fits their body plan. (See below.)
happened to their Refactor, sell any archaetech they col- If the PCs are headed into a hulk or onto an unknown
lected to the Co., collect their pay—and level up. Repeat! rock, then envirosuits are a must. If they are headed

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH07 ☉ PLAYING STILLFLEET 197

to Terra or a major province, they may skip the actual system, it is the pride of the Archive, perhaps the one
envirosuit. But many fleeters feel more comfortable technology in which the Archivists feel truly confident.
wearing one just in case. And for a biological voidminer, an envirosuit can mean
Note: in game terms, all armor is compatible with an the difference between life and death.
envirosuit. Generally, Spin-made suits are cheap but, A suit has three states: functional, compromised, and
thankfully, flexible, so armor tends to go on the outside. wrecked (or, in Archival terms, “fucked”).
Exosuits must be worn outside of envirosuits. On the Whenever a voidminer wearing a suit takes damage
other hand, voidminers who wear living armor (metal- while in an environment in which they don’t need the
shelled beetles) often allow it to dwell inside of their suit, nothing happens, in mechanical terms. Sure—the
suits, which takes a little more atmo but provides a little suit is torn up, but the voidminer is trained in basic suit
more heat (and free waste removal). It is up to you how repair and simply takes care of it after combat (if they
you want to imagine your armor and suit interacting. live). It remains functional.

If keeping track of every patch sounds

fun to you, go nuts! Otherwise, let it go.
(Draw a diagram!) But when a voidminer wearing a suit takes damage
Regarding metaphorically “suiting up,” the PCs can while in an environment in which they do need the suit—
purchase any standard market tech described in the in hard vacuum or a cloud of volcanic ash, e.g.—the suit
chapter “Wires” in the Canteen. They can repair broken becomes compromised, and the voidminer wearing it
stuff from prior ventures. They can roll REA checks to must spend time and effort holding a hand/claw over the
find special goods—illicit drugs, archaetech, fine art, rip/bullethole, holding their breath, quickly unscrewing
rare xeno pets, whatever they want—and CHA checks to the cap of a glue-tube, switching feeder lines from the
haggle down astronomical prices. main to the backup atmo canister, etc. This increased
Depending on the playstyle and time commitments of cognitive and physical burden means the voidminer
your group, gearing up can be something perfunctory must make all checks with disadvantage until they spend
that happens “offscreen” or another way to add liveliness a standard action and successfully make a standard (6+)
to the characters’ homes: which friends or rivals do they REA/make/repair check to quick-patch their suit. Quick-
see in the Canteen as they run down their checklist of patching a suit returns it to functional status. (Note, an-
venture gear? other person can make the REA/repair check in place of
the person whose suit is compromised.)
When a voidminer wearing a compromised suit rolls a
Rush job 1 on any check, suffers more than 20 damage in 1 round,
takes damage with burn, takes damage from high-com-
If you want the PCs to get moving, make this a rush job! plexity archaetech (generally, all 5–6-complexity, non-
Maybe their refactor is under a tight deadline and of- clank tech, and all bug and Escheresque tech), or other-
fering double base pay for them to get moving within wise faces a catastrophe (GM’s choice), the suit becomes
the next half hour. This means up to 3 visits to standard wrecked. A wrecked suit doesn’t work at all. In hard
store-room-blobs or 1 roll for finding rare stuff per PC, vacuum or the sulfuric clouds of Venus, e.g.: the person
which should curtail excessive shopaholism. On the wearing it—if biological or otherwise not immune to ex-
other hand, some great characters, side ventures, and treme environments—is likely going to die.
even whole campaigns have sprung from letting the PCs The moment a suit becomes wrecked, the voidminer
do whatever they want in the relatively safe bosom of wearing it must make a single 7+ MOV or REA check—a
Spindle. lunge to safety or a MacGyver level fix. If they succeed,
then they somehow make it to their nearest colleague’s
suit and nab a patch, etc. Their suit is now merely com-

Acquiring and fixing promised. Otherwise, in hard vac, a biological voidminer

blacks out due to lack of oxygen and dies within a few

envirosuits minutes due to ebullism (the formation of bubbles in the

blood due to a reduction in pressure). A voidminer in a
Each PC starts with one standard envirosuit that fits cloud of sulfuric acid or astral plasma… melts.
them (5 clank and 2 bio, worth 40 gl). Nothing fancy, just GMs, poke holes in the PCs’ suits and force them take
a suit, helmet, some atmo in a canister, a wristlet that actions to patch up! This is a great way to add stakes to
shows whether there is Terran atmo outside, and a man- any encounter in the void, even one that appears rela-
ual—no-doubt for a slightly different model. This suit it- tively low-risk.
self is basically thick layers of mycelial duct tape, grown
GMs: be harsh but fair: give a spaced PC one chance—
rapidly and meant to be easily patched. As a complete
that is, one roll—to somehow dive to safety.

198 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / SCREAMS

THE STANDARD ARCHIVAL
ENVIRONMENT SUIT

STANDARD COMPONENTS OPTIONAL COMPONENTS

BAT – Battery ICH – Inner comfort helmet BIO – Bioport

BIO – Bioinstrumentation harness LHA – Life support pack (LSP) harness EXO – Exosuit integration harness
BOT – Boots LPO – Life support pack (LSP) port (free for stillrijders)
CHI – Chiasmus AKA life support pack (LSP) LSP – Life support pack MDH – Micro-drone housing
housing OTH – Outer toughskyn helmet and MIC – Comms interface AKA microphone
CSB – Constitutional body suit anti-glare visor MLS – Miniaturized limb servos
DBH – Dual biokinetic headlamps SCR – Scrubbing system PMT – Personal mobility thrusters and
DIS – Display and control panel SUT – Suit miniaturized fuel canister
ETH – Extensible work vest (EWV) tether TMT – Thermetronoming system RED – Redundant life support pack (LSP)
EWV – Extensible work vest TPD – Tongue-manipulated pharmaceutical SEB – Sensor bracer
GLO – Gloves dispenser VDK – Variable device kit
HEL – Helmet WET – Wetcycling system VWH – Variable weapon housing

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH07 ☉ PLAYING STILLFLEET 199

 Rules for tacking on-Spin
Tacking Tacking out from a Malkovich tunnel on Spindle is

out
relatively easy: any character with the power tack (i.e.,
any banshee) can, as a standard action, burn 2 GRT and
open any stiffworks in the Near Bays.
In the Far Bays, they must burn 2d10 GRT and pass
a standard REA check. This represents the effort and

The banshee takes uncertainty involved in trying to parse an Archival

quantum ledger (or whatever MacGuffin you choose to

center stage function as a user guide for the alien warpgate).

Tacking out from the Dormant Bays should always be
The final step of leaving for a venture is to actually leave. a unique experience, requiring a lot of effort (2d20 GRT
This means climbing rickety mycelial-wooden ladders and a difficult, 9+, REA check) and coming with some
down to the Bays and opening a standard on-Spin danger of ending up at a random destination—perhaps
stiffworks—that is, a Malkovich tunnel. nowhere at all.
Each of Spindle’s outermost room-blobs features

Experiencing a Malkovich
a smooth, funnel-shaped hole in the wall, just large
enough for a wetan or large human to start crawling
down, that continues on… forever. When tacked to a
destination and “opened,” the famous Malkovich tunnels
tunnel
become stable gates between two timespace loci. Nar- Crawling down/through a Malkovich tunnel is both
ratively, they serve as starting points for most ventures, simple—it’s a wide hole in an edifice of smooth, black
once the PCs have a signed contract from a refactor. stone that seems to go on forever, straight and lightless,
Where you go in the room-blobs that make up the narrowing as it continues—and utterly weird: crawling
Bays is up to your destination, and will typically be not- down an opened tunnel means entering total, constrict-
ed on your tack map. Terra and the major provinces are ing darkness, and then “tipping,” ever so slightly, and
easy to get to, and the relevant tunnels are all high up in widening again towards whatever lies beyond.
the Near Bays. The minor provinces can be trickier to What that means varies by destination: the tunnel
locate, and the tunnels linking out to alien worlds are of- always “tips out” at a fixed halfway point; gravity swings
ten located deep beyond the last inhabited room-blobs. to pull in another direction, or ceases to pull at all. If
All of the stiffworks on-Spin work in the same way: tacked to Terra, sunlight or moons-light will stream
a banshee touches the wall nearby, thinks at the alien into the tunnel as the crawler advances. If tacked to a
“mind”/“OS” of Spindle… and then… nothing visually lightless, fully enclosed room aboard a hulk, the tunnel
happens. But the Malkovich tunnel opens, linking Spin- will remain dark.
dle and some other place, for ten minutes. For first-timers, bending time and space is un-
How exactly does a banshee open a stiffworks? forgettable: the PCs will be cramped, crawl-
Interfacing with Spindle isn’t like operating a computer; ing down a smooth, lightless, room-temperature
it’s a series of feelings and visions. But it is, like using stone tunnel—toward an entirely different physics
a computer, a technical task. The banshee must Half of us are used to it by now, that Malkovich
concentrate, think at—and then with—the alien station tilt. We even half-crave it. … We won’t tell you
in a specific manner. which half is which, though.” —The infamous
mournfolk banshee “Winkin’ Zozz”/“Scowlin’
Zaast.
No banshee?

If none of the PCs is a banshee, the Co. will appoint

one to work with them. This NPC can be full of quirks
or largely functional; it’s up to you. But this banshee
should not necessarily be trustworthy or even friendly.
They are there to work, not make friends. Shared hard-
ship may lead them to join the team in spirit as well as
name, or they may sell the PCs out to an alien mafioso.

200 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / SCREAMS

 Gut (or gut-equivalent) wrenching
Regardless of the physics involved, tacking and crawling
through always leads to an unpleasant sensation
in the gut (or gut-equivalent): bending the laws of
physics stresses the mind, which in turn stresses the
body. How strongly the nausea of stiffworks-travel
affects any given character is up to their player—unless
the GM calls for a WIL/resist world check to test that
character’s resolve: failure means losing d4 GRT from
vomiting, a panic attack, or some other unpleasant
reaction to the experience.

Voidmining
101
The other side of the tunnel
What happens next of course varies by venture. But a few
elements tend to be common. Voidminers often explore
new lands or ships and meet strangers of all kinds.
Exploring means everything from walking through
populous towns on Terra or the provinces to encounter-
ing limitless strange technoruins and xenoflora—forests
of indigo fungoids, craters underneath binary stars, or
acid lakes dense with intelligent squid.
Before the PCs go exploring, however, slow down: if
this is their first venture, or their first venture rockside,
Travel
take the time to describe the disorientation they experi- Travel times during ventures vary wildly—and they
ence upon tacking onto a Goldilocks world: typically don’t matter much. Depending on the style
of game your group enjoys, you can realistically play
Omniscient narrator: through all journeys, rolling for random encounters
along the way. Or—if you don’t have a lot of time or
While the gravity, sunlight, and atmo on-Spin prefer to focus on a non-random plot—you can
perfectly ape those on Terra, you have never jump from scene to scene, narrating long journeys as
before stood under a real sol, feeling the real summaries of impressionistic montages.
tug of billions of kilograms of iron pin you to the To determine realistic travel times, generously assume
ground before. You have never taken a breath so that professional voidminers carrying suits, rations,
free of the metallic after-taste of old algae. You water, guns, swords, and/or loot can walk 25–50 km per
have never seen a wind not generated by a fan, day across relatively flat, dry terrain or 12–20 km per day
nor a single dried leaf blown by that wind past across difficult terrain, between rests. This represents
the door of an abandoned home. You have never doing nothing but marching. Riding a mount such as the
seen a non-albino dragonfly… If your species common zog (riding chicken) or jird (horse-sized desert
has tear ducts, they are now operant. gerbil), a voidminer can cross 18–160 km of flat terrain
or 40–60 km of tough terrain per day. This represents
doing nothing but riding.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH07 ☉ PLAYING STILLFLEET 201

 Amazing ship design by
Hyperdrive Fleet. Support
them on Patreon!

Each day of travel costs 1 ration, if you are keeping Along with distances and encounters, another aspect
track. Roll at least 1 random encounter per day. You can of travel to consider is the weather. This can be a banal
also abstract away units of measurement into encounter summary (it rains…) or a brutal obstacle (…knives). For
rolls: regardless of the distance in km, stiffworks X can random possibilities, consult the table.
be said to lie 1 encounter—or d4—from town Y. A simple Of course, a given set of weather conditions may not
way to roll for random encounters is to have one of the make sense on a given world; tweak the specifics as
players roll a d6 for every abstract unit of journey: on needed to accord with the local climate. To generate
a 2 or 3, the PCs encounter something potentially dan- more realistic weather on a Goldilocks world, roll d20
gerous; on a 1, they are ambushed by something that is when the voidminers first arrive. Each day thereafter,
definitely dangerous. roll a d4, where a 1 represents −1, a 2 represents no
If you plan to jump from location to location, go change, a 3 represents a +1, and a 4 represents a +2.
around the table describing what each PC does during Apply this result to the current weather condition. So if
the journey. Who hangs out with whom? What do it’s stormy one day, it will probably rain again the next,
you talk about? Which rations were spoiled? Whose but it is somewhat more likely to lessen over time
zog is the most annoying? What color feathers do you than constantly intensify.
keep picking up thanks to the scavenging pterodactyls
Of course, this is still a simplification. Feel free
circling overhead?
to go even nerdier with your speculative meteorology!

202 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / SCREAMS

 Local weather conditions on 14 Partly cloudy but blanketed by many “birds” –
a Goldilocks world d20 Swarms of pterodactyls (or similar xeno-fliers) are
darkening the ground and pelting travelers with
guano. Up to the GM whether these beasts are
1 Absolutely freezing or sweltering – Anyone ex- predatory/dangerous.
posed to these harsh conditions suffers d4 damage
per minute until they are frozen or die of heat stroke. 15 Partly cloudy, extremely dry, and windy – Char-
Wearing an envirosuit prevents this damage. Zogs, acters traveling in these conditions without wearing
other mounts, and pets typically lack suits. their suits lose 1 HEA per hour due to the searing
2 Raining eyeless frogs, door jambs, pints of egg wind. Enjan, jalasti, and greens lose 1 GRT (regard-
salad (e.g.) – Anyone exposed to this seemingly less of suits; this is largely a psychological effect).
eldritch phenomena is automatically intimidated, 16 Sunny but blanketed by locusts or cicadas (e.g.)
suffering disadvantage on their next COM or CHA – From time to time, bug-like fauna darken the sky,
check. The “rain” can be used/eaten, but locals who consume local xenoflora, and leave behind a sea
see the voidminers making use of this verboten rain of glittering moult-husks. Up to the GM if this has a
will distrust them forever. mechanical effect, positive or negative. Local farm-
3 Hailstorm or sandstorm, dangerous – Anyone ers are devastated and beseech any voidminers they
exposed to the storm suffers d6 damage per hour, encounter for money, food, and other forms of aid.
in addition to disadvantage on all checks that require 17 Sunny but hotter or colder than usual – Slightly
concentration. Ordinary Spin-made envirosuits rip uncomfortable conditions for most sapients, but
apart after 1 hour. Travel times in this region also the mounts (if there are any) seem happy.
double, as this act of geological violence permanent-
ly shifts rivers, erodes paths, and so on. 18 Sunny and windy – Not bad traveling weather.

4 Hailstorm or sandstorm, annoying – Anyone 19 Sunny and otherwise pleasant – Everyone gains
exposed to this storm suffers disadvantage on all +d4 GRT.
checks that require concentration, including all
COM checks (but not MOV/dodge) until conditions 20 Ideal – All journey times are halved.
improve.

5 Blizzard or duststorm – Anyone exposed to this Wait—what time of day is it on this

storm chokes and cannot act save to hunker down d6
rock, anyway?
and cough until it passes. Taking other actions
during a blizzard or duststorm means rolling all
checks with disadvantage. 1 Late night/early morning – Between 12 AM (0:00)
and 4 AM (4:00) – It’s probably dark outside.
6 Thunderstorm – If your character is not an adult,
you become frightened: you suffer a −d6 penalty 2 Dawn – Between 4 AM (4:00) and 8 AM (8:00) –
to all COM checks and to all WIL checks related to Dawn probably happens in this time period.
standing up to danger.
3 Morning – Between 8 AM (8:00) and 12 PM (12:00)
7 Raining in blinding sheets – Visibility is so reduced – It’s probably light out.
that all characters with normal vision suffer a −3 to
hit. Missile ranges are divided by 10, to a minimum 4 Afternoon – Between 12 PM (12:00) and 4 PM
of 1 M. (16:00) – It’s probably light out, and the ambient air
temperature will reach its local maximum during this
8 Raining steadily – All characters are soaked. Enjan, time period.
jalasti, and greens regain 1 GRT.
5 Dusk – Between 4 PM (16:00) and 8 PM (20:00) –
9 Raining lightly – All characters are wet. Dusk probably happens during this time period.

10 Foggy – Visibility is poor, cutting missile ranges in 6 Night – Between 8 PM (20:00) and 12 AM (0:00) –
half. There is a 1 in 6 chance that this ordinary fog It’s probably dark outside.
is in fact a mysterious, chemical, nanite, or eldritch
mist: mists always bring dangerous encounters.
Every other mist also triggers an Escheresque event How much is a room in a provincial inn?
(see “Patterns”). (some examples) d4

11 Cloudy, unusually hot or cold, and windy – All

characters are uncomfortable (due to the weather, if 1 Cheap – 1 gl per person per night or less – Normal
not suited, or due to staying in their suits). Beast-like pool recovery, but +1 chance of a night-time
fauna are less likely to emerge save for one or two encounter.
nocturnal scavengers. 2 Standard – 2–5 gl per person per night – Normal
12 Cloudy – Intermittent showers. pool recovery.

13 Partly cloudy, extremely humid, and still – All 3 Luxury – 10 gl per person per night – The food/
characters are uncomfortable (due to the weather, if drive-charging voltage is delicious. Each voidminer
not suited, or due to staying in their suits). Bug-like regains +d6 pool.
fauna zip back and forth, everywhere. 4 Peak carnival season – 25 gl per person per night
or more – With no vacancies left, the voidminers
must make a CHA check just to get a room. Normal
pool recovery (the parties outside never really quiet
down; the food is prepared hastily), but no chance of
night-time encounter.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH07 ☉ PLAYING STILLFLEET 203

 Name Short description
Reading encounter entries
As known to the Co. AKAs, titles.

Throughout this book, you will see many pink boxes.

Each is one encounter. Some entities appear in groups,
others as individuals. Some are aliens, others are non- Dogma and conviction
sapient beasts, extradimensional “monsters,” automata, Each entity has a dogma—principle belief system (or, in rare cases, more
or even—horror of horrors—humans. than one)—that guides their actions along with a matching conviction
rating from 1 (willing to give up on their goal at the first sign of trouble) to
These entries are intended to help GMs run games. 6 (willing to fight to the death for their belief). Cthulhicate entities have a
They provide numerous options for different kinds conviction of 7, because they are—properly understood—not entities with
of roleplaying moments, from combat (faced with a ideas, beliefs, and goals, but concrete (perhaps accidental?) aspects of
an entirely new physics that is currently alien to humanity and wetanity.
xenoglade, the gun-sword is mightier than the pen) To use conviction ratings, have the entity roll a WIL/test conviction check
to comedy (mantids sometimes desire to “help” whenever they don’t know what to do or have lost half of their HEA. The
[exchange recipes with] voidminers). difficulty of the check is equal to their conviction rating. If they succeed,
they can do whatever makes the most sense (e.g., run away if under attack
Each entry has several elements. Some of these by superior combatants). If they fail, they act according to their conviction,
appear in every entry, and some appear only in specific regardless of sense. This means that a negative encounter with an entity
cases. Each element is described below. who has a high conviction rating (for any dogma that is not “instinct,” “sur-
vival,” or some equivalent) will lead to a more intense, to-the-death fight.

Headcount
Name
How many entities appear, (Description)
in what groupings.
HEADCOUNT
Number of creatures in encounter
Vitals
VITALS Attacks
Scores, pool, damage
reduction, and armor. COM dX (adv) HEA XXX Attacks are listed in alphabetical order
• Advantage – Some and include damage as well as attack-
entities roll some scores MOV dX GRT XXX specific conditions such as bleed, burn,
with advantage. This stun, and poison. Some attacks cause
is represented in vitals REA dXX/dXX* DR XX less common conditions such as:
entries as “dX (adv).” (armor or defense description) • Mutating – Upon hitting a target,
• Escheresque – Some WIL dXX this attack causes a certain chance
entities have many of inducing a permanent physical
physical dimensions CHA dX mutation.
and can only be harmed • Terrifying – Targets attacked must
by Escheresque weap- HABITS make a WIL/resist other check or
ons or Weird attacks. else suffer disadvantage on attacks
• Habit 1
These entities have the against this entity for d6 rounds.
• Habit 2
word “Escheresque”
• Habit 3
listed after their armor.
DOGMA

Habits Dogma 1 Powers

Every encounter is listed Dogma 2 Many powers are borrowed from

with 3 bulleted activities elsewhere in the book. These are
which give the GM a simply listed by name in alphabetical
ATTACKS
sense of how this being order within one bullet. Unique
• Attack, dXX damage plus bleed 1. powers are listed on separate bullets.
typically behaves. Perhaps
a given entity is engaged
POWERS
in one of these habits
when encountered by the • Power name (action type) – Power description here. Gear
voidminers. • *Amphibious (dXX MOV while on land).
Some entities possess useful or inter-
GEAR esting gear. GMs, feel free to amend or
Story notes Gear is detailed here. cut down these suggestions!

Encounters come with STORY NOTES

some suggestions as Story notes are detailed here. Variants
to how the encountered
entities can function in a VARIANTS Finally, some encounters come
story. These are merely with variants—options, companions,
thought starters. Go wild! Variants are detailed here. minions, etc.

204 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / SCREAMS

 Jird Zog
(giant riding gerbil) (riding chicken–raptor)
HEADCOUNT HEADCOUNT
1 per rider or 4d6 (clan) 1 per rider or 2d4 (pack)

VITALS VITALS

COM d3 HEA 10 COM d4 HEA 8

MOV d8 GRT 5
MOV d10 to d12+1
by breed
GRT 4
REA 1 DR 0
REA 1 DR 0
WIL 1 or as rider
WIL 1 or as rider
CHA d4+1
CHA d4
HABITS
• Squeaking loudly at another jird, or you HABITS
• Digging into “the sand” (whatever the ground is) • Pecking at voidlice on its skin
• Playfully balling up/kicking/wrestling • Clucking hoarsely at you for no reason you can discern
• Pleasantly loosing guano down one leg
DOGMA

Survival DOGMA

High-value treats
ATTACKS
• Kick, d6 damage plus stun 1—although a jird always prefers to ATTACKS
flee rather than fight. • Peck, d4 damage—although a zog always prefers to flee rather
STORY NOTES than fight.

Jirds—trapped in the wild and then kept in large iron domes—are STORY NOTES
prized in regions of Terra with low annual rainfall. Jird prices de- Zogs are kept as working animals across Terra and the provinc-
pend on the economies in which they are trapped and then bred. es. In good condition, a mature zog is worth 250–750 gl: 250 gl
In the Wastes of Pala, on Terra, a jird is typically worth 4d100 gl. gets you a zog with MOV d10; 500, MOV d12; 750, MOV d12+1.
On Latura, a jird may be worth twice as much. Jirds are too big After 22 years without them, there are once again zog hatchlings
to keep on-Spin. on Spindle, although they are sold to Terrans or provincials (or
deep-fried) before they reach maturity.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH07 ☉ PLAYING STILLFLEET 205

 Why shoot when you can talk? Why talk when you can hide?
Why hide when you can firebomb?” —Motto of the Undisclosed
& Unarrested Company of Stillfleeters, now defunct.

Talking to aliens Give them a way in

When the voidminers meet beings who aren’t inherently
hostile, they may get to know them and even make deals Let the group roll as a single entity using the highest
with them by roleplaying and, when needed to resolve CHA score among them +1, if they’re working together.
a tricky matter, rolling CHA. Common CHA checks This makes it likely that they’ll succeed on many
include befriend, pump for information, seduce, lie to, standard social checks (6 or higher to succeed)—which
barter with, and so on. Mostly, according to their train- is just fine. If the group is up against paranoid beings
ing, PCs should lie to xenos and even provincials: only or frenzied xeno-beasts, make the checks hard (9) or
Co. employees should know any of the secrets of the Co. even impossible (12).
When the situation goes south, exploration can turn
into combat…

Shooting stuff
Game of tongues One of the most common forms that combat takes in
Stillfleet is the rolling firefight. Generally, one party sees
Remember that most Terrans and provincials—espe- the other first and gets a round of surprise attacks. After
cially outside of large cities—don’t speak Spin, and this round, or if the groups saw each other coming, every
most PCs don’t speak most rockside languages. If the character rolls initiative.
party has a witness, that person becomes the critically On a character’s initiative, if they want to attack—say,
important translator for the group. If none of the PCs is by firing a rifle at an unwitting mi-go brain collector—
playing a witness, then allow them to muddle through they simply roll COM to hit. The target rolls MOV to
by gesturing and smiling and drawing figures in the dodge, unless it’s bound and cannot. Damage is by weap-
mud—but make it painfully weird! Allow for miscommu- on type. Players should feel free to describe their attacks
nications. Don’t let the players forget that, on ventures, in vivid detail, try out their powers (especially their class
their characters are outsiders. powers), and ask questions about the situation in order
to decide on their tactics.

Boost!

Constantly remind new players that boost is the most

important power in the game: on any roll, of any kind, a
player can opt to burn 3, 6, or 9 GRT to gain +3, +6, or
+9. This can apply to charming someone, shooting a gun,
causing damage, or using a class or other power that
involves a roll.

Finding and using archaetech

While exploring, whether as a core aspect of the venture
or completely at random, the PCs will also encounter
lost and alien technologies, called archaetech. Most ar-
chaetech items are broken oddments—scraps of com-
puters, pieces of industrial machines, failed biological
experiments, skateboards, hovergloves (whatever those
are), tyres, airbrush guns, tattoo guns, fishing tackle…
Some archaetech, however, still works and is extremely
powerful: xenos such as the void elves craft strange
energy lances of superior quality; the mi-go fashion
other living beings into sensors, weapons, and ships.

206 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / SCREAMS

 PCs, when venturing, always be rolling WIL/perceive Random dangers aside, for the PCs, the primary game
to ferret out hidden archaetech! When resting, always be mechanic involved in getting back to Spindle is enabling
rolling relevant REA checks such as recall or repair to the banshee to actually use the class power tack and
understand and use what you’ve found. And GMs, spam open the return stiffworks. Unlike the seemingly made-
your games with mysterious scraps! Maybe they are for-human-minds “operating system” of Spindle itself,
valuable; maybe not. the technologies behind almost all other stiffworks are
not so simple to use. Even the brilliant, pulsing, living,

Finding a way home shimmering honeyworks of the future-emplaced, hu-

manity-loving heechee require REA checks to decipher,
To top it off, after all the mayhem, when it’s time to strange bodily interactions to operate (you have to, uh,
return, there’s often no clear way to do so. Many stiff- lick them), and large quantities of GRT to open.
works, including Malkovich tunnels, are bidirectional
(you can both enter and exit a tunnel…) but uniportal
(…in this case, the hole to enter the tunnel only appears
Simplified tacking
on-Spin; you have to make your own hole back from
your destination). Many lucrative venture dossiers end If in doubt and not using a pregenerated stiffworks with
with the simple directive “figure it out!” in regard to the set rules, make the banshee roll at least a standard REA
home journey. check to puzzle out the functionality of a new stiffworks.
But for lower-level ventures and those to Terra or the Set the cost based on the banshee’s level and the type
major provinces—whose stiffworks are (mostly) mapped of stiffworks: the Late Tephnians powered their mono-
out and understood (ish)—the way back should be noted liths with nanite-infused Blood, and so today blood must
in the Archive’s public records. That is, the way back may be spilled (HEA burned) to open their stiffworks. The
not be symmetric (not all stiffworks are A–B, two-way), Snakemen likewise designed their razor-edged wells to
and it may not be safe (the Co. cannot control every respond to the pain of sapient beings… See “Wires” for
kilometer of weald and road on every planet on which specific examples of stiffworks—or make up your own!
it conducts business), but it is probably known…

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH07 ☉ PLAYING STILLFLEET 207

 COMING BACK

Power is the very organization of this world, this engineered, configured,

purposed world. That is the secret, and it’s that there isn’t one.
—Invisible Committee, “To Our Friends,” 2014 (emphasis in original).

To sell lies The purpose of the reports

Reporting to your refactor The reporting-in process gives you narrative levers
to pull: if the PCs don’t report finding a working husk
Once the voidminers are finally back on-Spin, they gnome “lifeboat”/asteroid-eating drone, then maybe
must by law submit a detailed report in writing to their another party finds out and tries to blackmail them to
refactor and then head to the Basilikon to sell back to the get the coordinates, or just steals the boat, and the PCs
Co. all archaetech that they acquired on their venture. don’t discover this for a while. Maybe the husk gnomes
GMs, feel free to remind the players that, in practice, find out and come after the PCs to silence them…
many voidminers omit crucial details, even faking
amnesia, in order to keep secrets from their bosses.
No one will check up on their lies—at least, not im- Some kind of refactorial report, however, must be
mediately… These breaches of protocol are tolerated as turned in. This is the job of the party’s witness or factor,
long as they are small: i.e., you’re hoarding oddments. or—if no one is playing a witness or factor—any other
Keeping an Ancient naval laser or yaaj mind-knotter to rube. The point is not to make the players actually write
yourself is punishable by death. a report, but to make them list bullet points: what are
they telling the Co. happened out there?

Mechanics for reporting

GMs, whenever the PCs turn in a report, have the lead
author (often the witness or factor, if there is one) roll
CHA. Then roll REA for the refactor. Typical refactors
have REA d8 or d10 depending on their training and
personality. Upper-level Directorate officials have REA
d10 or d12. Write down both results!
If the PC’s result is equal to or greater than the refac-
tor’s, then the refactor believes their report and has no
reason to look further into their
Rolling a natural 1
claims (and omissions) at this
does not represent
time. Writing the number down is
a failure to smoothly
important, however, because the
lie to your boss,
refactor may roll REA again, later,
but an existentially
to spot any lies in the report. This
significant
happens if the PCs sign another
clerical error à la
contract with the same refactor, or
Terry Gilliam’s
if they get picked up in connection
Brazil (1985).
with a crime, e.g.

208 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / SCREAMS

 If the PCs fail their roll to author a convincing report,
or if their refactor later comes to poke holes in it, then Archaetech as lure and lever
play out the consequences: dock their pay, have the Eaters
of the Dead search their flats for contraband, send them The second-best way to use archaetech is as a lure, a
to a holding cell, or force them into exile. Don’t skimp! reward for risk-taking. The best way to use archaetech
is as a political lever: give the PCs something really

To sell the
powerful, so good they won’t want to mention it in their
report and then sell it back to the Co. at the Basilikon.
Then find a way for some plotting Archivist or cagy

past
gendarme to find out about it—in such close quarters,
secrets on Spindle tend to live short lives—and call the
PCs in for a little talk…

Selling tech back to the Co. Note, a “fence” needn’t be an underworld figure: they
could be a refactor—or even a subdirector or Senior
After reporting in, the voidminers are then obliged to Archivist—working through back channels, trying to
head to the Basilikon to sell back to the Co. all archaetech fulfill a personal goal, or undermining some other Co. of-
of any kind that they acquired on their venture. This hap- ficial. That said, many fences are disgraced bureaucrats,
pens at the group of room-blobs called Acquisitions or dealers with Wetan Mafia ties, or alien refugees (e.g.).
simply ACQ (pron. “Ack”). In practice, many voidmin-
ers stash their pillaged techno-loot, selling back only the
oddments, for pocket change. Again, feel free to stress Calculating the value
of a lava lamp, a maser,
this explicitly. Make the PCs choose!
If the PCs do sell back their haul, there are various
ways to deal with this process. It does not have to take
up a scene. Here are quick rules of thumb for doling out
or a secret…
filthy lucre: This table offers 100 examples of the official Acquisitions
codes used by the Directorate. All factors and refactors
҂ Each oddment is worth 100 gl. are issued a code-pamphlet with new ACQ codes and
҂ Each useful archaetech item is worth 10 × (stratum values on a bimonthly basis.
number + complexity level) gl. Of course, in any given two-week or two-month
҂ Each non-archaetech item of note (see the table interval (GM’s choice as to the meaning of bimonthly),
below for examples) is worth d[one mental/social the value of each item is presented differently to each
score, meaning REA, WIL, or CHA] gl. Add an extra factor and refactor. Thus, when a character consults this
100 or 1000 gl for rare or very rare items. table, they must roll their own REA, WIL, or CHA when
҂ These are market prices at ACQ. Black market prices determining the value of many items—and this value will
are double but require a roll. almost certainly shift in the future.
Yes, this means that the values can be quite random.
For each item the PCs sell back to ACQ, give them the This variance represents what ACQ or private buyers
gl indicated on the table below, after some perfunctory will pay voidminers for space garbage and rumors.
file-shuffling. For each item they try to sell on the black In general, the ACQ value will be much lower. (The Co.
market, have them roll CHA/control (negotiate) versus a always tries to stiff its workers!) Specialists may be found
fence’s WIL/resist other. Most fences have d8, d10, d12 to buy items/data for much more.
WIL, depending on their experience.
Or—if this table looks like a load of frightening
If the PC prevails, then they attain the maximum
nonsense—just use the rules of thumb offered above:
possible value on-Spin for the item on the table below. the legal, ACQ value of a non-archaetech item is
If they fail, they can sell the item for the ACQ value or d[one score] gl; add 100 or 1000 gl for rare or very
rare items. Oddments are worth 100 gl each. And each
go to another fence, but they risk angering their current
useful archaetech item is worth 10 × (its stratum
fence if they don’t sell. If they roll a 1, there has been a number + complexity level) gl. The illegal values
misunderstanding: the fence has 3d6 bodyguards move of the same items = 2 × their ACQ values.
in to take the hot item—you know, as the gift that it
clearly is…

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH07 ☉ PLAYING STILLFLEET 209

 Official Acquisitions item codes ACQ001–ACQ100 d100

No. Item Value at ACQ Max poss. value

1 Ammon steammonk armor d66 +6dREA d66 × dREA

2 Animal/motile fungus, common 0.5 per specimen 0.5 × (d4) per specimen

3 Animal/motile fungus, rare d12 per specimen d12 +2dREA per specimen
LEGAL NOTE
Ammon are intelligent
octopodes on Terra.

4 Animal/motile fungus, uncommon d10 per specimen d10 +dREA per specimen If the android’s
REA score is d4 or
5 Android, LT 12,500 25,000 higher, it is sapient
and protected by
6 Archaetech, from Narm 2 × (dREA × dCHA × 2 × (dREA × dCHA × dWIL) +6dCHA Co. policy: the fee
dWIL) is not a sale, but
7 Archaetech, non-weapon ½ listed price (see 2 × listed price for “recuiting” the
“Wires”) android

8 Archaetech, weapon ½ listed price (see 2 × listed price

LEGAL NOTE
“Wires”)

9 Armor, all market-tech Listed price (see Listed price If there is no listed
“Wires”) price, take the
stratum number
10 Art or jewelry, Ancient d100 1000 and multiply by
1000
11 Art or jewelry, provincial dCHA × d8 2dCHA × d8

LEGAL NOTE
In one random underschool room-blob in the

12 Aux, awakened 10dCHA 10dCHA +10dREA

Canteen hangs Basquiat’s Untitled (1982).

13 Aux, in need of repair 3dREA 4dREA × 10 Aux are sapients;

the fee is for
14 Beestructor [heechee omni-builder] dREA × dWIL × dCHA (dREA × dWIL × dCHA) × 66dREA
“rescue”
15 Black cloud (smart nano-swarm) d4 × (dREA × dWIL) d4 × ([dREA × dWIL] +6dREA)

16 Bend [plastic] containers, useful 2d8 4d10 LEGAL NOTE

17 Bend [plastic] scraps/trash 1 2 Black clouds are
18 The Blood By Blood number: By Blood number: sapients considered
5 = 2500 5 = 5000 dangerous by the
6 = 2600 6 = 5000 [+(1000 × dCHA) Directorate; the fee
7 = 2700 7 = 5000 [+(2000 × 2dCHA) is for “containment”
8 = 2800 8 = 5000 [+(3000 × 3dCHA)
9 = 2900 9 = 5000 [+(4000 × 4dCHA)
10 = 3000 10 = 5000 [+(5000 × 5dCHA) LEGAL NOTE
19 Books, useful/non-erotic d10 per book d10 +dCHA per book While highly illegal
to possess (other
20 Clue to humanity’s future 20 × (dREA × dCHA) 20 × (2dREA × dCHA) than to sell back
at ACQ), Blood is
21 Clue to Spindle’s origins/the Archive’s 100 × (dREA × dCHA) 100 × (10dREA × dCHA)
worth much, much
future
more on the black
22 Clue to wetanity’s future 13 × (dREA × dCHA) 13 × (dREA × dCHA × dCHA) market

23 Code, LT, fragment dREA × 5 dREA × 5dREA

24 Code, LT, large volume dREA × 25 5dREA × 5dCHA

25 Cosmetics d10 +d4 d10 +dCHA

26 Cybernetic implant or other wetware 100 × dREA 100 × 2dREA LEGAL NOTE
27 Drone, killer dCHA × 2d6 (dCHA × 2d6) +66dCHA Illegal to possess
on-Spin
28 Drone, surveyor (smart) dREA × 2d30 (dREA × d2d30) +6dCHA

29 Drugs, illegal or very illegal 13 13dCHA

30 Enerjawn battery [repowers force-stra- d100 d100 +dREA

tum archaetech]

31 Erotica (holo-novel, e.g.) d30 d100

32 Escheresque blade 170 170dREA

210 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / SCREAMS

 33 Extremely enigmatic technology (dCHA × d30) × (2dCHA × d30) × complexity level
[Escheresque archaetech] complexity level

34 Faalaan technology, any 2dREA +d30 (2dREA +d30) × complexity level

35 Fashion item(s), provincial dCHA 2dCHA × 2

LEGAL NOTE
36 Food, cheap d4 8
Brings suspicion on
37 Food, rare/amazing d30 80 the person selling
38 H.Co. plot/intelligence dWIL × 10 dWIL × 10dREA this information
Due to oversupply, ACQ is no longer purchasing containers
of Cheez Wham™ cheese-like product. These may instead be
donated to Pantry or recycled directly into the algaevats.

39 H.Co. traitor, alive dWIL × 100 dCHA × 100 × 13dREA

40 Husk gnome technology, any (dWIL × dCHA) −d10 (2dWIL × 2dCHA) −2d10 LEGAL NOTE
41 ID of H.Co. operative(s) dWIL × d30 dWIL × dCHA × d30 Husk gnome tech
is often radio­active
42 “Librarian” (eyebeast) d66 +dCHA d66 × dCHA
(among other
43 Liquor, case d100 6d100 problems), hence
the possible
44 Location of a Goldilocks world, inhabited dREA × 100 dREA × dCHA × 100 negative value

45 Location of a Goldilocks world, dREA × 10 dREA × 6dCHA × d100

uninhabited
LEGAL NOTE
46 Location of an H.Co. hideout dWIL × 1000 dWIL × 10dREA × 1000
These Escheresque
47 Location of a lab or military installation 33 33dCHA
quasisapients
on a province
are prized across
48 Location of a lab or military installation 66 66dREA Spindle as data
on Terra specialists; the
Wetan Mafia hoards
49 Location of a rock, non-Goldilocks dREA × 3 (dREA +dCHA) × 3 them just to fuck
with the Archive
50 Location of an ultrastructure, Dyson dREA × (d30 × d100) 100dREA × (d30 × d100)
sphere/enigmadrome

51 Location of an ultrastructure, non-Dyson dREA × 100 dREA × 10,000

sphere/enigmadrome

52 Location of a warmachine, HT dREA × 2d20 dREA × (dREA × 2d20)

53 Location of a warmachine, LT dREA × 3d30 dREA × (dREA × 6d100)

54 Location of a working FTL hulk 20dREA 20dREA × maxREA

55 Location of a working non-FTL hulk 5dREA 5dREA × maxREA

56 Mantid egg (city-infrastructure) printer 800 800 × dCHA

57 Mantid hellkite (flier) 400 400 × 2dREA

58 Map, physical, of a previously unmapped dREA dREA

region

59 Map, physical, to a random stiffworks dREA × stratum of dREA × dCHA × stratum of stiffworks
stiffworks (4, 5, 6,
or 7)

60 Medical supplies/research 3d30 3d100

61 Megaphone or musical instrument 2d20 2d20 +2dCHA

62 Movie reel/DVD (etc.) d100 d100 +dCHA

63 Nanites, powerful, non-Blood 1000 3000

64 Passcode book, Spinnish d100 d100 +10dCHA

65 Oddment, Ancient or provincial d20 (common) 6d20

66 Oddment, Escheresque 17dREA 17dREA × 17

67 Oddment, HT 4d20 12d20

68 Oddment, LT d20 (common) 6d20

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH07 ☉ PLAYING STILLFLEET 211

 69 Oddment, mi-go or Tetrahelian 5dREA 5dREA × dCHA LEGAL NOTE
70 Ordo Pallida technology, any (dREA × dCHA) −dWIL (4dREA × dCHA) −dWIL Selling this proof
71 Petrol or other fuel d20 d20 +dCHA back to anyone
other than the
72 Plant/sessile fungus, common 1 per plant d6−1 Wetan Mafia
automatically
73 Plant/sessile fungus, rare d30 per plant d30 +2dREA per plant results in a “hit”
74 Plant/sessile fungus, uncommon d20 per plant d20 +dREA per plant being placed
on you by the
75 Proof of a Wetan Mafia conspiracy 10dWIL 10dWIL × dCHA Wetan Mafia

76 Recruit to the Co., new 50 50 +dCHA

77 Saffron Anax livery, official dCHA +100 2dCHA +100 LEGAL NOTE
78 Satellite/spacejunk d20 +d12 (d20+d12) × dREA Sapient
79 Scientific sample, random (rocks, ice, dREA 2dREA
e.g.)

80 Scientific sample, Solarian dREA × d30 dREA × (d30 +4dREA) LEGAL NOTE
81 Secrets/major news, provincial 10dCHA 10dCHA +6dCHA Has special
ontolegal status
82 Shining Sky Climber goop-tools dREA × d12 2dREA × d20

83 Sleeper, awakened and willing to work 10dCHA 10dCHA +10dREA

for the Co.
LEGAL NOTE
84 Sleeper, still in cryostasis 6dCHA 6dCHA × dREA
Time machines are
85 Stiffworks, previously unknown, on major 7 × (dREA × dCHA) 7 × (6dREA × dCHA) extremely illegal to
province possess; bringing
these into ACQ will
86 Stiffworks, previously unknown, on minor 2 × (dREA × dCHA) 2 × (3dREA × dCHA) result in detention
province by a strike team of
tremulants
87 Stiffworks, portable 1000 1000 × 10dREA

88 Tack map dREA × dCHA 2dREA × 2dCHA

89 Time machine, Snakeman 8dREA × 6dCHA 8dREA × 66dCHA

LEGAL NOTE
90 Trade deal, extraordinary dCHA × d100 dCHA × d100 × 30dCHA
Most Fleeters find
91 Trade deal, sketchy but lucrative dCHA × (d30 −d4) 10dCHA × (d30 −d4)
gnomes extremely
92 Trade deal, typical dCHA × d12 2dCHA × 12 annoying, hence
why this value can
93 Vat gnome (dCHA−10) × 10 (2dCHA−10) × 10 be negative (you
owe ACQ)
94 Void elf technology, any (dCHA × d20) × ([dCHA × d20] × complexity level) ×
complexity level 6d6

95 Weapon, archaetech, anti-cthulhicate* 900 900 × 66dCHA LEGAL NOTE

96 Weapon, market-tech, melee Listed price (see Listed price (see “Wires”) *I.e., capable of
“Wires”) killing the Saffron
Anax
97 Weapon, market-tech, missile Listed price (see Listed price (see “Wires”)
“Wires”)

98 Wurmspice/other Weird fuel 6d30 6d30 +6dREA LEGAL NOTE

99 Xenoglade egg dWIL × d20 4dCHA × d30 Anyone foolish
enough to bring a
100 Yaaj technology, any (dWIL × dCHA) −d10 2 × ([dWIL × dCHA] −d10)
xeno egg to ACQ
will be paid… and
then promptly
arrested for treason
by 4d20 Eaters of
the Dead

LEGAL NOTE
Yaaj tech is illegal,
and resulting prices
can be negative
(fines)

212 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / SCREAMS

 The small nomadic posthumans called gmothi claim to
be the original humans, those who never left Terra…

EXAMPLE FROM PLAY: slumped a child-like figure, bleeding to death, singing aimlessly—a
FELLOW ARCHAE-SEEKERS teenage (decades-old) gmothi.
The team arrived; Noöl linked thoughts; and James swung The-
In the Red Labyrinth underneath the great Vennari city of Llamagi- One-the-Purple-One-Killed (ammon razi/pir) across in order to heal
no, the voidminers made it swiftly and without incident (no walkers, the wounded posthuman teen.
no snake cultists, no sleepers) to the Incarnadine Heart—the Late The wretch, named Bread of Flooded Spices, sung into Noöl’s
Tephnian stiffworks best characterized by the Archive. mind a song of the Autumn Song Court (their polity in the hills south
Ilbrian 424 (pepper elf banshee) stood before it, puzzling over of the city) that explained all about the gmothi’s recent troubles
the Archival tack map for getting the team to the distant Kuiper Belt with the encroaching humans. Bread was sent here by the elders
object called Dysnomia. to find a technical solution to a political problem: something called
Noöl (Fleeter tremulant) had a hunch and carefully examined an- “the Exultant’s Lance”—a legendary jar of yellow nano-slime—that
other corridor, one branching off from the chamber of the Incarna- was here in the maze of halls and alcoves, somewhere.
dine Heart. She spotted a distant, dim light... Meanwhile, the Late Tephnian alarm system built into the shard-
James (enjan factor) snuck toward it and found the Couloir— caster system that is monitored by the Archivists’ entangled sniffer
a strange chasm-like space, 3 M across, cutting through the Red comms continued to ping, signaling an urgent crisis on one dark, icy
Labyrinth. Across the Couloir, just inside the continuing corridor, Kuiper Belt object, roughly five light-days from Terra…

Factions within the Co. 12 The Mantid Eggs (Sisters) – Democratic socialist
d20 bioengineers. They gained access to the void and the
Escheresque only after the end of the Groot Tachquake.
1 The Archive (Wires) – True-believer techno-cultists. They have yet to make it to Spindle.

2 The Afdeling of the Arkheion (Wheels) – Complacent 13 The Matkya (Coins) – Secret Keynesian
classical liberals. Notoriously agnostic (some would techno-powerbrokers. The so-called “Informatic
even say ignorant) regarding matters that occur off-Spin. Mafia”—based on a lonely, contested asteroid-city
named Qadida—has grown in power as its members
3 The Afdeling of the Provinces (Worlds) – Self-inter- have taken on more and more quotidian accounting
ested neoliberals. The so-called Opposition (i.e., to duties throughout the Co.
the CRM) can agree on little other than the fact that its

Qadida and the Matkya are the creations

political fortunes are precarious and depend on some 14 The Mlrklaa Liberation Compact or MLC (Wounds)
level of coordination, if not unity. – Intersectional revolutionaries. Of the schismatic
resistance movements of the mulruks on Gigou, only
4 The Afdeling of the Fleet (Engines) – High-value one group has infiltrated Spindle. But no one has ever

of the very inventive Ian Derk.

supply-chain fixers. The subdirectors of the Fleet want seen a mulruk on-Spin…
to find and repair faster-than-light vessels.
15 The Neo-Red Pyramid (Devils) – Extremely online
5 The Afdeling of Terra (Houses) – Salty cartel capitalists. fameshark techno-addicts, few in number. How long
The four great Houses of Vennar control the Afdeling of until one of them changes their Nu-UltraNet bio
Terra via proxies. Always staunch allies of the Archive. (unreadable to those without nanites) to “Restoring
the glory of Great Tephnii across the countless worlds
6 The Afdeling of the Void (Marches) – Progressive
capitalists. The Afdeling that oversees the largest 🩸 👀🍆🍕
// ”—or worse?
variety of human cultures is unsurprisingly the most 16 The Nightwatch (Eyes) – Classic science-fantasy
fractious, but it has acted more decisively since the hero-types. The Nightwatch invite voidminers to join
Groot Tachquake subsided. them in dangerous, at times quixotic quests to slay
7 The Calayat Resource Management Subcommittee or cthulhicates, void elves, and so forth. They value their
CRM (Thrones) – Hardcore free-marketeer mercantil- independence and refuse to side too strongly with any
ists. Everyone knows the “secret”: the CRM wants to one Afdeling.
recenter the power of the Co. off-Spin, to Calayat. 17 The Queendom of Ul’Theen (Scythes) – Royalists.
8 The Federation of Unhuman Kingdoms or FUK Though the Queen’s reach has traditionally been
(Dreams) – State socialists. The Federation has one limited to Darasan and a few expatriate families of
goal: bring all sapients into a single governmental humans and jalasti on-Spin, this situation has evolved
structure that can equitably distribute resources. as the Co. has leaned more heavily on imports follow-
ing the ‘Quake.
9 The General Committee (Secrets) – Fascists. The
Directors Prime (if they exist) preside over the most 18 The Republic of Tansvaal (Keys) – Beleaguered
absolutely ruthless officers of the Co., who want only anarcho-Leftists. The miners of Faneslary who rebelled
power, for power’s sake. Their lapdogs, the Eaters of against the Co. have been hard at work making allies
the Dead and the Spinwraiths, terrorize the Canteen off-world since the ‘Quake.
and the provinces, respectively. 19 The Shining Sky Climbers (Memories) – Unhurried
10 The Honourable Company of Stillfleeters (Shadows) physicist-monks. The elders predict that, any year,
– Maoists. Though it probably began as a literal General now, the wetans will rediscover the Home Line. All that
Committee psy-op, H.Co. today seeks the downfall of is required to join their order is peaceful patience. (And
the Worshipful Co. Exactly what would happen next, no a serious aptitude for maths.)
one is sure. 20 The Wetan Mafia (Favors) – Immigrant crime syndical-
11 The Kemmerath (Machetes) – Junta members. Tend to ists. Their leaders are neither greed-driven nor anti-
support the General Committee and the Afdeling of the human thugs. They see themselves as the “mayors of
Provinces (Opposition), picking fights with the Houses the Canteen,” the placekeepers of lower-Spindle. They
and the CRM. are a grab-bag of contradictions.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH07 ☉ PLAYING STILLFLEET 213

FORM X2017-HBZZ-⩹⊞⋑⨇-V17.32

COMPANY POLICIES

1. The Cloak of Lies and Decretum of Obscurity

Thou shalt never speak without the express approval of the Directors
Prime to provincials or Terrans or aliens of any variety of the Co.,
nor Spindle, nor stiffworks nor the draadmijners, nor the Archive nor
Ordo Pallida, nor any province unknown to them, nor the existence of
the stillfleet, nor that of any hulk, nor the deep void nor Dread
Enshaga nor Cursèd Pazūzūn nor Vile Djannaj, nor any secret of the
Co., nor the Directorate nor Basilikon, nor any banality of the Co.,
nor any operational nor logistical nor strategic element whatsoever
of the Co., in most especial its position in the void, which of course
is not known, nor also in most especial of the Heechee Tombs that
mark the eastern border of Dead Etruvia on Terra;—thou shalt instead
walk forth into the infinite darkness as though clothed in a cloak of
lies; thou shalt ever defer thine seeming onto some other form than
thine own, and cause this form to relate to local things, and never
cause it to relate back to Spindle, thy home, that is our great and
fragile secret. Those who divulge the nature of our home or Co.
without permission shall receive the punishment which is our custom,
which is to be sent flying forth into the void naked and without
aid, until thou perish, so that thy traitorous flesh is not even
incorporated back into the sustaining feedstock of the algae farms
(unless the times are those of such a dire crisis, as expressly
authorized by the Directors Prime, that thy physical material must be
reincorporated into the nutrifying farms, so as not to imperil thy
loyal brothers and sisters by thy dying like a frozen animal, alone,
in the void). If thou have a form resistant to void-death in the
manner described, thou shall be dealt a mortal end by such an inge-
nious method so as to render thee lifeless, as devised by the singular
and dread Echotesters of the Arkheion, upon whom we shall not further
treat. It falls upon every body of a venture to ever keep this rule
close upon her mind.

2. The Remit of Enigmas

Thou shalt ever repair unto the Directorate all things large and
small taken out of the void, whether from up in the iron halls of
the stillfleet or from down upon alien worlds, or from deep within
the redsteel cathedrals of Tephnii that stand bottom-side-up beneath
the terrene wastes, without exception, so that thine employers may
perform their vocation and ensure the Co. remains fiscally and
socially solvent, and even grows, and so that all manner of ancient
arts may be one day understood by the Archive and revived. It mat-
ters not how insignificant the thing; if it be a product of ancient
art, then so it belongs to the Co., and thy reward for delivering it
safely is guaranteed by this rule. Those who withhold the spoils of
the void from the Directorate shall be punishèd as is our custom most
severely, depending on the nature of the thing withheld, either by the
withholding of pay due, the extraction of fines, the abjectification
of the body, the retraining of the mind, or, if the thing secreted
away from us be very worthy of our interest, the swift ejection of
the traitor, whole, unto our black mother void, sans aid, until
that corrupt body perish (unless the times are those of such a
dire crisis, as expressly authorized by the Directors Prime, that
all physical material must be reincorporated into the nutrifying
algae farms and cannot be made example of, though other means of
example-making should be found). It falls upon the banshee who tunnels
space to search out these enigmas, make sense of them, and report
them to the wider venture; but yet it falls upon the factor who leads
the venture to ever keep this rule sovereign upon return to thy home,
Spindle.
FORM X2017-HBZZ-⩹⊞⋑⨇-V17.33
3. The Remit of Banalities
And so, too, thou shalt return to thine home all full and accurate
description of those events witnessed in the void, in the halls of
the stillfleet or on alien worlds, or on Terra Mater, no matter how
seemingly slight in import, or strange in character. No secret,
no drunken whisper, no cad-like declaration of amorous intent, no
grocer’s list, no statement of the chemical composition of an alien
soil, no file of names of long-dead servants-civile of a backwater
province, no poem, no shred inked over by numerals and discarded in
the back of a terrene scriptorium;—not one thing, the Co. permits
thee to neglect, forget, withhold, obscure, or forge. All wisdoms
pertaining to thy venture shall be reported back truthfully in nicely
written form to the Co. that nurtures thee. Those who withhold
the banalities of the void from the Directorate and its Arkheion
shall be punishèd as is our custom most severely, as above, and with
additional wrath from the Archivists most Senior as they see fit, in
their arcane and unpredictable wisdom. It falls upon the witness of a
venture to ever keep this rule bright in her mind, and to author that
voluminous report for the Co.’s general benefit, upon her return to
our home, Spindle.

4. The Defence of Home

And as we cloak ourselves in lies when away from our home, so do we
cloak our home itself in darkness and errors so that none might find
the arcane paths to it. And if any find these, or even learn of our
home, they must be disposed of by all good Co. miners of the void,
who should none of them like to lose their one true home to meddling
and fractious and barbarous terrene queens, unhuman kommisars,
overreaching provincial governors, the elfin and most-cruel Tnínish,
other divers aliens, and the great and malevolent intelligences
within the hulking bodies of the stillfleet. It falls upon all
miners of the void to keep the first and fourth rules close, but upon
most especially the stillrijders who defend the Co. whenever a breach is
made. After three centuries, the Co. is all confident that these noble
warriors may yet defend us so that we may again beshroud our home in
wondrously armoring lies.

5. The Chain of Authority

At last, each miner in the void shall know her rank in the Co. and
her place in the venture. The factor shall stand above the others
and ensure each rule is known to every, and each made good by, and
every knows her duties to the Co. and to every other. And should this
factor fall, dismembered by aliens or hanged by terrene ignoramuses,
it matters not, the witness shall stand up and carry on for her.
And if she too should fall, then the draadmijner whom they call
“banshee” shall stand. And then, if she falls as well, the most
senior stillrijder. And then, if no leader, reporter, stiffworker,
or defender be standing, shall any loyal miner of the void carry on
until that venture be accomplished to full completeness, so that all
members of the Co. shall take pride in the sacrifice of a few for the
benefit of so many,—and especially for the benefit of the Directorate,
whose bold and supple strategies have allowed our home to flourish
in the darkness between unthinkably impoverished past and unknowably
fragile future for three centuries and more years.
 CH08 ☉ LIFE ON SPINDLE

Marvellous maze/spheres eternal

What the hell is it like to live in an alien space station with no right angles? To survive
thanks to a free algae slurry? To entertain yourself by gambling on the outcome of
literally any imaginable event? To go to graduate school among the paranoiac
gray-robed techno-monks of the Archive? That is, for a voidminer, what is “home?”
“Profits” answers these questions impressionistically, leaving your groups plenty of
room for collaboratively filling in gaps, rewriting “canon,” and discovering new facets
of the most familiar corner of that vast empire of emptiness, dark energy, and still-
dangerous decaying signals from long-dead civilizations that we call the cosmos.
In this chapter, you’ll find many locations for fleshing out scenes and entire ventures
on-Spin, including rules for playing Archivists and a deep dive into the society of the
wetans. With these tools, you can set sessions and even campaigns on the kilometers-
tall, largely unexplored living-stone station.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH08 ☉ LIFE ON SPINDLE 217

 SPINDLE

[The city of the future] is a city of extraordinary technology that at first glance
appears indistinguishable from nature. It is an artificial reef that grows and
decays and grows again as the city becomes a cyclic ecosystem. … The city grows
and we grow with it. Together we form a giant complex organism of which ecology
and technology are inseparable parts.
—Liam Young, Under Tomorrows Sky, 2012.

Architecture
Most social life on Spindle occurs in the upper decks,
built out by the Co. to resemble a clean, if cramped,
early modern city full of houses and workshops. Living
areas, single-room markets, hydroponic farms (sup-
plying algae, persimmons, edible vines, black soldierfly

City, station, crèche, larvae, and mealworms), and workrooms form minia-
ture neighborhoods, where at times Co. politics domi-

organism, mystery… nate and at others smaller-scale social forces pattern the
daily lives of those who were once rulers, but recently
Spindle is made exclusively of smooth, impenetrable became prisoners, of the void. Nourishing algae and
black stone, typically called blackstone (one word). On clean if cramped living spaces are technically free to all
the outside, visible through the Archivists’ voidmoni- who dwell on Spindle, but somehow most fleeters spend
tors, it looks like a tall, thin black sea slug covered in little time at home, remaining busy at work, gambling,
long, twisting spines that correspond to the Malkov- fighting, scheming…
ich tunnels—the narrow, tunnel-like stiffworks found Spindle is thus not simply a city in the void, but a
throughout the Bays. pulsing home to many individuals, families, and sub-
On the inside, underneath three centuries of accreted companies. The Archive estimates that Spindle's TSO
Co. rigging, Spindle is a series of blob-shaped holes, (total sapient occupancy) is roughly 350,000: a little
or room-blobs—rooms, but not like any that a human over half of these are humans
The Systers Amaaranck™ are Spindle’s population has varied
not would design. These whose ancestors moved up
over time from five mercenary-
only Archive-Certified Blobite
cts spaces are not cavern- into the void three centuries
merchants, three centuries ago,
of the highest repute, but
also ous; their median length/ ago; one third are wetans;
to the city of the present. With
Trained Wetan and Ma
ntid width is 10 M. The major and the remainder are first-
the subsiding of the ‘Quake, new
Nestmakers with a combin “open” regions of Spindle, and second-generation im-
ed recruits, conscripts, refugees, and
33 Tsol years of experie
nce such as the Basilikon in migrants from the provinces
visitors arrive every day by the
re-homing giant sapient ins
ects the Canteen, are group- (especially Calayat), con-
dozens. Thus the Canteen, Flats,
on-Spin. Come to Systers
A. ings of room-blobs de- scripts from Terra, and aliens.
and Little Wetana become more
with any & all specialty chi
tin marcated as being part of All told, Spindle is thor-
densely inhabited, and the last
requests: walls/curved wal the same meta-room via oughly inhuman, and yet
ls, grows downward into the Dormant
floors, web-hummocks, recess colorful ropes and threat- it regulates itself to keep
ed Bays… The Archivists predict that
lighting, apertures, egg-cradle ening signs. humans and wetans alive.
s, the (known) population of the
& more! As the Systers cha
nt: In general, because the Spindle uses ultrasonic vibra-
station could nearly double within
“We don’t just make a livi
ng inhabited upper “floors” tions to clean its own air and
two years, radically altering the
here—we live here.” of Spindle are cramped, filter its own water, making
social fabric of the Co.
private and public spaces are more socially than physi- the job of the Wastecyclers
cally determined. Only the rich have fully closed-off, much easier. The Archivists theorize that Spindle turned
multi-room-blob private homes, and even these are on this life support (LS) system as soon as the Founding
frequently trespassed by their own runners—excepting Five Directors tacked into it, but no one really knows the
the five secret Chambers of the Sleeping Moths, where truth about the LS—including what to do if it ever stops
the General Committee (supposedly) meets. functioning.

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 Even the voidmonitors—nano-scale sensors somewhat
akin to “cameras,” pointed in all directions, scattered in a
sphere enclosing Spindle—are not the work of humans;
the Archivists merely figured out how to tap into this
one system of Spindle itself using Tephnian comms. Yet
they have had no luck activating any other systems, if
these exist—including non-stiffworks entrances or exits,
weapons, or long-range scanners.

THE CO.’S PARTNERS: TSAWALD

The binary Goldilocks worlds grouped together as “the Saffron
Anax’s world” or Tsawald (“t’suh-WALD”) are technically known
in the Archive by the Late Tephnian appellations, Rigamont A and
B, and by Fleeters in the Canteen as “the Lovers.” These planets
are so dominated by the presence of their eponymous cthulhicate
techno-sorcerer that they would literally collide without him.
The immortal, vampyric Saffron Anax is the only known
cthulhicate entity who not only keeps its word but seems to oper-
ate according to vaguely
Gravitic shields maintained human motivations (greed
by the Saffron Anax protect the twin and lust, or their ultrasa-
habitable worlds from the various pient equivalents). To be
sure, the Anax is a brutal
nearby rogue dwarf moons and the alien ruler whose whims
numerous asteroids called the Furies— often defy human logic,
fragments of the nigh-destruction of the but he’s also responsible
for keeping his twin king-
system, some one thousand years ago. dom alive and allowing its
inhabitants to trade with the Co., which maintains an embassy at his
court in the dry mountains of the more populous world, R–A.
R–A is Tsawald proper, and R–B is its poorer partner, called
Jamjōm by its inhabitants. Both are totally beholden to the
Anax and policed by his mysterious saffron devas—ministers, tax
collectors, reeves, and other agents of state who were once human
but have been changed to better serve their dread master.

Ventures on Tsawald
For a low-level venture, hire the PCs to renegotiate a pre-
Tachquake trade deal. They can speak to one of the Saffron Anax’s
minister–devas… then to the Anax himself. (Re scores and powers,
treat the Anax as an elite nyarlathon; see “Whispers.”) A low-level
encounter with an extremely powerful enemy is a good way to am-
plify the story’s stakes right off the bat.
For a ridiculously challenging venture, appropriate for high-lev-
el PCs, have them tackle the major problem facing Rigaspace: the
Directorate hires the PCs
Rumors hold that the Anax is to find another quasi-sane
growing old, sick, or both—but this cthulhicate to save (and
is impossible to confirm based on abuse) Rigamont A and
B. This could be another
past physical evidence, since he is nyarlathon (but you’ll have
a natively higher-dimensional to tempt it with the of-
being—which means that fer of something of great
worth…), a Snakeman
the people of R–A and R–B have (you would have to travel
a limited time left before to Ruguņ or Gnarcosa to
his telekinetic hold over the summon one from the fu-
ture—but could you ever
complicated gravity of the system really trust him?), a Late
fails, and all life in Rigaspace Tephnian sleeper of truly
is obliterated. enormous power (perhaps
found in the ruins of Great
Tephnii on Terra, or deep in the void), or a void elf commune look-
ing for more materiel for their latest macro-scale artwork… In any
event, saving Rigaspace will not be easy. And any bargain struck will
be achingly Faustian. What if there were some other way to save
the system?

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 T H E D I R E C TO R AT E

Strangely, the mass effect of a public world online is not freedom and
self-expression, but a subtle, atmospheric repression and self-censorship,
when we each internalize the limits and limitations allowed by the groups
in which we share ourselves.
—Stowe Boyd, “Publicy and Panopticon,” 2017.

The upper-
most levels
Where the whispers
go to die
Directions on-Spin are described according to how its
(inexplicable) gravity works, so that the Directorate is up
and the Dormant Bays down. Today, the directors and
their lackeys live in the “uppermost” levels on-Spin—that
is, the ones farthest away from the Dormant Bays.
This was not always the case. The Founding Five
Directors arrived in what are now the Near Bays, or
outer shell of room-blobs encasing the top third of
Spindle. Only after a decade of exploration did they
resituate the Co. into what is now the Canteen. Shortly
before their disappearance, they removed themselves
and their lieutenants—but not the rest of the Co.—to the
upper levels.
The current directors move back and forth from
their sumptuous semi-private apartments above to the
Canteen below among mobs of guards. In fact, in order
to remain anonymous, the directors dress just like
their guards; many (all?) of the guards don’t even know
whom they are guarding.

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 Some rooms in the uppermost levels 7 The “barracks” – Various decently appointed
d12 upmost room-blobs are home to what appear to
their cleaning-service staff to be small squadrons of
heavily armed mercenaries. These blokes very much
1 The Chambers of the Sleeping Moths – This is not resent such a characterization, each claiming to be
a quincunx of five nondescript room-blobs, furnished merely a businessperson with the acumen to afford
only with a few [2d8] plain gray chitin chairs and posh digs. It is theorized by conspiracy-minded
a chitin table, but a genre of quincunxes of five Canteen gossipers that these “barracks”-flats are in
room-blobs. Each set of five may be the meeting fact the homes of the bodyguards of the directors.
site of the General Committee; it may also be a red Deducing which “barracks” protects which poten-
herring; it may also be a sort of psychoarchitectural tate may offer clues to the identity of the Co.’s upper
anomaly—an echo generated by Spindle itself. The management.
Directorate offers no official comment on this genre
of room-blob. 8 The apartments of the subdirectors​– Roughly one
hundred in number, these flats are spacious (mean-
2 The desk of the Avid Listener​– The Avid Listener is ing they comprise several room-blobs) and appor-
a minor Directorate official—a clerk to the subdirec- tioned with rare provincial and Terran artifacts. Each
tor of the otherwise obsolescent Civic Incertitude is well guarded by a unique army of Co. gendarmes,
Subcommittee of the Afdeling of the Arkheion—who thuggish Terran or Calay or Qrey alia (mercenaries),
is paid by the Co. to listen to complaints and sugges- and great, blind, well-trained shipdegs.
tions from the mob below. Her oversized desk, hewn
from a single dark brown fungal “tree” of Kakudun, 9 The apartments of the directors – Thought to be
is the most prominent room in the upper levels; it forty in number, these flats are vast (comprising
marks a boundary beyond which all non-Directorate- dozens of room-blobs) and apportioned with alien
born fleeters must tread carefully. and Escheresque artifacts. Each is seemingly
unguarded, but—as the old proverb goes—only
3 The Brothel Constant​– The most expensive house the very foolish believe their own eyes…
of pleasure on Spindle is naturally found in the
upper decks. The Brothel Constant never closes its 10 The Rebranding Hall​– One very public linear series
doors (that is, ties off its entrance curtains) and has of room-blobs is the “Hall” in which the senior
a reputation for providing the most alien comforts Eaters of the Dead punish criminals found guilty
imaginable, not just in flesh, but also in illicit sub- of HACAs (heinous anti-Company acts) by the
stances and even Weird experiences. It is said that Subcommittee for the Law. These “rebrandings”
whatever entity controls the Brothel Constant is the never involve the burning of flesh, but immaterial
human-led rival of the Wetan Mafia. re-shapings of individuals’ careers (demotions)
as a form of public shaming. (Of course, many
4 The sealed War Chamber – There is no day or night re-brandings also end in execution.) The Hall was
on-Spin, but the Archivists nevertheless track time a tremendously popular destination among the
according to Terran standards (16 equal hours; bored masses during the Groot Tachquake.
on-Spin, 10 of these are “day”; the rest “night”).
For all 16 of those hours, elite armed guards stand 11 The Cryosoleum​ – A story invented to scare children
outside a certain well-sealed-off series of rooms in (probably), the Cryosoleum is the secret resting
the upper levels, known to fleeters below as the War place of the Founding Five Directors…
Chamber. It is said that the Chamber is an armory,
holding vast stores of powerful Tephnian weapons 12 The Cheesewright Recondite – A single large room-
and depowered combat androids. blob off the Rebranding Hall has a secret door and
emits such a funk that two room-blobs on all sides
5 The Mothcatchers’ Porte​– The closest equivalent of it are marked off as corridors, not to be inhabited.
to a throne on-Spin is a comfortable couch in the This curiously stinky roundabout is typically ignored
sparingly luxurious uppermost room of the entire by visitors to uppermost, but a few gourmands
station. Here, the General Committee meets openly know the trick to entering the blob of the secret
once every 16 market weeks. Here, the subdirectors cheesemonger who—it is said—works directly for the
hold sporadic open meetings regarding the status Directors Prime. What this trick is no doubt involves
and future of their Afdelings. And, it is said, short bribes (and contested CHA rolls). And anyone shop-
closed meetings occur here once per day between ping at the Cheesewright Recondite will surely be
two Directors Prime. Lower-rank members of the Co. noted in the monger’s Ledger of Persons of Interest
strain to catch glimpses of these sittings-upon-the- to the Directors…
Porte; it is possible that the entire room is a right
hand waved in distraction as the left palms a stolen
coin into an unseen pocket…
“Cheese” on Spindle is like miso—a richly nutty, acidic,
6 The handlers’ flats​– Officially apocryphal—their
locations classified and yet perhaps trackable semi-solid foam of microbial excreta, crafted from
thanks to the steady volumes of booze delivered to carefully selected strains of mold and brewers’ waste.
them each market week—the flats of the high-level The complex flavor of any given cheese will appeal
Co. handlers are not used as flats per se (slept in,
used for lovemaking, etc.). Instead they serve as most to (d4) Fleeters, rock-born humans, wetans, or
sites of coordination for black operations, the kind other biological sapients.
not recorded in the dossiers of the refactors down in
Voidmining. Simply entering a handler’s flat by acci-
dent means breaching Co. policy but just may—if the
breacher appears sufficiently talented to the handler
in question—result in forced labor (i.e., joining the
operation) instead of summary trial and spacing.

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The structure
Kings and their rivals, the Carvolian Dukes. Xe fled to
Vennar, where xe met and became deeply indebted
to Garliquehart.

of the Co.
5. The Chomagon or simply the Cho – This 3-meter tall,
impossibly strong, genius automaton–human–ro-
dent cyborg was created by a rogue mantid scientist,
whom she later consumed, with a heaping garnish of
human pituitary glands extracted from the scientist’s

The founding of the Co. beloved cadre of cloned servant-children.

The Founding Five Directors were Terran robber barons

from the northwestern part of the larger supercontinent,
The General Committee
Pala. Each of the Founding Five controlled a powerful The Directorate comprises five unequal Afdelings
cartel of merchant-pyrates. And three centuries ago, (departments), the most powerful of which is that of
each of the Five independently discovered a way to reach the Arkheion (Spindle). Each
Subdirectors and directors are
Spindle, all via the Heechee Tombs in the sleepy Carvo- Afdeling has a fixed number
not elected but appointed by an
lian province of Etruvia (now an oblast of the Federation of subdirectors and directors,
Afdeling and approved by the
of Unhuman Kingdoms). each of whom serves on their
General Committee. Typically,
After covertly battling each other on Terra and in Afdeling’s central planning
an Afdeling has three to five
space for several years, the Five signed a blood-truce: committee as well as either a
subdirectors for every director.
the Charter of the Worshipful Company of Voidminers. single topical subcommittee or
Only the General Committee can
(They soon renamed the Company after the discovery on the Directorate’s General
approve the creation of new sub-
of Darasan and its magnificent, low-orbit “stillfleet.”) Committee—the ruling body
directorships and directorships.
The Founding Five ran the Co. jointly for half a century that most fleeters mean when
before entering cryosleep in unknown, no-doubt highly they say “the Directorate.”
guarded locations. The General Committee meets once every four
The Five—known by most fleeters today as the Five market weeks to discuss all matters of importance to
Most Vile—were: life on Spindle and the overall direction of the Co. Day-

For the full text of the most important

to-day governance is mostly left to the Afdeling of the
1. Vrow Thonnié Garliquehart – An ultra-wealthy mer- Arkheion; the drawing up of new venture contracts, to
chant of Vennar and the icy-veined “creative direc- the Afdelings of the Void and the Fleet; the recruitment
tor” of that republic’s Assassins’ Guild, she was the of new fleeters, to the Afdeling of the Provinces; and the

Co. policies, see “Screams.”

first and only Director Prime-of-Primes, reigning conscription of new tremulants-potentiæ, to the Afdel-
until all of the First Five agreed to go into cryosleep. ing of Terra. General Committee meetings tend to focus
(Supposedly.) on long-term vision—how to quell uprisings on-Spin and
2. Grimlaird Mudceanay Rachsma Erlkog – Marshal- rockside; which high-cost venture contracts should be
Inquisitor of Dravania and renowned sadist, he is said approved, for what strategic purposes; why certain hulks
to have made deals with the Silk King, the Saffron or ringworlds or lost provinces should be avoided, etc.
Anax, and the Duke of the Gray Pyramid… His burn- In theory, five of the current directors—whose identi-
ing quest for political power and arcane knowledge ties are, of course, secrets, especially to each other—hold
was driven by debts to these three unthinkably vile the title of Director Prime. The exact nature of their
chronodæmons. authority is unclear. But it is known that a rotating
3. Trillium Waverlay – They were an infamous actor, poet, member of the five Directors Prime (if they are not
military strategist-for-hire, and—most notably—the apocryphal) chairs each General Committee meeting,
favorite plaything of the Empress Daephinia X—the most of which are closed. One director approved by the
so-called last legitimate heir of the Blood Laurels of General Committee chairs each subcommittee meeting,
Tephnii to rule in Saspara. They (supposedly) con- most of which are closed, a rare few of which are open
vinced Garliquehart et al to allow the Yellow Monks in order to solicit public comment.
of Ghost Mountain to found an “Archive” on Spindle. Subdirectorship and directorship are lifelong appoint-
4. Proconsul Olyph “Jacksmaw” Maarvaan – The self- ments, as are (in theory) Primeships. The identities of the
proclaimed “pyrate-king of Caltaraan” ruled that directors are intentionally not public. It is thus unclear to
city for two years as dictator. A brutal slaver, Maar- the average fleeter who is actually running Spindle and
vaan was considered a traitor by both the Unhuman the Company. Details here are organizational estimates
based on Canteen gossip.

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Afdeling of the Arkheion
The department in charge of Spindle. Estimated to
comprise 12 directors, 40 subdirectors. Subcommittees
for: Algaculture (all food production and distribution),
Acquisitions (all new-archaetech processing), the
Armoury (all already-extant weapons, armor, and other
Directorate archaetech maintenance, repair, and
per-venture distribution), the Exchequery (taxation
and Directorate budgeting), the Gendarmerie (liaises
with the Guild of the Eaters of the Dead), Law (all
dispute resolution for inhabitants of Spindle of rank
lower than subdirector; subdirectors and directors are
tried by the General Committee), Maintenance (infra-
structure repair, including flats-design and upkeep),
Outlay (payroll, handled in the Canteen), Policy (all
matters of politics deemed by the General Committee
unimportant enough to be voted upon by the mob),
Trades & Arts (“T&A,” the production and circulation of
all on-Spin goods, handled in the Canteen), and Waste
(recycling).
The Afdeling of the Arkheion dominates the General
Committee. It is in turn dominated by the Subcom-
mittees for the Exchequery and Policy, which roughly
split up the others among them as allies. Policy counts
as allies the Gendarmerie, Law, Outlay (Exchequery’s
sworn nemesis), and the all-important Armoury. But
Exchequery counts as allies Algaculture, Acquisi-
tions, T&A, and the two most vital, under-appreciated
subcommittees: Maintenance and Waste. This was
the political status quo of Spindle during the Groot
Tachquake. It may shift in the years ahead as the Afdel-
ing of the Provinces swells with money and power and
the potentates of the Arkheion must find cohesion or
suffer together.

Afdeling of the Provinces

The department in charge of relations with the major
provinces. 9 directors, 40 subdirectors. Subcommittees
for: Calarash (deals with all Calaș matters), Calayat–
Province Affairs (AKA the “Wetan Subcommittee”;
deals with Calay matters among the provinces, includ-
ing inter-Wetana matters), Calayat Resource Manage-
ment (CRM—the powerful mercantile board of the Co.’s
operations on Calayat; captured by pro-Chessenais
interests, at the moment), Calayat–Spindle Affairs (deals
with human Spinside Calay matters, excluding Co.
monies; still pro-Malteni), Darasan–Province Affairs
(largely perfunctory, as the Darasannais trade only
with the Co. itself, but mandated by the Darasannais
ambassadors), Darasan–Spindle Affairs (deals with most
Darasannais matters; captured by the Queendom of

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH08 ☉ LIFE ON SPINDLE 223

Theen), Gigou (deals with all Gigoix matters), Kakudun
(deals with all Kakudunnais matters), Nașudrūn (on
Afdeling of Terra
permanent hiatus until contact with Nașudrūn can be The department in charge of relations with Terrans
reestablished), New Prospects (for discussion of pos- (states and individuals) and, by extension, with the
sible Goldilocks worlds to explore and minor provinces Archive. 3 directors, 12 subdirectors. Subcommittees
to strategically invest in), Qreyjal–Province Affairs (deals for: Terra–Province Affairs (slowly coming out of hiatus;
with all non-Spinside Qrey matters), Qreyjal–Spindle the General Committee does not trust Terrans to
Affairs (deals with all Spinside Qrey matters, including trade directly with the provinces), Terra–Spindle Affairs
Co. monies), and Ruguņ (deals with all Ruguș matters). (slowly coming out of hiatus; currently reaching out
The Subcommittees for Calayat Resource Manage- to the governments of the Federation of Unhuman
ment, Calayat–Spindle Affairs, and Qreyjal–Spindle Kingdoms, Vennar, and the Great Egg of the mantids),
Affairs effectively dominate the Afdeling, top to bottom. and the Weird (rapidly brought out of hiatus; in charge
When they agree on an issue, the other subcommittees of ventures for hunting down tremulants-potentiæ on
must fall in line or see their budgets (and, if needed, Terra; this subcommittee is entirely captured, politically,
faces) slashed. When they disagree, the CRM typically by the Archive).
wins by default. The smallest Afdeling is a wedge for the Archive
within the Directorate. It is thus treated with suspicion

Afdeling of the Fleet and granted as small a budget as is required to keep a

reserve of functioning tremulants on-Spin in case of an
The department in charge of Directorate activities aboard emergency so dire that the Directors Prime must call
all “presently non-signal-producing starship-class void- upon the Senior Archivists to save the Co.
vessels” (hulks), as well as, theoretically, Spindle-defense
and space war. 5 directors, 22 subdirectors. Subcom-
mittees for: Arkheion Defence (technically perfunctory
Afdeling of the Void
until aliens declare war on Spindle; totally perfunctory The department in charge of relations with the minor
until the Archive can figure out where Spindle is in provinces. 2 directors, 11 subdirectors. Subcommittees
the universe or how to safely enter and exit it without for: Ancient Worlds (including New Singapores One and
using a stiffworks), Fleet Expansion (perfunctory until Two, if these planets are ever located), Carlivago (deals
the Archive can figure out how to make a starship work), with all Carlivane matters), Contracts (new rockside
Voidfaring (a separate, equally perfunctory subcommit- ventures), Exploration (the Directorate’s
The Directorate’s
tee to divert funds toward FTL research in the Archive), department of astronomy and astroge-
Subcommittee for
Voidmining (the raison d'être of the Afdeling: this is the ology; works closely with the Archive),
Records liaises with
subcommittee that technically hires all fleeters who go Faneslary (deals with all Fanesh matters,
the Archive’s Bureau
out on ventures to explore the hulks that litter the void currently in crisis), Kavaraat (deals with
of Records, which
like ghosts), and War (largely perfunctory until the Co. all Kavaraaq matters, largely perfunc-
does not maintain the
declares war on an alien planet; currently interested in tory, since that province is in another
digital Archive (that is
Tnín and Djannaj). timeline two-thirds of the time), Records
the work of the Bureau
The Afdeling of the Fleet and the Subcommittee for (the Directorate’s own archive of paid-
of the Code), but its
Voidmining are synonymous, but the other subcommit- out ventures—what happened, who did
constantly updated yet
tees have honorary chairs and budgets in escrow that what, what was found/stolen, where in
hopelessly out-of-date
will be paid out in the event that the Archive ever under- the Archive to find more data), Tyharin
paper back-up, the
stands enough of the Code to make flying around space (deals with all Tyhari matters; largely
Complete Record.
possible. Until then, this important but oddly small perfunctory due to Tyharin’s timeflux),
Afdeling serves, with that of the Void, as a foil to the and Uricon (deals with all Uricone matters; variously
larger Afdelings of the Arkheion and the Provinces. useful depending on the ability of Spinside stiffworks to
Moreover, the Afdeling of the Fleet actually hires reach Uricon).
fleeters to keep the Co. “profitable” (swelling with new There are no Subcommittees for Radanaar or Ruoin.
archaetech and the technical knowledge of lost civi- Unlike in the Afdeling of the Provinces, the planetary
lizations). For this reason, it is indispensable to—and subcommittees of the Afdeling of the Void have little
perhaps directly controlled by—the (perhaps imaginary) power and instead act as mediators between the power-
Directors Prime. ful Subcommittees for Contracts and Exploration. These
tip back and forth as fiscally and strategically dominant
within the Afdeling.

224 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PROFITS

Names on Fleeter names d30

Spindle
1 Alabast, Alabasto

2 Arkterhoek, Arkterhoon

3 Balicant, Balicanto

4 Berkelter, Berkalo

Rules-of-thumb 5 Caeloert, Caeloerand

6 Deveeral, Deveerout
Below are thirty random names for voidborn humans,
7 Effrathen, Effriaen
offered as examples of procedural detail-design. This list
of random Fleeter names was written according to the 8 Faeljeorn, Faeljeoker

following conceptual rules: 9 Grunchel, Grunchel

10 Hyelant, Hyelanna
1. These names are “common,” not “noble”
11 Ijlunc, Ijlunco
(whatever that means).
2. These can be given names or surnames; ditto, 12 Jolcast, Jolcato

male, female, or otherwise gendered. 13 Koerlane, Koerlant

3. They should sound vaguely pseudo-Dutch, 14 Llorimane, Llorimano
made weird.
15 Norqoll, Norqolt
4. They maaay sound like pharmaceutical names…
and that’s okay. 16 Orlamach, Orlamma

5. They are modifiable: if a name ends in a vowel, 17 Pandarna, Pandarno

just add a “t,” “n,” or “nd.” 18 Prosampane, Prosampo

19 Quelander, Quelandro
For the list of random pepper elf names (later in this
chapter), the following rules were used: 20 Reespland, Risplano

21 Ryelmeer, Ryelmero
1. These names use lots of Zs and As. 22 Savarossi, Savaroon
2. No pepper elf name begins with a W sound.
23 Stilander, Stildenbow
3. The names should be hard to place in the “real world.”
4. They are modifiable: just add “-ax,” “-le,” “-zzst,” or a 24 Tijsran, Teijser

number. They can be a bit goofy. 25 Urloch, Urlocha

26 Vandeyon, Vandesser
Both sets are names should be easy to shorten: so Ala-
27 Wellander, Welvansen
basto becomes Basto; Ghaalraz becomes Ghaal, etc.
The wetan name generator (at the end of the chapter) 28 Xivarijn, Xivaro

is longer but simpler: while “true” wetan names are un- 29 Yorif, Yoriffo
pronounceable combinations of ultra-high frequency 30 Zeelah, Zeelona
rasps and releases of pheromones, their Spinnish names
are always translated as three common words.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH08 ☉ LIFE ON SPINDLE 225

 Gender in the future: humanity

Humans on-Spin express a range of genders, drawing on meanings attached to birth parentage vary in intensity,
many rockside cultures. The dominant culture on Calarash, and surrogacy and adoption are common. Family units
for example, has four primary genders, only two of which consist of groups of lovers and whichever children, if any,
sort of map onto a masc/fem binary. (Meanwhile, human they are fostering.
sleepers from Late Tephnii are almost all gendered in Likewise, in the world of work, the Co. is a venal,
a way that combines and exceeds masc/fem charac- plutocratic meritocracy whose primary chauvinism is a
teristics.) The directors care little about these nuances preference for Spin-born officers versus those born on the
of provincial cultures: for simplicity, all of the leaders of provinces or Terra. This distinction has nothing to do with
provincial nations are referred to as “queens” by the Co. species or gender, only birth-right nearness to perceived
Thus gender plays a role in ordering society on-Spin, technological superiority.
but there is no simple feminine/masculine binary. The

controls the manufacture

DIRECTORATE DEALINGS: of nearly 100% of the drug- The respectability and collective
THE WORLD CITY precursors available across wisdom of the Right Pragmatickal
the Co. (The actual manu- Guild of Rosarians may have arisen
Carlivago is a large city with an early modern technological regime, facturing is done by the
This entry was written by Ethan

Pharmacological Guild, just in part because Rosarians manu-

connected to Spindle via a single easily tacked central stiffworks
to insulate the Cartel in the facture most of the gunch and other
Gould and Wythe Marschall.

of unknown origin—the Grand Rapaxadrome. For three centuries,

Carlivago has been a center of trade. Yet Carlivago hardly lives up event of any contamination street drugs available Spinside.
to its name: it is not a city covering an entire world, but a single or adultery.)
city on a world lacking other signs of civilization. The planet—mostly Carlivane politics and economics are synonymous, just as the
oceanic with a few islands covered in inhospitably tall mountains Co. would have it. In turn, the Co. coffers are open to the Cartel’s
and a small number of nonarable dambos (shallow plateau sedge- guildmeisters, and fees are collected whenever goods are stored
marshes)—has yet to be further explored, with good reason… here from off-world. Thus Carlivane culture is famously rapacious
The city sits upon archae-tectural pylons that house an advanced and licentious.
The Groot Tachquake threatened the Cartel and thus social

Hence two pillows…

comms layer. These in turn stand atop a previous era’s stone-hewn
fortresses, warehouses, and residencies, now flooded. Over the order on Carlivago, bringing with it severe and previously unheard
years, the city has sprawled beyond the stone, eating up tracts of of curfews and vigilantism, which in turn heightened the city’s
wetlands and tunneling down into the limestone cenotes beneath. already strong cultural paranoia. You see, most Carlivane believe
In short, it is a bubble of glass, concrete, and chitin sitting atop that the reason their rich city continues to exist unmolested by
a bubble of sunken stone, girded advanced aliens is that the Directorate long ago made a deal
Within the walls of the guaranteeing a certain number of human (and wetan? pepper elf?)
by swamps.
“World City,” it is customary Carlivago was initially viewed as abductees per year in exchange for peace, otherwise. No one sleeps
to sleep with one pillow under a potential major province. The di- here very well. And no one wants to see their new alien masters
rectors pulled back from expanding coming…
your head and one atop it.
beyond the planet’s single epony-
This tradition dates back to mous city when they learned that
Carvolian times, supposedly, the mi-go and void elves (at least)
also maintain habitations here. The
Investigating the deal
although no Archival evidence
former in fact dwell quite close to the
exists for human habitation Rapaxadrome. The Carlivane thus
of this Goldilocks world until live in constant fear of void elf and Most refactors working for the Afdeling of the Void,
the early Fleeter era. especially mi-go abductions. (The which manages the minor provinces, will deny any
elves are “worse” by some reason- “deal” between the Cartel, the Directorate, and the
ably obvious moral metric, but the mi-go seem more interested in
humans. For more on the mi-go, see “Patterns.”) mi-go. It is possible, however, that one or two higher-
ups—probably in the rival Afdeling of the Provinces—
The Pharmacopoetic Cartel are not only aware of at least some fishy business that
Most of the residents of the city are descendants of or themselves
applied researchers of the organic arts—whether genetic, biologic, could be connected to such a deal, but even interested
botanical, or toxozoopharmacological—regardless of their present in hiring voidminers to follow these links out into the
craft (baker, armorer, etc.). The burghers of Carlivago made their void and up the chain of command. Of course, these
fortunes by growing vast amounts of goblyn moss and other materia
medica—especially those xenopoppies used in the manufacture of ventures would have to be strictly off the books…
synthetic opioids such as stimtenyl (by Archivally licensed leeches)
and gunch (by everyone else).
Early on, this ramping up of the production of pharmaceutical
ingredients crashed prices on drugs, Co.-wide. The burghers waited
out the bankruptcies of their rivals on-Spin, in Vennar, and on Calayat,
and then formed a price-fixing Pharmacopoetic Cartel that today

226 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PROFITS

 THE ARCHIVE

…It is a sign of great inner insecurity to be hostile to the unfamiliar,

unwilling to explore the unfamiliar.
—Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 5: 1947-1955, 1975.

Senior Archivists
What dwells After an Archivist has worthily served the Archive for

amid the
at least nine years, their mentor, who must be a Senior
Archivist, may propose to all of the other Seniors that
this humble servant be ordained as a Senior themself.

sacred wires
The Seniors then vote this proposal up or down.
Archivists made Senior enjoy unparalleled access
to the lost knowledge of many sapient civilizations,
including some yet to come. It is not known what
other privileges the Senior Archivists enjoy—for the

Scholarship and mystery Archive’s budget is a small, fixed percentage of

the Directorate’s, and how it is spent is entirely up to
To most fleeters, the Archive is simply a group of the collective of the Seniors.
monastic academics who maintain a library full of That said, non-Seniors live like monks, while Seniors
useful hardware and much less immediately useful cannot be matched in purchasing power by any but
software and astronomical data. To many in the the directors themselves. They advise subcommittees
Directorate, the Archive is a drain on Co. resources— (especially within the Afdelings of Terra and the Fleet),
a repository for Quixotic dreamers who weren’t tough and they never leave Spindle on punishment of death.
enough to enlist as rijders and explore the hulks, that is, Their knowledge of its workings is too dear, says the
to actually see the distant alien stars with which they’re Directorate, to allow them to defect or be captured by
so obsessed. alien, provincial, or Terran interests.
To fleeters interested in the ancient past—
and in restoring powerful technologies, surviving
extradimensional travel, and touching the Weird—the
Archivists are mentors, if not saints. Its exact structure
is not public knowledge, but Canteen gossip points at
a rough schema.

Ordo Pallida
The truth, according to the
Ancient proverb, is out there.

In theory, the various bureaus of the Archive are demo-

cratically managed by the Senior Archivists, of whom
there are perhaps as many as a few hundred or as few as
two dozen. In practice, it is a widely known “secret” (or
brilliant fiction) that an organization of time-traveling
Archivists from the future called Ordo Pallida—the
Yellow Order—periodically visits the Archive (this
Archive, now, on-Spin). It is possible, then, that the
Archive of today was not only set up by but is still run
by its time-traveling future incarnation. Of course all
Archivists vigorously deny this fantastic rumor.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH08 ☉ LIFE ON SPINDLE 227

 Functioning aux
Just below the Seniors in power
are the rare AI who have been re-
stored, often over many Archival
generations, to work as designed.
These aux are kept firewalled
For everyone’s safety, only groups
of Seniors work on any one aux.

off from the rest of the Archive

and from Spindle itself, and thus
they are not as powerful as a true
ship’s AI or Tephnian warma-
chine. Even so, they are typically
older, smarter, and better able
to connect to hulks and other
powerful archaetech treasures
than any human or wetan, save
perhaps a Senior Archivist.
For rules on playing aux char-
acters, see “Patterns.”

Archivists
Archivists-ordinary may look
and live like ascetics, but they
have access to the inner workings
of the alien Arkheion and to vast
stores of (mostly Tephnian) tech-
nical secrets. They are more like
typical fleeters than their Seniors,
mingling with other voidminers
in the Canteen on market days
before returning to the Arkheion
to sleep and prepare for a long
week of soldering wires and
peering at dimly green-glowing
Tephnian Code-glyphs on tiny,
wheel-peddle monitors.
Though technically allowed to
leave Spindle with special per-
mission from the Directorate,
in practice, Archivists-ordinary almost never do. It to interact with humans and aid the Co. while enjoying
is thought that there are four to six hundred Archivists- relations with aux and various partially restored
ordinary, but this number could be an exaggeration intelligent machines.
meant to justify the Archive’s budget to the General Of those small fraction of the Archive’s members
Committee. who venture beyond the safety of Spindle, a relatively
large percentage are pepper elves. It is conjectured by

Pepper elves xenobiologists that they are unable to resist some deep
programming pushing them to find and “mate with”
The vast majority of Archivists are capital-F Fleeters— (improve the code base of ) a salt elf. Other scholars
humans born on-Spin. The most common non-humans find this technobiological determinism frankly offen-
in the prayerful halls of the Code are those automata sive. Many pepper elves find the whole matter gauche,
called “pepper elves” in Spin. When they arrive on-Spin, unworthy of discussion (at least, with beings that cannot
they are welcomed in the Archive, where they can learn trade information packets digitally).

228 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PROFITS

 Finally, it is worth noting that the civilization of the
salt and pepper elves is obviously moribund and frac-
Gender in the future: “elves”
tured, missing large segments of its own Elf Machina ar-
chive. The puzzle remains, for example, of what civiliza- The salt elves and pepper elves are two “genders” of
tion created the elves; they admit to having been created, asexual advanced automata that “mate” by collectively
but many elves deny the authorship of humanity, despite working to enlarge the codebase of one salt elf (never
their humanoid form. The Archivists Machina and those a pepper elf). That socially “impregnated” salt elf later
who maintain the Bureau of the Code will pay for an- physically splits into two elves—one salt, and one either
swers to these questions—ones that are admittedly not salt or pepper. This whole code-updating and hardware-
burning, simply because the pepper elves are some of the auto-splitting process takes years and years—perhaps
least dangerous of the Archive’s many “Faustian friends.” centuries. That is why, in the entire three hundred years
of the Co.’s existence, there has not been a single new
elf “born” on-Spin.
Pepper elf “names”—translations into
Spin of Elf Machina tones d30 All of the elves known to the Co. are “extra” pepper
elves who have migrated to Spindle from their originary
1 Alrazzst, Alrazzaan guildships, which orbit mined-out, safely uninhabited
2 Bzanj, Bzanja planetoids that are not near anything else interesting
in the void. As automata, these elves are each assigned
3 Chaalinax, Chaalinaar
an Archivist Machina “foster parent.” A 1st-level pep-
4 Chaxaraan, Chaxaraaz per elf represents a new-to-Spindle elf who is finally
5 Draan, Draanarax acculturated to the society of the humans and wetans
6 Endax, Endaraan enough to leave the room-blobs of the Archive and
do something other than talk to their (mostly broken/
7 Faaljyn, Faaljynax
insipid) recovered comms.
8 Ghaalraz, Ghaavanax

9 Hyrenox, Hyren-2-B

10 Icorian, Icorianax

11 Jjalrazzin, Jjalrazzst

12 Keezayn-11, Keezayzzle

13 Khionaaz, Khionax-9

14 L-27-Rax, L-Rax 55

15 Maaljarazz, Maaljar•81C

16 Nalfandar, Nalfandarax

17 Ormoz, Ormozzle

18 Palfazz, Palfazzarax

19 Qaalax, Qaalaxle

20 Radarax, Radarannax

21 Rzaan, Rzaanarax,

22 Szijarrax, Szijarrast

23 Szaaljaan, Szaalajax•3

24 Tiljannil, Tiljannax

25 Ulquzz, Ulquzzle

26 Vezzalax, Vezzle

27 X-113-Lajj, Xaal-Lajj !12

28 Y-7-Laaz, Y’laaz-7-Rax

29 Zaazzan, Zazzanax

30 Zzyllarax, Zzyl’zzammle

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH08 ☉ LIFE ON SPINDLE 229

Neophytes space station to serve as psychic spies,” but they have
little choice in the matter. Once they realize that those
Neophytes must submit themselves to the Arkheion who cannot live up to their potential in the Echodrome
before their seventeenth years, shave their heads, and are not worth keeping alive according to their captors,
foreswear all involvement with provincial life and most tremulants-potentiæ “Touch the sky! Touch the
on-Spin politics. For one to three years, they are drilled fall in line and start taking sky! Touch… the sky!”
in mathematics, classical physics, astrophysics, electrical their Echotesters seriously. —Motto emblazoned across
engineering, mechanical engineering, optics, cell biolo- (Of course, by that point last year’s “KNOW THY-SELVES:
Take the Test of Echoes!”
gy, genetics, tasseology, oneiromancy, mycomesmerism, it’s often too late.)
recruitment posters in the Cante
and basic LT Code. en.

At the end of their training, if they pass the Test of Some rooms in the Archive d12
Whispers, then they may swear the solemn vows of the
Ordo Pallida and become Archivists. If they elect to
endure the dread Test of Echoes and survive, then they 1 The Yellow Pond – Passing through a corridor in
the heart of the Archive, one may catch an errant
are further allowed to learn of the Weird in hopes of, ray of amber light before it softens to darkness
nine years later, training tremulants. Most neophytes against the blackstone wall. One may snatch a single
drop out and reenlist to become leeches (Spindle-based perfect chord of theremin-like buzzing reflecting off
of a steel samovar before it dampens into mycelial
pirs), banshees, or witnesses. A few drop out and simply flooring. One may even witness a single strangely
disappear into the Bays, never to be seen again. luminous insectoid limb rapidly curve back inside a
small blob that one could have sworn was merely
a closet… One never knows when one is near the
Orderlies portal by which the Senior Archivists (supposedly)
commune with their future colleagues; one may
Archival orderlies are humble Canteen thugs—often even be standing in the Yellow Pond and wantonly
spend these precious seconds trying to recall the
conscripts or wetans—hired to keep thieves and the Di- name of that good friend down in T&A who owes
rectorate’s spies out of the Arkheion. They are kept in the one a stiff drink and a warm story—although one is
dark about all matters Archival, and they are paid well afterward certain that this friend has not been made
quite yet…
enough to not ask questions. Being an orderly is consid-
ered the best non-voidmining job that a young bravo can 2 The Overschool – All little voidminers must attend
underschool, which can happen in the public areas
land, but it can get boring—and moreover creepy—stuck of the Archive if the child in question is exception-
up there all day amid the rows of broken song cubes, ally brilliant but more often occurs in the Canteen
frayed energy-leeches, and blinking quasi-comms. or (among nonhumans and Calay provincials) Little
Wetana. Very few stillfleeters, however, make it
to capital-O Overschool. This august institution

Tremulants occupies a drifting, tentacular series of room-blobs

that penetrates the rest of the Archive unexpectedly.
Through these blobs, Archivists Professorial (those
Technically, all tremulants are non-Archivists, trained of the Bureau of Knowledge Shaming) briskly walk,
by Archivists but working directly for the Directorate. followed by roving bands of neophytes-graduate.
In reality, classed tremulants are subject to no real su- As they walk, the Archivists expound upon the
mysteries of the universe, and the neophytes take
pervision but that of their supervisory Seniors. Each is notes on simple sketch-a-comms. The neophytes
assigned one Senior handler, and each is expected to will be tested at some unannounced later time; in
do exactly what the Directorate commands, via that Se- fact, determining when they will be tested, on what
subject matter, by whom, and for what purpose (i.e.,
nior handler, on pain of death. In real-reality, once out to terminate their “degree” process and emerge,
on a venture, nobody knows what the hell happens, and moth-like, as Archivists, or merely to “quiz” their
tremulants creep literally everyone out. Regardless, they knowledge of some arcane topic) is the primary
work of these learners. For the tests administered
are a critical part of the Archive, since they and only they to neophytes-graduate almost never appear to be
can contact the Weird. (Some slim minority of directors, tests, but instead an endless series of applications
it is said, would rather that there were no more tremu- for research fellowships that are only tangentially
related to their courses of study; these mirages are
lants trained in the Echodrome. But the Senior Archi- never awarded, anyway (probably they were always
vists insist…) fictions), but the applications must be completed
in a timely manner for the neophytes to have any
hope of one day becoming Archivists. Whether the
Tremulants-potentiæ Overschool is integral to the work of the Archive, a
special selection process of classified purpose, or
Terran conscripts may “complain” to the Directorate merely a joke is a matter of debate in the neophytes’
dormitory-flats.
about “being kidnapped and taken aboard an alien

230 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PROFITS

 3 The Horologikon – In this chamber, the Seniors pub- 9 The minor libraries – Scattered throughout the
licly perform the work of monitoring time according next-to-uppermost levels of Spindle are several
to Terran (Palan) standards. Here, a visitor may room-blobs in which individual Senior Archivists
watch as the great, blinking, towering, sputtering, work on specific projects requiring isolation, yel-
writhing, clock-like Mechano-Tentaclenche® swings lowed dot-matrix manuscripts, half-witted servo-
its differentially long arms together in lusty scientific drones, candles, battery acid, home-brewed meth,
with more flowy shirts and algal beer.
Picture the X-Men’s Danger Room, but

labor. In actuality, the Archive’s horological work is and dæmonic quantum symbologies. Entering one of
accomplished by small, extremely precise atomic these so-called minor libraries by accident can be a
clocks of High Tephnian design, kept hidden, far harrowing, enlightening, or challenging experience,
away from the mobs. The Mechano-Tentaclenche® depending on the entrant and the degree of Archival
is an entertainment targeted at young children and focus interrupted by their entry.
those voidminers who failed maths in underschool.
10 Grindeesal Alley – Sometimes members of the
4 The Waverlay Museum – Created by one of the Archive burn out. They learn too much; experiment
Founding Five Directors, the Museum today serves with too many mind-expanding substances; or
as the Archive’s primary site of interaction with simply stare too long at their comm screens. These
the other inhabitants of Spindle. Comprising a hardcases typically end up in one of a string of
motley grouping of engineering, ethnological, room-blobs below the rest of the Archive known as
xenobiological, and harmlessly Weird exhibit-blobs, Grindeesal Alley. Here, a fleeter can purchase drugs,
the Museum is typically empty except for a few illegal dieselpunk cybernetic implants (gunfingers!
provincials or wetans and their children. Most hollow glands! venom genitals!), or simply cross
Waverlay docents are “old” pepper elves (that is, their fingers and rummage around for That One
those in need of repair). Really Critical Missing Component.

5 The Echodrome – Closed to non-Archivists, the 11 The monitor rooms – Most non-Archivists know
Echodrome is the training center for all tremulants- that the Archive does one thing, and these plebeians
potentiæ. It is exceedingly dangerous to visit… really only care about that one thing: monitoring
the void via Spindle’s extensive, mysterious, and
6 The Bibliotekion – Technically, the Archive exists to seemingly invulnerable system of external nano-
help other Co. members learn more about ancient “cameras.” While the Archivists now understand how
technologies and thus better pillage the void (and to set up viewing ports anywhere on-Spin (all that’s
survive while doing so). Technically, non-Archivists required is a Tephnian mirrorslate [tablet computer]
can make requests of the Archive by visiting the and direct contact with the station’s blackstone
labyrinthine storage complex for books and machine walls), they only do so in the upmost room-blobs on
parts known as the Bibliotekion. Technically, many Spindle, and even then in a highly limited fashion.
things are true. In reality, unless properly bribed, More than avoiding unnecessary work, the Archivists
most Archivists do their best to evade, misconstrue, limit access to the voidmonitors in order not to miss
delay, and ignore requests for technical aid from anything. Nothing would be more embarrassing than
non-Archivists, thus making the Bibliotekion rather for the ignorant public to spot an object of interest in
like a Terran library after all. the void just beyond Spindle’s walls before a mem-
7 The Narthex of the Code – This group of room-blobs ber of the Archive could.
on the edges of the Bibliotekion is an open series of 12 The chroming belt-mall – The upscale equivalent
comfortable seats, long tables, and shared work sta- of Grindeesal Alley, the bright “mall” room-blobs
tions. Here, Archivists, visiting banshees, and new stretch along the entire perimeter of the Archive,
pepper elves not yet assigned citizen status by the offering fleeters many opportunities to purchase
Co. collaborate to solve Code-related problems (that overpriced archaetech oddments—and offering the
is, to “hack” into these problems, in the lingo of the Archivists’ tremulant lapdogs opportunities to scan
banshee’s guild, the Draadmijners). Because seating these passersby for secrets…
here is “hot,” meaning it cannot be held by the same
individual once they get up to use the organic waste
recycling room or purchase an uskaal frappe (e.g.),
fights frequently break out among the Narthexers,
and thus at least two Archival orderlies are always
stationed among the coders, eyeing their wards with
understandable paranoia.

8 Crustallone Heights – This series of flats (stan-

dard-issue apartment-style room-blobs, joined by
empty corridor room-blobs) is curiously clean but
extremely loud: here, the pepper elves who have not
signed up to leave the Archive and work as voidmin-
ers live in relative peace, freely communicating in
irritating beeps, whirs, buzzes, and dial tones. Few
visit Crustallone Heights who are not themselves
“elves,” save during the direst of emergencies.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH08 ☉ LIFE ON SPINDLE 231

 Echodrome techno-horror
(“training bot”)
HEADCOUNT
1

VITALS

COM 2d10 HEA 32

MOV d12 GRT 17
REA d4+1 DR 3
(steel plating)
WIL d8 (adv)
CHA d4
HABITS
• Plugging into a small tank of enerjawn to recharge
• Suplexing a butler-droid
• Flexing its laser-rotors in front of a mirror

DOGMA

Programming

ATTACKS
• Cerasteel knee, d10 damage.
• Chainsaw elbow, 2d10 damage plus bleed 1.
• Hypersonic axe-hand, d20 damage plus stun 1.
• Lyser (cell-lysing laser), 2d20 damage plus bleed 2
(non-biological sapients ignore this bleed), range 300 M.
• Mirror-matter hadronic jet, 5d4 damage plus burn 1, range
25 M. Every hit has a 1 in 6 chance of causing a mutation in a
biological sapient or a voidmadness in an informatic sapient.

POWERS
• Blind-Lite™ spot-diodes (free) – The bot can burn 3 GRT to
cause a target to suffer −3 to hit for d3 rounds.
• Dampening incaloid relay housing (free) – The bot can burn
d6 GRT to prevent a target from using the hell science for
d4+1 rounds.
• Multiprocessor core signal function (passive) – The bot can
attack d4+1 targets per round. To determine which attack it
uses, roll d6−1 and consult the list above, with a 0 represent-
ing dealer’s choice.
• Orgone-reversing magneto (passive) – The bot has been
upgraded to resist Weird effects: it has advantage on all WIL
checks.

GEAR
This bot is worth (10dCHA) × d100 gl to an ex-Archivist in the
Alley (your CHA). If broken down, its body comprises 8dREA
High Tephnian oddments (your REA); each High Tephnian
oddment is worth 4d20 gl in the Alley or three times as much
to the right specialty collector. Obviously, it is highly illegal
to possess stolen Archival goods.

STORY NOTES
This bot—nicknamed “Lazy Caalvyn” by the pair of neophytes
in charge of its upkeep—appears to be a six-armed, 3-M tall,
headless metal raccoon standing on its spindly back legs. Its
paneling is deeply pitted and cracked, as though the material
has been stretched and shaped many times. Its hulking core
glows an offensive green from within, releasing occasional puffs
of blue-gray smoke as it moves. It is surprisingly fast, despite its
clunky form. Its AI is weak but not sinister. It can hold conversa-
tions, although it speaks like a professional wrestler, punctuat-
ing every utterance with “YINZ CAN BET’CHA KITTY ON THAT!”
or something equally droll.

232 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PROFITS

Archivist
(Weird techno-monk)
In the interest of giving GMs the option to more fully
realize critical NPCs, here are Archivist class rules. The
powers of the Senior Archivists—especially bona fide
members of the Ordo Pallida, if it exists—no doubt
greatly exceed these.

Species: Most known Archivists are humans or pepper

elves, although the wetans of central Ur-Wetana on
Calayat have an equivalent social function (tribe?
monastic order? mutation?), the Shining Sky Climbers.
(Perhaps all futurepeoples have their own version of
the Archive.) Those Archivists who can manipulate the
hell science are disproportionately conscripts (Terrans).

GRT: maxREA +maxREA

Advanced powers list: Operations

Your marquee power is:

Possess Archival access (operations

advanced power)

Choose 1:

Control hell science (tremulant class power)

Jack (banshee class power)

Choose 2:

Call Weird (tremulant class power)

Command (factor class power)

Extend self (tremulant class power)

d seven years under the
Feel Weird (tremulant class power) Chevenxaari had not endure
in order to be assigned
tutelage of the Horologemon
deep-cleaning of the
Memorize (tremulant class power) as her graduation present the
was not even sure why
tiny Dentulian Quartz. Chev
nt” out for the public:
Pass (tremulant class power) the Bureau of Time kept “De
r rock—supposedly the
it was merely a chip of clea
troyed Goldilocks world,
Tack (banshee class power) last remaining piece of a des
a plebeian myth. But as
although this was no doubt
dusting, polishing, and
she sank into the minutes of
Chev noticed something
measuring nearby EM fields,
the more Dent seemed
odd: the more she touched it,
er…
to grow ever so slightly larg

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH08 ☉ LIFE ON SPINDLE 233

 THE CANTEEN AND POINTS BELOW

Work, suitably defined, is a bad thing and we should try to

create a society in which it is no longer necessary.
—John Danaher, “The Case Against Work,” Philosophers’ Magazine, 2018.

The Canteen
“Divine magnetic lands”
Most fleeters don’t see much of the Directorate proper
or the Archive. Most fleeters spend their time in the
Canteen, drinking voidhooch, chewing dried Anch-
fly larvae (sort of like eating maple-glazed bacon while
smoking a cigar at the same time; deadly if swallowed),
and waiting for their favorite massagebots to free up a
half-hour.
The Canteen is bright, vast, and crowded. Now that the
‘Quake has subsided, almost anything from the known
worlds can be acquired for the right price. Merchants
hawk wares both T&A-made and provincial. The smart
shopper can also find behind-the-pylon tents where fake
barbers sell real alien wares and archaetech, some of it
allowed to circulate by the Directorate, some of it illicit.
More importantly for would-be venturers, the
Canteen is the primary place that the Directorate
interacts with fleeters, via its variously shady
intermediaries. Contractor-howlers—wedged in small,
cheaply made, garishly painted metal booths between
foodsellers and gambling shacks—shout out the outlay
rates for new ventures over the din of Exchequery
thugs’ calls of which registered citoyens have yet to pay
up quarterly taxes to the Directorate.
Stillfleeters must bring these mass-printed venture-
slips (1 × 4 CM strips of crumbly green algapaper) to
the central Basilikon and then sign longer contracts
with refactors. The Basilikon is also where returning
venturers must by law resell all archaetech found out
in the void to the Directorate. In reality, most fleeters
under-report their hauls, and the Acquisitors allow a
certain amount of “breakage” to go unnoticed.

Old and wise voidminers spend their time playing an

ancient Terran game known as “backgammon.” Young and foolish
voidminers claim this game is a myth and doesn’t exist.

234
 Districts of the Canteen 6 The Food & Beverage District (F&B) – Food &
d8 Booze, as it is typically called, comprises all of the
oddly shaped series of room-blobs in the Canteen
that are not specifically zoned as corridors, flats,
1 Nexus – The very heart of the Canteen is a confusing non-consumables shoppes, or so on. The largest
series of wide corridors made up of multiple room- of these is the Food Hall, just below the Basilikon,
blobs each, each of which is marked out by ceiling which wraps around Nexus like the pericardium
tiles of a distinct pattern. Corridors in Nexus connect around the heart. Here, almost anything known to
the Basilikon, the guild halls, the shoppes of T&A, be edible by humans and wetans can be found. The
the centraal-most food stalls and bars, the Arena, most popular substances to ingest remain fried
the casinos, and the chitin-growers’ sub-district of pseudo-meats, uskaal (a berry-derived, energizing
Upper Wetana. From any of these areas, you can coffee-like beverage), Anchfly larvae, and booze.
take a corridor through Nexus to reach any other. The booze-focused room-blobs sit above T&A, with
The Eaters of the Dead patrol this area ceaselessly, the fancier bar-blobs being closer to the Basilikon
mostly to bust anyone who stops to set up a sales and the dive-blobs being lower down. The small
stall. In addition to their unique ceiling colors, each cluster of blobs near the Arena filled with very cheap
Nexus corridor is marked with small white flags. food stalls is called Wings & Feet. F&B room-blobs
2 The Basilikon – The upper third of the centraal- are colored an orange-red. (See below for common
most part of the Canteen is a roughly silo-shaped Canteen foods.)
series of room-blobs marked in deep red. This is the 7 Upper Wetana – Wetans reproduce more quickly
Basilikon, where the Directorate interacts with its than humans, and a large number of them seem to
citizens. (See below for details.) enjoy life in the void at least as much as Fleeters
3 The Guilds – Around the Basilikon are arrayed the do. Each tax year, the zoning discussions between
various “halls” (series of room-blobs) owned by the the Directorate and the leaders of Little Wetana
official guilds. Each of these sub-districts has its own grow longer and longer, and that region of Spindle
character, but they share a certain air of pompous continues to spill upward. At present, a quarter of
complacency. On official maps, they are marked in the Canteen has evolved into Upper Wetana, which
deep green. (See below for more on the guilds.) comprises four sub-districts: the chitin growers, the
“Docks” or stevedores’ sub-district, the “New Hires”
4 The Trades & Arts District (T&A) – Within an sub-district (where wetans new to Spindle may find
upside-down-bucket-shaped series of room-blobs work sponsored by the Wetan Mafia), and “Construc-
beneath and to one side of the Basilikon, officially tion” (where the Wetan Mafia more or less openly
licensed merchants sell anything and everything flaunts its riches). Upper Wetana is marked out by
imaginable (except, of course, illicit goods—who true-blue chitin fencing.
would possibly break Co. law!?). While “T&A” techni-
cally refers to the brand of market goods manufac- 8 Flats Centraal – Those who work in the Canteen and
tured on-Spin, the T&A district has sub-districts grease the right palms above it are allowed to
including (from top to bottom) “Alien” Goods, dwell in the thin sheet of room-blobs on the Arena-
Provincial Goods, Droids and Animals (regardless side of the Canteen. These flats are by turns avoided
of origin), and Weapons and Armor (sundry). The and sought after by voidminers, who may find the
Spin-made T&A goods are hawked in the central nearness to constant activity stimulating or draining.
cylinder of room-blobs that joins the other groups of The three sub-districts of Flats Centraal are Arena-
shoppes. Distal T&A sub-districts, around the Arena side, Docs-in-Blobs (named after the most common
and casinos, include Plants & Biotech, Mushroom profession practiced there), and the “Oracles”
Materials (ladders), and the Casino Shoppes (includ- (home to the majority of Spindle’s underschools).
ing Terran specialty goods). T&A room-blobs are The blobs that Flats Centraal comprises are lined
marked out with a light pink. in very light blue.

5 The Services, Games, & Entertainment District

(SGE) – SGE comprises four disconnected areas on
the outskirts of the Canteen: the brothel sub-district The most popular franchise on-Spin could be
above T&A, the subcontractor sub-district among
the guilds, the Arena on the other side of Nexus from called, in translation, WingHut™. They serve fried
T&A, and the casinos (New Vennar, Two Calayats, Meganisoptera (griffinfly) wings, which taste
and Run Like You’re in Caltaraan) down below the like fried paper. Their principal competitors are
Arena. The most famous of these sub-districts is
the Arena, a series of large room-blobs connected ArcadeHut® and Wing Dungeon™.
by a simple camera system and surrounded by
many dozen viewing-blobs. Arena activities include
bare-knuckle boxing, wetan kickboxing, jalasti sex-
wrestling, enjan group meditation, shoodtha scrap-
eating contests, public shouting matches, “politics”
(a silly game with no consequence in which fleeters
“elect” one another to titles; this is used primarily as
a pretense for placing bets), and of course the ever-
popular machete-droid duels. SGE room-blobs are
painted in electric green.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH08 ☉ LIFE ON SPINDLE 235

 Some rooms in the Basilikon d12

1 Acquisitions – Voidminers come here to sell back gear acquired on their ventures. “Acq”
is also a good place for mundane conversation, tall-tale telling, betting on new venture
contracts, and fistfights. Acq never closes down, and it’s never free of gendarmes.

2 Requisitions – Run jointly by Acq, Void, and the Subcommittee for the Armoury, “Req”
is an enormous room-blob filled with useful goods that are licensed to voidminers at
the direction of their refactors. Common examples include backpacks, maps, weapons,
armor, rebreathers, tachyon lanterns, and even occasionally anti-Escheresque nausea
field generators.

3 The Exchequery – “Ex”—run jointly, begrudgingly, by the Subcommittees for the

Exchequery and for Outlay—is only open for a few hours every day, and yet it’s as full
of life as Acq. Here, fleeters cash out their venture fees, deposit voidguilders into
their accounts, and argue against paying duplicate taxes.

4 Voidmining – Though all venture contracts must be ratified here by a refactor, the wing
of room-blobs called “Void” is typically quiet, as the contracting happens behind closed
curtains. Refactors share small offices here.
The boss of Alt is Madulaan 5 Maplock – The location of this secret room-blob is moved every market week, and
Chavrah [provincial razi 2/ most voidminers would mistake it (wherever it is) for another refactorial office. But the
jackal 4/factor 1], a cagy old refactors themselves know that this room contains copies of Archival tack maps to be
distributed to contracted venturers. These maps—rows of numbers and snaking hash
pit-fighting bastard of an marks, printed on green algae-paper—are vitally important to the Co., and Maplock is
ex-cop from Calayat. Upon said to be well-guarded thanks to a security system so advanced as to be invisible. To the
coming Spinside, Chavrah casual observer, it is merely an empty, unguarded office replete with a few filing cabinets
full of scraps of paper…
served for decades as an
Archival orderly before 6 Alterity – A division of the Subcommittee for Arkheion Defence, all non-human,
non-wetan fleeters must report periodically to the Archive-sponsored officials in this
being promoted/demoted nondescript room-blob. Here, the aliens are poked, prodded, questioned, and sometimes
(the status of Alt vis-à-vis the summarily arrested without explanation. The gendarmes of “Alt” are known to include
Archive is unclear) to chief tremulants.

alien-prodder. Utterly loyal 7 Basilikon Centraal – This almond-shaped series of room-blobs in the middle of the
to Senior Archivist Drutoc district is a quiet space for reflection. Here, Co. artisans set up freestanding panes of
colorful sugar glass that depict recent successes in the void. Visitors are encouraged to
Xaanhaavri. eat the glass, allowing the Co.’s growth to physically sustain them while pleasant music
fills the spice-scented air. Basilikon Centraal is entirely off-limits to non-factors.

8 Tranquility – Too much hooch make fleeter go lazy! Bad drunks are thrown into the small,
padded isolation cells of “Tranq” for half a day, then released, owing the Co. 100 gl and a
written apology. Tranq is a division of the Subcommittee for Law.

9 Lottery – Before the Groot Tachquake, fleeters would bet on anything, at any time.
Gambling debts and attendant crimes were a plague rotting the Co. from within. During
the ‘Quake, the listless rabble would bet on any meta-thing, including the likelihood of
the ‘Quake to subside before the resolution of the next bet. Today, “Lot” addresses
the ubiquitous Co. vice by offering a legal means through which to register odds regarding
literally any event or series of events. Though off-Lot betting is still wildly popular, the
Basilikon has become a major site of gambling, and the added revenue has neatly boosted
local hoochvendors. Lot is a division of the Subcommittee for Policy.

10 Law – All who trespass the Co. pass through the gates of Law. (Save directors and Senior
Archivists…) All who trespass moral norms that do not relate to the Co.’s business in the
The boss of Pant is Yellow void are ignored by the Co. So has it ever been; so shall it ever be…

Rake Moaner [wetan factor 11 Pantry – Though any fleeter may beg a meal from “Pant” at any time, according to the
8], a penny-pinching void- Co. charter, the algameisters who manage this rambling anti-shape of room-blobs,
moving robo-ovens, and tentacular bioreactors rarely feed the needy unless bribed.
born baker with a complete They still remember the bad old days of the ‘Quake, when food stores constantly
map of the Canteen (now threatened to collapse with each befouled run of greenbread or bad batch of nautchlogs
hopeless outdated) ritually (dancing mantis sweets). Pant is a division of the Subcommittee for Algaculture.

scarred onto her thorax. 12 The Nanomother Vats – Pantry comprises three disconnected zones: Upper Pant, where
voidminers may beg for a meal; Lower Pant, where the meals are prepped; and the Vats,
where the great bioreactors of algae are kept bubbling. Vats is not especially interesting,
other than the fact that it is arguably the single best-guarded space on Spindle: every
other staff member here is secretly a high-level stillrijder, jackal, or tremulant reporting
to a different political faction (some Afdeling of the Directorate, the Archive, the Calayat
Resource Management Company, the Wetan Mafia, or even the Honourable Company).
These factions may loathe one another, but they are aligned in wishing Spindle to be able
to feed itself, especially in light of the lean years imposed by the ‘Quake.

236 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PROFITS

 Random foods* in the Canteen d20

1 “Lettuce” (not lettuce)

2 Edible plastic (gum)

3 Bag-o-leeches

4 Translucent doughnuts

5 “Wall fish” (according to the label—appears to be a

tin of brown paste)

6 Grains of paradise crackers

7 Cave squirrels, one box (albino, hairless, boneless

eating-rodents)

8 Pickled isopod gills on a stick or pickled vole brains

on a stick (choose)

9 Fried griffinfly wings

10 Fingermonkeys (monkeys the size of fingers—eat

‘em whole!)

11 Instant CornBar™ (must be soaked to expand; do not

soak in a confined space)

12 Jar of cave cashews, spiced with microalgae

13 Bloodiest sausages, served with pulses

14 Pandan rings

15 “Hole bread”

16 Chocolate moustaches

17 Gling™ (hot algae crumble—very hot!)

18 Ekmek

19 Bubbling Fern™ gin (serve warm—it’s thick!)

20 The Shining Soup™

*Not all Canteen “foods” are edible or restorative for all

voidminers. To determine if a food is edible, roll a 5+
WIL/resist world check. To determine if a food does any-
thing mechanically other than allow an eater to take a
long rest, roll as many d4s as the number on the above
list indicates (so, 3 for gum, 14 for pandan rings, etc.):
each result of a 4 is a success. The eater can burn X
successes to restore X GRT or 0.5X HEA, rounded
down, minimum 1. N.B., vegetal and informatic beings
do not eat, except for shoodtha, who eat metal.

The guilds
The Canteen is also the home of the official Stillfleeter
Guilds. Here are six of them; feel free to make up
your own!

All unofficial guilds, gangs, and especially competing

voidmining companies are, naturally, well and truly
outlawed on pain of death.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH08 ☉ LIFE ON SPINDLE 237

A.C.A.B., but the Eaters can be helpful for detective-story oriented
PCs. By joining the guild, they basically become detectives, receive
jackets to investigate, can bump up against Internal Affairs, etc.

Prominent guilds d6
Below the
Canteen
1 The Right Fearless Voidstalkers – All fleeters who
take on venture contracts to explore hulks are tech-
nically voidminers, but only those who pay dues to
become Voidstalkers can brag without fear in certain
parts of the Canteen. Voidstalkers are stereotypically
gifted in physique, somewhat crazed in mentality,
and staunchly loyal to the Directorate. It’s entirely
possible that they are a front for the Directors Prime.
They tend to hate those fleeters who take primarily
The Flats
rockside contracts as well as deepvoid aliens of Below the Canteen lies a honeycomb of room-blobs
all sorts. (Wetans, pepper elves, and the like are
not considered “aliens,” but rarer beings such as whose interiors are well-constructed small apartments.
shoodtha present limit cases.) Dues are 200 gl per Apartments are assigned by the Directorate. The largest,
year. Members can call upon one another for special cleanest, and quietest ones go to the pets of the directors.
equipment and help out on birdside ventures. The
guild has access to its own cache of licit archaetech. Most are crammed with families of fleeters, human and
wetan. Human domestic life centers around parenting,
2 The Right Dependable Eaters of the Dead – While
the Afdeling of the Arkheion sets up the Co.’s legal and wetan domestic life around the well-guarded (and
system, the Eaters of the Dead are the gendarmerie, very warm) collective broodrooms of the three Little
enforcing the law across both Spindle and the Co.’s Wetanas—in the Canteen, Flats, and Near Bays.
facilities on the major provinces. (Sort of—the impe-
rial powers of Calayat allow no Eaters in the one
Co.-run city on that planet, Port Rahamasoon.) The Types of oddments that you may
Eaters are generally hated by everyone who is not find on-Spin d8
an Eater. Dues are 350 gl per year. Members can call
upon one another at any point. 1 “Pets” and droids
3 The Right Noble Watchers of the Night (the Night- 2 Ancient popular crap
watch) – The Nightwatch spend their days fighting
threats to Spindle including aliens, extradimensional 3 Foods and beverages
horrors, the governments of Terra, and H.Co. (the
supposedly subversive Honourable Company of 4 Tools
Stillfleeters). The Nightwatch commands no dues, 5 Only slightly useful or broken archaetech
but swearing fealty to the guild is a year-long com-
mitment. Nightwatch activities are secret, so non- 6 Secrets
members don’t know how legitimate the threats are
that they fight. They may sometimes be reacting to 7 Works of art
calculated tip-offs from concerned directors and Se- 8 Utterly mysterious
nior Archivists, few of whom are above petty politics.

4 The Right Distinguished Draadmijners (the Wire-

men) – The draadmijners work with the Archivists Random oddments you may find
to rebuild the Code of Great Tephnii. Technically, all in the Flats d48
banshees are draadmijners, although not all join the
guild. Most who can afford to, most aux, and many 1 Miniature ziggurat inhabited by 4d4 quasi-sapient
pirs on Spindle join the guild. Dues are 400 gl per cockroachoids.
year, and membership allows access to otherwise
Spinwraiths are villains!
If it’s not obvious, the

closed datasets, comms, and armories. 2 Amphora full of violet goo that changes water ice
into silicon sand.
5 The Right Pragmatickal Rosarians – The Rosarians
work to bring useful plants and other resources 3 Compass-like comm that always points toward
from world to world, “homing” them to benefit the Terra.
Co. Dues are 150 gl per year, and members are al-
lowed to use Rosarian seed banks, desk-sized and 4 Hammer that makes metal pink on contact.
full-room test farms, laboratories, and other useful 5 Roll of duct tape threaded with superconducting
equipment. It is extremely bad luck, Canteen wis- ultra-copper.
dom goes, to steal from or rough up a Rosarian.
6 “Fairy snails” (floating xeno-molluscs), d6, that can
6 The Right Secret Order of the Bearers of the be tossed safely as per the common wetan game.
Whispering Hammer (the Spinwraiths) – The Spin-
wraiths work to suppress sovereignty movements,
especially on the major provinces. Membership is The Rosarians’ respectable wisdom may
restricted by the Directorate, but members are paid have arisen in part because Rosarians
well and receive otherwise restricted archaetech manufacture most of the gunch and other
from the Armoury. There is also (almost definitely) street drugs available Spinside.
[maybe] an anti-Spinwraith guild, based out of Da-
rasan but now operating on Spindle. The Spinwraiths
hate the Nightwatch, whom they see as naïvely
focused on the wrong threats.

238 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PROFITS

 7 Honey that, when eaten, makes you feel intensely 37 Ancient FBI file on “UFOs” (mi-go) with very
optimistic for 5 minutes. accurate data.

8 Letter from a director (could be used for blackmail). 38 High Tephnian spray paint cans, d100, all different
colors.
9 Toy duck that tries to have sex with other nearby
toys. 39 Ocelot-like xenofauna, declawed.

10 Cone-shaped ruff of extremely strong metal. 40 Working go-kart, no gas.

11 W. E. B. Du Bois bobblehead that speaks random 41 Silicon molds in the shapes of hams, chicken
quotations from his oeuvre. legs, etc.

12 Piñata full of cocaine-laced caramel chews. 42 Really excellent toupée set.

13 Beautiful geode (mesmerizes children for 1 round). 43 Alien gravestone (of something powerful).

14 Calder mobile or stabile. 44 The Shining Mercado Heart of Îm-IV—a very ugly
catlike xenofauna, rare.
15 Unicycle, extremely bright pink.
45 The Kettle Star of Mothaf—a living starfish-like map
16 Hess trucks (or future version—starships) that can of an alien world.
be remotely controlled.
46 Strangling Sea Zockoid—a pale, fat pteran, able to fly
17 Ethics of Ambiguity book on tape. for days on end, carrying 1 rider the size of a small
18 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine windbreaker. human.

19 Aoudad (“Barbary sheep”), d20-cm tall, ornery as 47 The Solipsis of Combination—a tattoo needle that
hell. draws messages on the inside of the flesh.

20 Huge belt that says GRAVEDIGGER. 48 The Thief of Mud—a yellow stone amulet that slowly
dries out whatever it is placed upon or in.
21 Depraved scorpionhamster (which can inflict
d2 damage).

22 Large bag of dank “space kush” (which may or may The Bays, AKA the ‘works
not be drugs).
The outer room-blobs of the Near Bays, which wrap
23 Inflatable raft that occupies only a 3-cm cube right around the inhabited top of Spindle, contain Malkovich
now; inflates instantly.
tunnels that connect the station-city to Terra and other
24 Globulistic Tannhaus Field Emitter (GLOBTAFER)— Goldilocks worlds. The Near Bays are by now almost an
you have zero idea what this does…
extension of the Canteen and Flats—full of tents wherein
25 Atlas of one major province-world, with seemingly provincial families sleep and shady merchants evade
random spots highlighted.
Directorate scrutiny.
26 Terrier-like organism (a motile fungus) that loves to Farther below, down many twisting gray ladders, lies
wallow in mud.
the region of empty inner room-blobs whose outer-blobs
27 Hard-drive-sized food printer that makes 1 Klondike connect Spindle to many more planets and—farther
Bar (e.g.) per day.
down still—utterly alien locations. This area is, in the
28 Porcelain vase that converts water into honey very parlance of voidminers, divided into the Far Bays (whose
slowly (over d4 weeks).
tunnels connect to planets) and the Dormant Bays (the
29 Pager that displays one joke per hour, at random, Veins of the Void—whose tunnels connect to alien ships,
in an Ancient language.
ultrastructures, and higher-dimensional spaces).
30 Case of vaccines against common Terran or Both the Far Bays and Dormant Bays are much larger
provincial viruses.
than the relatively small upper decks, and the Dormant
31 “Feebleshrieker,” a knife made of hardened leaves is larger than the Far. Most of the Far Bays room-blobs
that is famous.
are quiet. Most of the blobs in the vast, dark Dormant
32 Well-made crowbar, 2d4 damage. Bays appear silent and uninhabited, but some teem with
33 Case with 3 Fabergé eggs. weird life—illegal plantings of qradflower (from whose
34 Handheld asteroid detector (beeps loudly if an ground petals bulk gunch is made), mysterious efflo-
asteroid of diameter 1 km or greater is within 1 AU— rescences of bioluminescent bacteria, broken automata
so basically never beeps on-Spin and never stops (escaped from the Archive?), and the cadre of mournfolk
beeping when on a province).
from Gigou who have decided to live out eternity in the
35 Crate of electrolyte-water, X-treme Calamansi flavor. dark beneath the Co.
36 USSR manual on time travel with instructions for a
machine…

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 Locations in the Dormant Bays Deep, dark, ridiculous rumors about
d20 the Co., the Archive, and Spindle d6

1 A twent (tent made of twigs), well-designed. Large 1 The Co. really exists to serve a resurgent Neo-
enough for one large or two medium sapients to Tephnian Imperium. The “Archive” cares little about
crouch or sleep in comfortably. There is nothing nonhumans, Ancients, and provincials; it focuses
inside. 1 in 3 chance this is an important ritual entirely on the Tephnian Code, planning next to
site for a dangerous xeno-worshipping cult, some tackle the riddle of the creation and control of the
members of which are nearby (within d8 room-blobs nanorobot-infused Blood.
of this one). 2 The Co. really exists to serve the Federation of
2 A working public toilet in the style of the Ancients. 1 Un­human Kingdoms and extend the Heresiarchs’
in 2 chance the toilet itself is intelligent and features radical message of species-liberation into the
an array of options such as bidet, seat-warmer, and void. No one sees the directors because they are
music (all of which sounds awful to fleeters). not humans or wetans, but unhumans!

3 A working pay toilet in the style of the Ancients. 3 To find the solution to the riddle that the existence
of Spindle is, you must go to the ringworld of
4 A desert oasis out of time and space. Faalaanjaar. Whatever constructed Spindle—as
well as Narm—left its epitaph on the great ring.
5 The minor library of a renowned and Machiavellian Everyone in the Canteen knows this, and yet the
Archivist. Directorate has never authorized a contract to
6 The minor library of a forgotten and creepy ex- head to Faalanjaar and seek out the epitaph of
Archivist. 1 in 2 chance he’s actually benign, even the Builders.
helpful. 4 Spindle is not a habitat, data center, monument, or
7 “Crow” nest—an illicit kennel for breeding albino listening station, but a weapon. The directors have
micro-pterodactyls. discovered how to use it. The only question is, which
world to hold hostage first?
8 Hidden distillery.
5 Spindle is invisible to, and thus safe from, the rest
9 Someone’s homemade algae-motherworks. of threespace because it exists in the Escheresque.
The secret to its functioning rests in a higher-
10 Dirty bed, drug paraphernalia. The gear is worth d30 dimensional crypt guarded by an entire nation of
gl up-Spin. 1 in 6 chance that a dangerous jackal extradimensionals—perhaps the descendants of the
(Pheenan) lurks nearby, readying an ambush. Other- futurehumans who constructed the station?
wise, a young strung-out couple (Jarbo and Xantha)
are down here; they don’t want any trouble. 6 The Five Most Vile Directors Prime did not somehow
accidentally discover the Heechee Tombs at the
11 Secret xeno-pet store. same time. They were drawn up to Spindle by some
12 Secret rendezvous point for H.Co. spies! unimaginably powerful force—an Old One?—that yet
holds sway over the entire Co.
13 Secret brothel, claustrophobic.

14 Nondescript inhabited flat.

15 Nondescript long-abandoned flat. Canteen rumors and Archival data-fragments point

to the existence of a planet called (in Spin) Xagamūl
16 Wetan separatist training camp, actually a front for
the powerful Wetan Mafia. whose residents present an existential challenge to
the Co.: they never work a day in their lifes and have
17 Harajoon separatist training camp.
no sense of jobs, titles, ranks, or contracts. Should
18 Engineering room home to an impossibly complex anyone confirm that this rumored planet actually
Escheresque computer. Password = “MALGATH.”
exists, Xagamūl would prove an instant lure for
19 Flat home to 3d4 mournfolk. the Directorate.
20 Secret restaurant where New York-style pizza has
been reinvented.

240 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PROFITS

 W E TA N L I F E

For many, fear feels like the core emotion of an aversive

encounter with an insect—or a few million insects.
—Jeffrey Lockwood, The Infested Mind:
Why Humans Fear, Loathe, and Love Insects, 2013.

The most supracivilization, and their myths did not tell of a fall
from technological grace, an uplift, or any other event

human
that would explain a distribution across distant worlds
in the absence of advanced technologies. But this aporia
could reflect a cultural amnesia or a preference on the

aliens
part of the “seeder” supracivilization to allow the wetans
to develop “naturally.”
The third fact is truly bizarre. Not
It is now thought by some
all of the Goldilocks worlds that
Archivists that perhaps
constitute the major provinces have
all Goldilocks worlds were
The three mysteries Wetanas, but the ones that do seem
to share versions of the same Wetana.
terraformed by a cohort of
humans at some point in
Four Goldilocks worlds visited early on by the Co. were These worlds are not otherwise geo-
the distant past, or by the
found to already be inhabited by the sapient species graphically identical, and they do not
heechee, retro-acting from
that came to be called the wetans: Nașudrūn, Kakudun, display obvious signatures of having
the distant future.
Calarash, and Calayat. (The last is currently thought by been terraformed by the same civili-
many to be the wetan homeworld.) Since these planets’ zation prior to human contact.
discovery, three mysteries have plagued the Archivists: Two of the wetan worlds, Kakudun and Calayat, were
not populated by Carvolians one thousand years ago but
1. Despite their wide distribution through timespace,
by unknown (perhaps Ancient) human cohorts in the
the wetans on each world were isolated from the
distant past. The other worlds, Calarash and Nașudrūn,
others before the arrival of the Co.
were populated by Carvolians and the Co. itself, seven
2. Across all of their worlds—and with the exception
hundred years apart.
of the Shining Sky Climbers on Calayat—the wetans
And yet all of these worlds possess the same geograph-
possessed only stone and wood technologies.
ic formation of Wetana, each of which shares the same
3. Their home islands resembled one another almost
stiffworks—the gray-red Song Stones in the southeast of
exactly. Each wetan region was dubbed some version
the great island. Tacking between Spindle and the Song
of “Wetana” by the fleeters. In fact, Terra itself has
Stones is trivial (2 GRT), as is tacking among any of the
a Wetana, currently inhabited by quasisapient
Wetanas. This has led some in the Archive to argue that
proto-wetans confusingly called wetans by Terrans
the same alien civilization that constructed Spindle also
(hence the name’s use in space) but “crickoids” or
Of course, “Wetana”
is not a wetan term.

engineered the Song Stones.

“grandcricks” by fleeters.

The first mysterious fact about wetans is not in itself in-

explicable: perhaps some long-gone suprasapient civili-
Wetan societies today
zation encountered the ur-cohort of wetans on one plan- There are perhaps one billion known wetans living across
et and decided to seed many worlds with them, either the four Wetanas and in space; roughly a third dwell in
out of charity or a selfish desire for servitors. Ur-Wetana on Calayat.
The second fact is strange in that the wetans did not Organized into tribes of several thousand members
possess any traces of having been in contact with a and sub-tribes of several hundred, rockside wetan

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societies are culturally heterogeneous, one from the Though individual wetans sometimes grow suspicious
next, but all share some features. Many are relatively of the Co., on the whole wetanity seems unperturbed by
friendly to humans and their technologies. They pre- the idea of spacefaring humans exploiting the remains
fer to eat fatty flying or soil-burrowing insects and the of dead civilizations for profit, and recruitment to
fibrous roots of certain tropical trees, but they can digest Spindle doesn’t (yet) affect rockside wetan life enough
almost anything organic. They lay and fertilize batches of to challenge their various societies’ political stability.
eggs, which must then be protected for several months, Pointy Drab Bottler was not simply one of our
giving them a good analogic understanding of human colleagues, he was the vibrant heart of wetan
gestation. They learn Spin easily, if with a dry lisp, diasporic sociology and cultural studies! He
but humans have a harder time speaking their numerous simply must be located and returned to Spindle.
and highly differentiated rasp-languages. (Fleeters refer (Plus, there is the matter of his latest book
to the Calay rasp-language spoken by all wetans on-Spin contract.) The last venture he joined was to
simply as “Rasp.”) explore the dry southern reaches of the doomed
Wetans organize civic life around two major activities: planet, Grimmle…
foraging and trade. Foraging is a distributed task that
all members of a sub-tribe undertake every day, though
usually for brief periods of time. Trading is highly
Gender in the future: wetanity
specialized and includes the set of activities that passes
for an analog of human politics—arguing, debating Wetans are sapient wetas. Wetas, like all grasshopper-
the uses of natural resources, debating population like insects, have two biological sexes and display some
movements, telling epic stories, etc. dimorphism, with females being larger in size than
Sometimes, sub-tribes or even whole tribes engage in males. (Note, insects of this order do not display the ex-
physical contests in order to resolve disputes, for fun, or treme dimorphism of hymenopterans—eusocial insects
for both reasons. This said, most wetans do not conduct such as bees and ants—whose females engage in all of
war and rarely kill one another. Only when taken at a the interesting activities, and whose males exist only to
young age to space (or, more rarely, to a provincial hu- breed and then die.) Many wetan populations include
man city) will wetans acculturate to the idea that warfare genderless drones in addition to males and females.
is a natural extension of exchange.
The major exception to this statement is the group
of tribes bordering the human dual-province of New Random wetan characteristics d30
Malten/New Chessenweald on Calayat’s Ur-Wetana.
Many of these tribes now have sub-tribes living perma-
1 Speaks no Spin but dances communicatively.
nently in the human capital of Port Rahamasoon/Port
Reqqim (the Malteni call the city the former name; the 2 Expertly juggles knives, hatchets, etc.

Chessenais, the latter), AKA the Twice-Named Port. 3 Comes from a tribe that has evolved primitive,
Wetans living in the Port frequently work as provincial functional wings.

auxiliaries, gendarmes, or administrators, or—if unsuc- 4 Has hollowed-out leg spikes that serve as beautiful
cessful at officially joining imperial human society—as flute-like instruments.

hired toughs organized into gangs with incongruously 5 Calls everyone “buddy” (e.g.); constantly asks to
human-inspired names (the Publicans, the Stevedores, borrow money or straight-up steals.

the Milliners, the Coopers, the Sailwrights). These gangs 6 Holds a serious and non-arbitrary grudge against
serve as proxies in the constant low-level war between humans.

the empires of Malten and Chessen over their small slice 7 Is terrified of the void and references this fear often.
of Ur-Wetana.
8 Has a cute, cat-like insect pet named Variegated
Many other young Calay wetans become enamored Star Roper that smells terrible.
of the idea of space travel, and they are sent away from
9 Tries to seduce each PC in turn, regardless of
Wetana with a festive valedictory ceremony translated species.
as a Go-Throughing or Throughing. By far the most
10 Feels insecure about being a wetan on-Spin and
populous of the Wetanas, Ur-Wetana now supplies the compensates by speaking like a Directorateborn
single largest stream of recruits to Spindle. These wetans Fleeter (“I’m gonna need you to go ahead and
join their fellows from distant worlds Spinside and make come in early tomorrow, great, thanks,” e.g.).

homes in one of the three different Little Wetanas.

242 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PROFITS

 11 Snacks constantly and tries to take food from you CABIN FEVER: SPINDLE AS MAZE
whenever possible; “belches” often from the legs.
It’s possible to offer the PCs a venture that doesn’t require them
12 Is pregnant and about to give birth any day now (2 in to leave Spindle at all. Between the Directorate, the Archive,
3 chance per day). H.Co., Spin-born wetans, newly reopened provincial and Terran
13 Loves venturing but is very bad at absolutely embassies, guilds of Canteen laborers, the gendarmes, and
everything (always misfires on a 1 or 2). Dormant-Bay mournfolk, plenty of groups have paying, dangerous
work to contract out. Here are a few hooks that focus the action
14 Knows one random alien or Ancient language. on Spindle itself.

15 Lived as a child somewhere important to the

current plot. Ventures on Spindle d6
16 Is a great cook; loves to invent new smoothies and
shakes made from alien autotrophs. (1 in 3 chance
of also being a prolific food critic.) 1 The Dark Forest – In a classified briefing, a Senior
Archivist named Ssusjjud (“SHOES-jood”) the
17 Drops hints that they are a spy for the Directorate, Draadmijner explains that the precise location of
Archive, H.Co., the FUK, or possibly all four. Spindle among the stars must never be broadcast,
or else any number of advanced aliens will descend
18 Is delusional and sometimes wanders away or into on the station, ending the Co. and possibly putting
obvious danger. all Terran life in jeopardy. In a mad power play,
19 Complains loudly about everything unless it directly H.Co. is threatening to reveal just that information.
benefits them. You must find the mole in the depths of the Archive’s
Grindeesal Alley and stop her before the dread
20 Is accompanied by a wetan child whom they are signal is boosted into the void.
sworn to watch over at all times.
2 Mourn Not For Dead Sarghûlay – The Co. ignored
21 Is accompanied by a human child whom they are the mournfolks’ Mosstown deep down in the Dor-
sworn to watch over at all times. mant Bays until human voidminers started climbing
up into the Near Bays, obviously deranged, sham-
22 Has a deadly but noncontagious wasting disease bling, moaning, unable to communicate, wanting
that is slowly turning their exoskeleton to crustal- only to eat the flesh of other sapients… The churlish
lone (DR 3), but will kill them in d6 months. Canteeners are sure that those damn doubled ex-
23 Has a soft exoskeleton: takes double damage from sapphire elves are to blame. The Directorate needs
physical attacks but has MOV d20. Looks kind of flat, to know for sure: what down below has brought the
like a young crab. gray plague to Spindle—and how can it be reversed?

24 Has the most gigantic eyes and can see 5 M through 3 The Riddle of the Empty Tank – One of the First
solid objects. Five is missing from their stasis tank in the secret
Cryosoleum at the heart of the Directorate… You
25 Gives amazing massages; hugs everyone often; must sneak through the most well-guarded room-
is generally nice to travel with. blobs of the upper decks to find the original direc-
tors—still cryptically operating through the shared
26 Has tremendously long antennae and one hell bodies of the current directors. Whichever tank is
science power. empty, is plotting a bloody cleaning of house the
27 Is an expert on the Escheresque but loathes to likes of which no fleeter alive has witnessed.
discuss this. 4 The Sixth Director – Aunders Zhāng-Prasad Volec-
28 Has eight limbs, two of which are poorly made roft the IIIrd—CEO of the Volecroft Group, genius
robotic servos. engineer, mercurial manager-tyrant, author of the
famed Volecroft AI, and the richest and thus most
29 Is honor-bound to help one of the PCs due to an powerful Ancient human to live before the (first)
old debt. apocalypse—did not die circa 2266 CE, but was cryo-
genically frozen for 100 million years on his personal
30 Knows an important secret about the PCs. arkship. Sorting through a shipment of mundane-
looking, hulk-recovered archaetech in the Canteen,
you have just discovered his techno-mausoleum and
accidentally initiated the thawing protocol…

5 The Tooth Bandit – Someone is stealing power-

ful, miniature Late Tephnian comms from all over
Spindle. At least they are polite enough to leave a
note: they claim to simply be reclaiming their own
informatic “teeth!” The Code Rectors of the Archive
want the comms back, but what if this entity is
telling the truth?

6 The Warriors – The many colorfully costumed

“sets” (wetan gangs) have finally banded together
to annex Little Wetana from the Directorate. One
set, however, is secretly working for the gendarmes.
You must stop them before they assassinate the
first-ever freely elected Chief Elder.

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 “drain”

“full” “Fading” “Cloud” “Counter”

Wetan tri-names “slowly”

Translated from Rasp, wetan tri-names take the form

“Adjective Noun Doer,” such as Bouncy Twig Screamer,
Murky Plum Shaker, Seventy Cup Licker, etc. Tri-names
are high-level metaphors, not literal descriptors; a wetan
with “Fisher” in her name may have never gone fishing.
Here are three tables for generating a random tri-name.

Wetan name generator

Adj. or no. d30 Concrete n. d30 “Doer” n. d30

1 Black 1 Bean 1 Baker

2 Blind 2 Bee 2 Chanter

3 Blue 3 Boat 3 Councilor

4 Burning 4 Cloud 4 Counter

5 Cold 5 Fish 5 Dancer

6 Fading 6 Fly 6 Director

7 Falling 7 Hill 7 Dreamer

8 Fast 8 Kelp 8 Eater

9 Fiery 9 Knife 9 Fencer

10 Gigantic 10 Name 10 Gazer

11 Glowing 11 Net 11 Holder

12 Gold 12 Root 12 Jumper

13 Gray 13 Saddle 13 Knower

14 Green 14 Sand 14 Maker

15 Heavy 15 Sea 15 Mazer

16 Mud 16 Shack 16 Namer

17 Nine 17 Shark 17 Reaper

18 Null 18 Shell 18 Rower

19 One 19 Sky 19 Sailor

20 Orange 20 Song 20 Shaper

21 Red 21 Spear 21 Sleeper

22 Rising 22 Squid 22 Speaker

23 Sharp 23 Stone 23 Talker

24 Six 24 Sun 24 Teacher

25 Spinning 25 Tea 25 Thinker

26 Ten 26 Tree 26 Thrower

27 Unlikely 27 Trunk 27 Tumbler

28 Yellow 28 Vine 28 Washer

29 Whispering 29 Wing 29 Watcher

30 White 30 Wire 30 Weaver

244 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PROFITS

The Wetan Mafia Wetan Mafia soldiers
The Wetan Mafia, capitalized, is unified but heteroge-
neous, comprising one ruling Unary (sort of equivalent HEADCOUNT
to the General Committee), ten large Trees (houses, 2d3
families—a Tree is more structured than a mere
VITALS
gang), and six large Heaps (gangs-of-gangs—not well-
structured or historically tied to wetan groups on COM d10 HEA 23
Calayat, but temporarily loyal to a single powerful lead-
MOV d12+1 GRT 14
er). Each Tree or Heap comprises several independent
Sets (gangs), some of which are Ex-Trees (fallen houses). REA d8 DR 2
While they compete with one another at times, the (living armor)
WIL d6
wetan gangs are united in their desire to improve the
conditions of wetanity on-Spin. As a collective, these CHA d6
groups work together against both the Directorate and
HABITS
other mafia-like entities. (Very strong such entities exist
• Playing wetan “craps” (involves polyhedral dice and improvised storytelling)
on Terra, Calayat, and Calarash.) In this way, the Wetan
• Working out, by shadow-pincer-boxing
Mafia is a cross between a criminal organization and a • Telling a hilarious story
political party.
DOGMA
A Tree, Heap, or Set always has one boss (padron/
padrona/padronk) and d3 underbosses (captains) of Lumpenproletarian omertà
roughly equivalent rank (although each plays a different
ATTACKS (CHOOSE 3 PER SOLDIER)
role within the organization).
• Grenades, home-made, 3d4, d20 damage plus bleed d4.
• Nailgun with poison-tipped nails, d3 damage plus stun 2.
• Pincer-boxing, trained, d10 damage.
• Pistol, large, 2d8 damage.
• Shotgun, 3d4 damage.
• Smokebombs, professional, d8, 1 damage plus stun 4.
• Stabber and/or chopper, d6 damage plus bleed 2.
• Wetan war-scythe, well-made, 2d4 damage.

POWERS
• Backstab – Per the jackal power.
• Con – Per the jackal power.
• Murder – Per the jackal power.
• Poison – This sweet-tasting, lime-flavored powder, if ingested, deals 4d6
damage; the eater may make a WIL/resist world check for half damage.
• Sneaky – Soldiers have +3 bonuses to MOV/sneak checks.
• Traps – Soldiers can set up traps that deal d20 +d8 damage; the tripper can
make a MOV/run check for half damage. Spotting a trap requires making an
8+ WIL/perceive check.

GEAR
Any given soldier will have 3 of the weapons listed above. (Roll 3d8: if 2 of the
same number are rolled, this soldier has a High Tephnian machine gun that
deals 4d10 damage and can be fired 3 times per round; the gun has enough
bullets for d10 attacks. If all 3 dice show the same result, then this soldier
has a car-key-like Late Tephnian maser that deals 2d30 damage and has 6d6
charges.) Each soldier has either d100 gl in voidguilders or d30 gl in Chessenais
florins on them, along with various foods that taste terrible to humans. Each
soldier also has a 1 in 4 chance of owning an oddment of some sort.

STORY NOTES
Wetan Mafia members typically work in small groups, although sometimes
an individual must act on her own. A typical random encounter involves 2d3
soldiers with the above scores (that is, much but not all of one Set). If encoun-
tered in deep Little Wetana, Upper Wetana, the casinos in the Canteen, or some
other Mafia-held location, twice as many Wise Flies will be present (that is, a
whole Set or parts of two Sets who share a boss up the chain of command). In
a fight, these soldiers will use hit-and-run tactics, fleeing to regroup rather than
fighting to the death. Wetan Mafia members all speak Spin and Rasp, and most
speak d2 Calay languages as well. They may or may not be professional crimi-
nals; they may simply be strongly pro-Calay/anti-Fleeter community leaders,
and/or (rightfully) suspicious of the motives of the Directorate and Archive.

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 CH09 ☉ THE COSMOS

“grappling / with a luminous doom”

It is possible that the universe is infinite, or that—if it is not—it is one

Mother of Snakes…
very large quantum of an infinite multiverse. But, given how much
of the cosmos (or, our cosmos) is empty space, perhaps it is not
surprising that civilizations capable of producing stiffworks appear
rare, scattered—precious.
This chapter introduces various “canonical” settings of Stillfleet:
exoplanets managed in part by the Co., alien worlds, derelicts,
higher-dimensional meta-spaces, and of course Terra Slangmoeder.
These settings brim with political tensions and environmental crises,
not to mention (sometimes) apolitical xenofauna and, at times,
intruding Old Ones. Your group can embrace these settings, read them
as examples, hack them apart, or ignore them entirely. You can
position the Co. as a neutral backdrop for adventure, as doom—
capitalism spreading its tentacles through the starlit blankness of
infinity—or one among many (infinitely many) complex and ultimately
time-bound civilizations.
In addition, this chapter also offers ten playable sapient species not
(yet) found on-Spin, from bat-people to void elves…

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH09 ☉ THE COSMOS 247

 THRONES

The pedestal & the gutter can both be the same address.
—Butch Lee, “The Evil of Female Loaferism,”
Jailbreak Out of History: The Re-Biography of Harriet Tubman, 2015.

Calarash
them leverage over wetankind. After further debate,
the wetans announced a general retreat from human-
kind. This lasted until 250 years ago. Today, though their
population is much recovered, the Wetalashi retain
mixed feelings concerning the humans who have chosen

The oceanic province to cohabit this world.

In the beginning, nine centuries ago… The proto-ban-

shees who served Old King Carvol came to the lush
Worlds: the major provinces
peaks of this blue world. They found sapient life in the
form of wetans, as well as Calaș “fish” (large marine mac- The rocks most commonly visited by voidminers are
roarchaea), which after some years they learned how to those that, like Terra, enjoy breathable atmo and quasi-
prepare so as to make digestible. In those days, Terrans Terran ecosystems but, unlike Terra, sport few or
loyal to the king settled in small towns along the coasts. no polities that can rival the Worshipful Company in
They imported Terran fish, a few of which even survived technical prowess and enthusiasm for espionage…
in strange waters. Twas a blessèd world, they surmised. With the subsiding of the Groot Tachquake, the
This was to be the old king’s second home, a respite provinces are again linked by the Co.‘s commonly used
from the politics of his teeming homeworld, stocked stiffworks—the Malkovich tunnels of Spindle, the Song
with many barrels of good liquor. But the king never set Stones of the Wetanas, the Heechee Tombs on Terra,
foot on Calarash. When the civil war following the old and so on. Whenever they can, sapients do not sit still
king’s death cut off his “provinces” from Terra, the first but move, trade, make love, conspire to stab backs, tell
generation of Calaș were little worried. Unlike the Gigo- stories, and burn bridges. Given that the provincials far
ix, the Calaș did not mourn for the lost glories of Earth. outnumber the Fleeters, how long will they rely upon the
They had fish, and “fish,” and there was only one culture Co. for the transport of off-world goods and persons?
here, one people…
Within a century, the Calaș had splintered into many
warring polities. The non-marine macroarchaea of the
islands’ interiors proved stubbornly inedible. Many true-
The Kemmerath
fish succumbed to their macroarchaeal predators. Some The years leading up to the Rediscovery—as both Co.
towns succumbed to famine. Most were depopulated by and Calaș historians call it—were marginally better: the
overlapping and unmerciful waves of war and disease. northern isles, long settled, came to dominate the equa-
Thus the Calaș proved unable to populate their honey- torial mini-continent, Veyal.
pot planet. The world’s power had long been the Veyali Empire of
Most infamously, six hundred years ago, an epizootic Kakara, where the first stiffworks—the flooded Kakar
disease was communicated from some unknown fauna Caverns—were found. Carvolian culture had grown
Wetalashi tri-names to humans, and thence to the wetans of in the southeast, centered on the old Kakaran capital,
have first-doubles, as Wetalash, whom it nearly wiped out. Antabysh.
in Crisp Crisp Tailor, This epidemic—the Dire Plague, the Al- But the northern isles of Dulj (Daljan Tarr) and
Kelp Kelp Author, or most Silence—was kept secret from the Calarash (Kalar Tarr) proved a training ground for
Stem Stem Vendor. humans for decades so as not to give warrior–guilds, two bands of which grew into those

248 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PATTERNS

 empires, the Duljņ and Calaș, that remain bitter rivals
today. Their cultures have largely overwritten the older
Calaș ecology
ones of Veyal, and the planetary common tongue today Calarash is home to an enormous diversity of life in the
is not Kakaran (closely related to Oud Carvolian), form of blind, jelly-like, “blood pudding” macroarchaea
but Calaș, a language no longer intelligible to Fleeters that superficially re- True fish were introduced to our
or Terrans. semble various terrene warm oceans centuries ago but have
For centuries, until the Co.’s first agents arrived (pos- species. These include, not fared well. They seem to prefer
sibly bringing with them agents of the Honourable Co.), on land, motile “trees” certain waters strongly, one such
Duljņ political influence dominated, even as the Calaș that prey upon mo- region being the eastern “sweet
language spread. But the Co. preferred the deeper, calm- tile fungi and, in the seas” off the isle of Qāmatiga.
er, more central harbor of the port of Great Calarash— oceans, kelplike octopodes, kelplike cnidarians, kelplike
City of the Twin Deltas, City of the Solar Cobras, Jewel “turtles” (eyeless, with venomous fangs), and imported
of the Orbseas… In fact, giant horseshoe crabs and eels. All of these flora exist
To join the Kemmerath, a Calaș noble
from Carvol’s time un- exclusively to be plundered, according to the local elite.
must buy their way into a traditional
til the arrival of the Co., The native macroarchaea have spawned “cults”
duel royale: every prospective junta
the planet was called (the Co.’s official term—whole religions, really) and
member fights with a machete and
“Veyalash,” after the feature prominently in
a turtleshell shield—and nothing else. “Manta” riders are specifically
continent. But then the daily life as co-laborers,
From sun-up until sun-down, dozens associated with the Duljņ
Co. fell for Calarash’s pets, and—when baked
of nude combatants hunt one another nobility; don’t ride a manta
new port in the west, with acid—sources of
across the marshy beaches of Soursand. unless you want to start a fight
and they backed a brutal food. As workers, the
Those alive at the day’s close move with a rich jerk! “Eels” fried
junta—the Kemmerath— native life-forms play
onto the next phase of trial, earning a in onion-jam are a delicacy!
who overthrew the old a wide variety of roles,
substantial bonus for every foe slain. “Beetle” jousters drink for free
emperor of Kalar Tarr animating the parades
in all state-licensed public
and moved the capital to the ascendant port city. The of Great Calarash and
houses on Two’s-Days!
Kemmerath’s vision aligned perfectly with that of the the smaller cities, where
Directorate, and so the junta quickly and mercilessly a visitor can see manta riders, eel whisperers,
took control, with Co. guns, of all of Calarash. beetle jousters, xipho saddlers, snapping kelplike turtle
Today, the word “Calarash” on its own denotes the hunters (usually missing an unlucky limb)—and so on
planet; the city is always described as “Great,” or by and so forth.
some tragically enthusiastic euphemism. Radiating in all
directions from Great Calarash, the Kemmerath en-
Four festivals in Great Calarash
force a politics that appears irrationally complicated to d4
outsiders, involving paid subscription, cult mysteries,
ritual scarring, lotteried ritual murder, public debate, 1 Day of the Holy Horseshoe Crab of Duljņ – The
holiest day, for this merchant culture, and thus a
lobster-tossing contests, and a footrace across a small day of many extreme sales (Black Friday).
island in the northeast. The Directorate recognizes that
2 Month of the Observation of Charity in the Name
the Kemmerath hopes to one day branch out into the of the Savior of Tridents, Dzusk of Urdanal – No
void; until that fatal move is made, however, they are eating of zog, deg, xipho, manta, or gresht. Only eel
officially the planet’s “commercial advisors” to the Co. and jelly-like kelp.

3 Week of the Nameless Swimmer of Kakara, who

found the stiffworks in the Drownèd Labyrinth of
Using Politics Bulāy – A marathon dance party!

4 Alternating Bihebdomad of the Cherished Saint

of Clocks, Pantoak, Ecclesiarch of Qîlimurr –
The confusing particulars of Calaș politics are ciphers Everyone swaps spouses. (Happens every two
for you to invoke as you like. Feel free to throw the weeks.)
PCs into a sudden dispute between rival Kemmerathi
Giant, tame mantas cost 150 gl and function
factions who are in the midst of a performative struggle
like zogs with MOV d10 in the water. Xiphos—
so arcane as to be hilarious—were it not also deadly. giant horseshoe crabs—cost 75 gl and function
like zogs with MOV d6 in the water.

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Dolphinoid Species powers:

(dolphinperson of Calarash) Marine (permanent)

Far to the west lies the “Kingdom of the Dolphinoids”—a In water, your MOV goes up 1 die. On land, your MOV score
region of ocean dense with intelligent dolphinpersons. goes down 1 die. (N.B., your MOV never equals the MOV die
Their relationship with the Co. has vacillated since the that you select.)
period of Carvolian discovery. Today, a few dolphinoids
work for risk-happy human potentates as toughs.
Poor impulse control (permanent)
These provincial sapients are 2.2-M tall dolphins with
vaguely human legs and arms. They can live on land, but Your maximum WIL score is d10.
they prefer the sea. They are also more or less wild ani-
mals: their society is predicated on murder, sex, compli-
Rostrum punch (standard)
cated physical games (underwater football involving live
crabs), and a lot of screeching that other sapes can’t hear. You can naturally attack a target by headbutting them. This in-
Why a given dolphinoid would leave the oceans for the flicts dCOM damage, but both the target and you suffer stun 2.
void is anybody’s guess.

Underdeveloped neocortex (permanent)

Class restrictions:
Your maximum starting REA score is d6.
Most classed dolphinoid NPCs are bravos, courtesans,
rijders, or razi. Perhaps one in a thousand would apply
to work as an over-enthusiastic witness. Ask your GM Choose 4:
if you plan to play a dolphinoid who focuses on some
activity other than playing and slaying.
Echolocate (permanent)

You gain advantage on WIL/perceive checks underwater.

The forbidden allure (permanent)

Many humans find you weirdly sexy (1 in 2 chance) and will not
attack you unless you attack them first. You also gain a +2 bonus
to all CHA checks involving allured humans.

Hyperaggresive (permanent)

You gain a permanent bonus of +1 COM.

Ichthyic empathy (permanent)

You can communicate well with fish and cephalopods (but not
shellfish, echinoderms, cnidarians, sponges, corals, aquatic
worms, etc.). Fish are dumb as hell.

Water dart (standard)

You can attack a target by spitting water, hard, in their eye: on

a hit, this causes 1 damage plus stun 1. This attack has a 3-M
range.

Languages: You speak in high-pitched squeals that non-

cetaceans cannot understand and whales find irritating. You can
sort of strangle your own throat to make landpeople noises or
blow bubbles to “vibrate” the water around you and talk to fish
(sort of ). You know some basic landpeople words (that is, Calaș).

250 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PATTERNS

 Change must sweep across
Anch
like fire. The only questions
are,

Calayat
crops go unharvested in which direction? Of wh
at color?
or—more shockingly— How hot? How long can
the old
are taken by the serfs, regime maintain their
manses?
for the serfs… How many fire-snuffers hav
e al-
In central Anch, the ready sold their brains
to the Old
The richest province Wychforêt—once the Ones of the Wychforêt
kingdom of Dazyr, a few more years atop
to secure
the crum-
How another Terra, the Terrans ask? How another whose people med- bling Anchian social pyr
amid?
Calayat, the Calay ask…? Though the planets are not dled with Escheresque technologies and then simply
twins, they are very similar in many ways: they alone disappeared from threespace—is a dangerous stretch of
of known human worlds possess global populations old-growth temperate forest between Gazia and Sabia.
approaching one billion. On these worlds alone technol- At its edge, the dead, green-bronze trees stretch high and
ogy creeps into industrial levels (though in this regard stand in thick tangles, like cliffs demarcating a chasm,
Calayat lags behind Pala, the larger supercontinent on a forsaken land… The serfs will not tread here. The grafs
Terra). Thus, many Calay feel that they are the opportu- speak as though the woods are reserved hunting parks.
nity and owe the Co. nothing. In truth, they are holes in Calayat—ones home to stiff-
Nowhere is this sentiment more pronounced than works—including the one on Blood Quartz Mountain
in the Malteni Empire, the Co.’s first trading partner. through which the Carvolians first visited this world.

One Graf wants to end the Gazian–Sabian cold war by doing the right thing: freeing
the ghosts of Dazyr. This would, however—his court marabout assures him—permanently
The Consuls of Malten
The martial cults of Malten include
those of the Wheel of Fangs, the
know that their forces
are stretched thin, and
New friends, new swords
One-in-One (the Sulcus), the Leaping

close the Blood Quartz stiffworks and thus earn him the enmity of the Co.
that the same strategies Between the continents of Ardash and Velesh lies
Onanists (watch out, onlookers!), and
that brought them domi- the verdant archipelago of Ur-Wetana, upon whose
the Phlegmatic Barbers. These compete
nance on the continent southeast coast stand the Song Stones: this stiffworks
for visibility among, and influence
of Ardash will not pre- has proved to the Co. a far more amenable portal than
over, the increasingly independent
vail across the oceans, Blood Quartz Mountain. And the wetans of Ur-Wetana
Malteni joint stock companies.
much less the void. have been more amenable to Go-Throughing than those
Meanwhile, some of the Maltenis’ rivals court their of plaguestruck Wetalash and suspicious Ku-Wetana.
own deals with the Co. Others—including the great east- In fact, one tribe—the hell science- and code-technolo-
ern Ardashian empire of Jarchana—have resisted Co. gy-proficient Shining Sky Climbers—claim to have been
overtures for centuries, maintaining their own ports and waiting for the Co. for many centuries… It is the central
setting stiff tariffs. The Co. is ever-anxious to open up tenet of their religion.
trade with the Jarchane. In their lands grow the aromatic Today, Ur-Wetana is bustling. These relatively peace-
silverycups craborchid, the tenacious shrieking oyster ful isles are an economic battleground for human
toadstool, the mutation-inducing unflower of Iramm, empires and companies—and the wetans know this. The
the mutation-reversing “martyr’s” ghostmoss of Peti- old rule of the Malteni over the human port here—Port
Brelg, and the prized zocalòn or Sustaining Fern of the Rahamasoon (to the Malteni)/Port Reqqim (to the Ches-
sandy southern Jarchane coast. Here, the queens pass senais)—has given way to a fragile new peace enforced
down their masks, and here a secret stiffworks to Kaku- by the Twin Empire of Chessen and Calavan. United by
dun is said to To the fabled Glass Abbey, the hatred of Anch and Malten more than love for each oth-
lie in a pool of queen retreats with her most er, the upstarts unified their crowns and coffers and took
frozen honey favored consorts twice each to the oceans forty years ago, swiftly “liberating” whole
beneath the year, to pray to a strange future isles from Malten and working out a lucrative deal with
Glass Abbey in which a Jarchane-dominated the Co. After a short war in the southern Szilan Ocean
to the north. Calayat comes to save Terra. that ended badly for the Malteni, Chessen—the stron-
Across the great Szilan Ocean, the empire of Anch ger of the twins—was granted a toehold in Wetana and a
controls the so-called Old Lands of the continent of contract with the Co. One small slice of Ur-Wetana be-
Velesh: these largely independent petty grafdoms are came “New Chessenweald.”
allied to a joke of a crown in Scray, the capital or “An-
Rumor: a circle of Malteni burghers—all devotees
chhome.” The Anchian castle-towns sport beneath them
of the holy–vampyric Fangwheel—secretly control the
cavernous complexes of ruins, and increasingly these Othrax Co. on Kakudun. (See the section on Kakudun.)
towns are simply ruins themselves—ancient manses
protected by aging valets with blunderbusses, whose

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 Other major agricultural exports from
Plot hook: the end of the con Calayat, in addition to uskaal d6

The Co.’s brilliantly corrupt planetary governor, Sir 1 Caracoix berm – A spine-covered, eel-like marine
organism that oozes radiation; used to power force-
Efthane, knows that his days here are numbered. The stratum archaetech by the Archivists.
accountants are onto him. But he has an escape plan!
2 Discfinger caps – Gray plates of fungus that, when
(His adopted homeworld of Darasan, he feints; a lu- dried and ground, produce a substance that func-
crative post in Old Chessenweald, in actuality; a post tions as gunpowder.
aboard the illegal CRM fleet above Calayat as a backup; 3 Hatewood AKA ultra-bamboo or goodrod – A very
an alien planet, as a backup to the backup—or is this the strong, fast-growing, light green wood used to build
true prize!?) The Co. will pay to quietly capture Efthane many items of furniture on-Spin and beyond.

alive. Efthane will pay triple for help in making off with 4 Jarchane lisproot – A ginger-like plant whose
the contents of the provincial coffers and avoiding trial. shavings are extremely high in loosely bound carbon
dioxide and therefore can be used to make drinks
and foods fizzy.

“Voidfuel” and the CRM 5 Qudulian rookwasps – Huge black insects trained
as pets and, more often, aides in construction work
on-Spin.
The wrinkly, coffee-like, caffeine-dense fruit called
6 Tsannorian felj (gamephlox) – A rare, slow-growing
uskaal grows only on Calayat but is prized on Terra, plant whose large, paisley-patterned flowers are
Darasan, Kakudun, Calarash, and many other worlds. It used as gameboards on-Spin and on the major
is, in a word, “voidfuel”—what the Co. runs on. Uskaal provinces.

tastes rich and bitter black, and it is often cut with

sugar, cardamom, and the fat of a creamslug (the
larvae of the giant white valet fly of Ardash). It is
the single most lucrative Calay export.
Uskaal berries grow on a vine. The vines are
difficult to cultivate—they grow slowly and
are susceptible to rust—and so growers are
prized artisans. The Malteni grow the bulk
of the uskaal sold to the Co. But the Ches-
sen-dominated Guild of Uskaaliers, based
out of Sulvaree in West Calavan, now has
an outsize influence on the Subcommittee
for Calayat Resource Management (CRM),
arguably the most powerful single body
within the Directorate.
The CRM has raised the suspicions of the
Directorate. Is the CRM—a Co. organization
staffed almost exclusively by Calay provincials—
loyal to the Co., the people of Calayat (and, if so,
which groups?), or its own profits?

252 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PATTERNS

 The people of Darasan have few guns—and both the Queen of Ul’Theen and
the Directorate want to keep it that way. The Staadtholder of Teenth
and the Lakelanders do not. Plot hook: set the voidminers up to become
complicit either in arming the people or preventing this outcome.

Darasan
But at last a peace between the High Commander of
the Clays and the Queen of Theen was brokered, ironi-
cally, by the Staadtholder of Teenth. During the inter-
regnum of the ‘Quake, the uneasy armistice wore down
almost to naught, and war again threatens Darasan.

The eponymous province Most people here want stable trade with and via the Co.,
but each Darasannais state is also fiercely independent.
For millennia, the people of the incompletely ter- Outsiders may misunderstand the nature of this in-
raformed Goldilocks world of Darasan were a single dependence, however. The question animating the great
polity—the rigidly feudal wars on Darasan was not one of good rulership per se,
The Theenish claim to have
Queendom of Theen. The nor of the queen’s divinity, but of the origin of the hap-
founded the Worshipful
people of Theen speak a less Darasannais and their ‘works: which was the intend-
Company and discovered Spindle,
single tongue, Theenish. ed capital, the promised land? The factions each have
though they claim many such
They are proud not to be a complicated metaphysics and notion of proper social
deeds and have proof of few.
the descendants of the order, including how to manage the half-poisoned land.
ancient Carvolians or, so they claim, Terrans at all—but

The less-fragile twins

of the “Sky People” who crashed their great hulks into
the world many centuries ago.
During all of these long years, isolated from the rest
of humanity, the queens and their thanes controlled the
of the Sky People
four stiffworks of Darasan, called the Ruins—mountains Sectarian conflicts among the descendants of the
of bronze without, mazes of wires and dread informat- Sky People can often be overlooked due to their
ic ghosts within. The Theenish nobles built cities atop common needs for efficient land management,
two of the great metal mountains, called Ul’Theen and sufficient gresht to stave off famine, and a robust
Teenth, and these became the centers of their culture. defense against the predations of the Mirror People—
(At the same time, the smaller metal mountains became the Rude, Kethengásti, and Hreen.
unhallowed grounds.) The people survived on a red At some point long before the arrival of the Co., some
wheat-like plant called gresht that grows in the alien soil of the humans here developed a symbiotic relation-
of Darasan and contains 99.4% of the nutrients required ship with native microfauna
There is much debate among the
to sustain human life. such that they can digest the
Theen as to whether the Mirror
Then, some five centuries ago, the northwestern coun- hardy pseudoplants that grow
People are truly native to their
ties rebelled and declared the foundation of a free re- among the rocks of the cold,
world, or whether they represent
public centered on Teenth. War swept across the fertile storm-wracked coastal lands.
Theen who fled into the red forests
interior of the planet’s sole continent, resulting in decades The Sky People call these
(as the Archivists hold). There
of famine and plague. (Today, as half a millennium ago, non-gresht-growing posthu-
is much debate among the Theen
the Staadtholder of Teenth is elected by the Teenthish mans the Rude. Their law is
about absolutely everything.
nobility and can serve for seven years before retiring to a brutal and culture without
sort of monastery called the House of Quiet Gyre.) letters, fine arts, or chronological history, though they
Above the planet circles a twinkling cluster of lights do possess rich songs and cycles of myth.
that have always been known to the Sky People as a The Kethengásti or “Wytch People,” meanwhile, dwell
fleet of ships—the original stillfleet. When the Co. in the forests of the southwest. They are pale red, being
arrived three hundred years ago, they confirmed this very weakly photosynthetic thanks to a lichenoid
fact, which changed everything for both groups: the endosymbiont, and they wear false horns. They make
Co. got its name, and the Darasannais had to materially horrible whistling music that sounds like dying birds—
confront their myths, their dreams, and their fears of an but there are no birds on this planet.
inadequate origin and destiny. While the Sky People do not trade with or even toler-
Later, only a few years before the Groot Tachquake, ate the presence of the Rude or Wytch People, they are
the peoples of the central agricultural region of the not bitter rivals. But the Sky People fear and hate the
continent rebelled against the queen and declared a re- other extra-Sky cohort—the amphibious nomads called
public that today is called the Lakelands or Claylands. the Hreen or Sea Reavers. They do not live on land at
For a decade, armed conflict threatened to throw these all, but dwell in sea caves to the east of the continent,
agrarian lands into barren eclipse as in the bad old days coming up only to ritually murder and eat good Theenish
of the Teenthish Rebellion. children (or so the Sky People say).
y People
The laws of the Sky People do not punish the slaying of non-Sk
, “sky people ” in
except for “People of the Company.” (We are, of course
dead Hreen .
our own right!) Indeed, their Queen pays well for

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 A quiet ecology
Darasan primarily comprises ocean, with one
large rocky continent in its northern hemi-
sphere. Darasan’s native flora and fauna
are poisonous to humans and mostly red in
color. The “grass” and “trees” on Darasan
are red, because the chlorophyll-equivalent
First-time visitors to Darasan must, after a day, make WIL/resist
world checks or else lose d10 GRT due to the melancholy that the
world inflicts. Jalasti, mongrels, morghûl, and enjan are immune.

in these xenoflora reflects red light instead

of green. No fish swim the waters here.
The algae are strange colors—blues and
fiery oranges; only the Hreen can ingest them.
In general, Archivists are interested in Da-
rasannais organisms and will pay for novel
samples.
The only non-sessile, non-microbial Darasan-
nais organisms are the 1.3-M tall salamander-
like, river-dwelling sapients called jalasti.
They are often pacifistic, subsisting on a class
of red ferns called yatar or, on-Spin, Cimmerian
phlox. Few in number even on
Darasan, many jalasti are neverthe-
less curious about the outside, in gen-
eral, and they frequently sign up as void-
miners. They have always participated in
Sky People society as healers, educators,
librarians, agronomists, and sex workers (and
rarely otherwise).
With no animal life other than the sapient
jalasti—who are technically advanced motile
xenoprotists, not animals—Darasan is “all quiet”
or “death quiet.” No bugs, no birds… This quiet is
known to induce madness in non-natives used to a
lively background hum. Calayat and from the central wetlands on Kakudun.
And they know just how much they need to grow to

Agrarian feudalism— avoid a famine-induced civil war. Darasan is populous

today thanks to a strict social order that evolved after

everything in its place centuries of strife.

In fact, the social system of the Sky People is static.
The ancient Darasannais farmed the same engineered The three Archival search terms that sum it up are:
red “wheat”—gresht—that their descendants do today. caste, resentment, and acceptance. So who of the Sky
The red bread, porridge, and triangular chips People flees up, out, and into the void? Their misfits.
made from gresht are The majority of the Darasannais are used to their quiet,
To complete their diets, the people
nutritious, offering an regulated social life.
of this world garden quasi-herbs
almost-complete human At the same time that the stereotypical mindset of the
such as fulux and behela, and
diet, though they are Iron World, sometimes called the Rusting World, is stoic
process the needles of their
bland on their own. acceptance, the Darasannais are not known to put up
otherwise poisonous firlike large
The Darasannais with offworlders pushing them around. The Co.’s hold
xenoflora called ramdeen or
trade their bread prod- here is steady, and their presence welcome. But it is also
dragon’s blood trees. (The “trees”
ucts—better tast- contingent: the directors cannot be seen to intervene
are pseudo-fungal lithovores.)
ing to many Fleet- too egregiously in Darasannais life, or else their stand-
ers than algae cakes—for spices, ing invitations to trade across the continent will swiftly
especially for the fine dried herbs of Anch on be revoked.

254 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PATTERNS

Gigou
The first Carvolian province
From space, it must appear lovely: a simple, deep green
and blue ball, unmarred by vast technical works. Gig-
ou is an earthlike world, cooler than Terra at 100 MY,
though still lacking an icecap. The planet is roughly two-
thirds water and one-third land, consisting of a single su-
percontinent. Its western half has been better explored
by the Co.: it is covered primarily in moss forests in the
north and rocky deserts in the south. The forests—dense
mounds of moss hanging shaggily upon low gray “trees”
of shade-tolerant lichen-like organisms—are home to a
unique ecosystem including a variety of sapient xenos.
In the east rises a very large plateau called Alraz that is
covered in grasslands and home to many sapients who
are currently unaware of their western counterparts.
At first, however, there was only one sapient species on
the planet. The original inhabitants of Gigou developed,
over tens of millennia, a sophisticated civilization reliant
on nanotechnologies that are still poorly understood by
the Archivists. After a terrible civil war, these human-
oid “sapphire elves” (a Spinnish gloss, a joke—they are There, the Terans of recent geologic times first sought to
aliens who long ago transformed their bodies so as to be overcode a native culture with their own. Despite many
more crystal-machine than flesh) abandoned any notion hardships, human society in the Swale survives, small
of technical “progress” and engineered themselves pair and poor, to the present.
by pair into the morghûl—the mourners. Most morghûl After Carvol’s death, steady contact with Terra was
left Gigou, some eventually finding their way to Spindle. lost for seven centuries, until the First Five rediscovered
The few remaining elves who did not become morghûl the Heechee Tombs. The young Co. encountered in the
stayed behind in the region called the Far Moss by void- Swale a fractured, dying nation of feudal “miscreants”
miners. These beings live specifically to prevent “elvish” (according to the scien-
Old King Carvol’s time was
civilization from ever again attaining a dangerous degree tific assessment of Direc-
one of iron and more iron. So the
of control over the natural world. Over the centuries, all tor Prime Chomagon) in
discovery of a spectacular com-
of the elves’ cities crumbled, their characteristic deep- dire need of trade for basic
plex of stiffworks—the Heechee
blue nanites reclaimed by the moss. resources and, moreover,
Tombs—was taken not as only
Over nine hundred years ago, humans from Terra of social stability in the
a bounty, but as the express and
arrived on Gigou via the stiffworks called the Heechee wake of centuries of sec-
unmistakable endorsement of that
Tombs in Etruvia, Pala. King Carvol sent both his most tarian strife. For during
divinity called the Chrasm (that
trusted and most hated courtesans here, together—the their long centuries of in-
is, the theoretical unified laws
former to watch over the latter. They were to develop the terregnum, the Carvolians
of physics, which will unlock the
“new” planet for his empire. They called Gigou, in fact, of Middlemoss had con-
engineering of all timespace, for
New Carvolia. tinued to practice an old
the explicit benefit of humanity).
The Carvolians emerged into the moss forests at the version of the religion of
stiffworks called “The Gate” in what is now called the Chrasmism that amounted to a blind worship of Terra’s
Middlemoss region, but they found this territory already human past—a frozen faith, engendering paranoia and
populated by hostile blue mourners. So they fled south in-fighting.
into the grasslands called the Keening Swale, protected In a period of high religious fervor, shortly before the
on the north and south by mountains. There, the Co.’s arrival, the popish inhabitants of the second city
Carvolians established their first province beyond Terra. of the Swale, Stolon, declared war against the libertine

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 capital, Calyptra. The war depleted resources that the mulruks who signed up felt betrayed: their pay was
The newly formed “Wood of the Wing Apes” or “Apemoss” was roughly
13,000 square km in area. At first, the Co.’s cartographers didn’t
bother transliterating the native term for the region, Mlrklaa.

Gigoix could not replenish on their own. Thus an un- often withheld, and they were trapped away from home
steady peace enforced by the Co.’s first sillrijders gradu- for years. This policy ended with the ‘Quake. Today, very
ally set in and remained the status quo for centuries. few mulruks work for the Co.; some fight actively against
it. Most try to avoid all voidfarers, apes or otherwise.

The harajoon and mulruks In/famous Gigoix foods

A century after discovering Gigou and forcing a peace d6
between Stolon and Calyptra, the Co. faced another 1 Toast on waves – A green bread-like cracker heaped
crisis. The Co. had encountered the harajoon for high with blue cuts of archaeal “cheese”
decades on Goldilocks worlds and scattered hulks. 2 Riparian “eggs” – Two light-blue archaeal globs,
These harajoon formed extended families who settled thinly smothered in “sinister sauce”
where they pleased. 3 The greenest monster – Moss, torched and blended
The Directorate was thus genuinely surprised when with archaeal “fat” to create a “smooth lager”
the apes sent an emissary representing all of their kind to 4 Change-of-talc – Moss, dried and infected with
beg for help: the harajoon’s homeworld, Chunt—whose “noble worm” (a gray-violet archaeal “mold”); said
location they had kept mysterious—was succumbing to to taste something like flower petals, ground meat,
and fermented soybean
a “chronoplague” that rapidly aged the harajoon, and no
cure was in sight. The disease seemed tied to the planet 5 Kissmist – A yellow-violet decoction—somewhat
like a custard or quiche, but fruitier and more
itself, and the majority of the harajoon seemed to desire a savory—that is only available in Stolon, where it is
planet on which to raise their young (perhaps due to the the official Holy Dish
effects of earthlike gravity on development). The mostly 6 Slimejar – A parfait of blue-green and white layers
human directors, seeing no reason not to aid their fellow over a bed of crushed yellowmoss; imbibed often
apes, gave to the harajoons the marshy, under-explored by the elderly and sick, rarely by the hale

southern moss forest on Gigou—thought to be entirely

free of sapphire elves.
Unfortunately for everyone involved, the southern Mulruk
forest proved home to many hundreds of thousands
of pre-literate frog-like sapients called mulruks. The (frogperson of Gigou)
harajoon and frogpeople fought intermittently for a Mulruks are 1.25–1.7-M tall sapient xeno-anurans
generation, and, again, the Co. enforced a fragile peace. (pejoratively, “frogs”). They evolved in the moss-shaded,
Many harajoon resented outside intervention and broke flooded forests of southeastern Gigou—Mlrklaa—and
their treaties with the Co. Other wing apes decided that have recently been moved in
they would take this new land from the frogs, wrong and great numbers by the Co. into The boss-dryfolk
renamed
right be damned. the central wetlands of Kaku- our gloriou s homel ands in
At this point, the Co. intervened again. A group of dun. Mulruks typically resent honor of some other species
to whom they
anti-provincial directors who felt Gigou to be an alba- the harajoon. Increasingly, of dryfolk
Is there no
tross around the Co.’s mulruk radicals have formed gave our land!
The mulruks are highly varied in the void, I ask?
neck decided to pun- anti-Co. cells; some are even fairness in
their attitudes towards humans
ish the mulruks for not rumored to coordinate with the Honourable Co. For
and “elves.” They do not have a
welcoming tens of thou- reasons not made public, the Directorate has declined
written culture, but many different
sands of spacefaring apes to allow any mulruks on-Spin.
oral ones. They, like the elves, gener-
into their woods. The Co.
ally believe that Gigou is well past
policy of mulruk “devel- Class restrictions:
its prime—doomed—and that this
opment” began: recruit-
doom has already arrived.
ers scouted the moss, You can’t play a blooder, as ingesting an aliquot of
The mulruks’ church–ponds differ,
enticing mulruks to work Blood will kill you. Some mulruks can indeed use the
however, on whether doomsday
on swamp plantations hell science, although they have wisely hidden this
came with the elves’ civil war,
on Kakudun growing propensity from Archival scryings.
the Carvolians, the Fleeters, the dis-
the valuable “spice-rice”
covery of Alraz, the resettlement of
alāraf, or—in a few cas-
the harajoon, or their own Dérange-
es—to scout out swampy
ment to Kakudun and Ruguņ.
areas of Ruguņ. But the

256 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PATTERNS

Species powers:

Amphibious (permanent)

You can breathe fresh water as easily as air. You cannot

breathe saltwater, however. You also become dehydrated
whenever you don’t have the ability to soak in fresh
water, for at least a few minutes, once a day. While
dehydrated, all of your scores lower by one die per
day. If any score is a d4 and you remain dehydrated
another day, it becomes 1. After this, it becomes 0, at
which point you die.

Fast-twitch reflexes (permanent)

You gain a permanent bonus of +1 MOV.

Hind leap (permanent)

You swim extremely well and can jump several times

your height on land. Your free move is 10 M/round
instead of 5.

Lung-enabled hearing (permanent)

Your Escheresque nausea is doubled. You passionately

hate the Escheresque.

Choose 3:
any target it hits. If that target was wielding a slashing
weapon, however, you also take d4 damage.
Active camouflage (permanent)

You have a +2 bonus to MOV/sneak checks.

Shock-absorbent secretions (permanent)

You are very sticky: you have a natural DR 1, but you

Bestial empathy (permanent)
also have disadvantage on seduction checks involving
You can hold very basic conversations with vertebrates non-anurans.
in threespace. Bugs, plants, fungi, and automata don’t
respond to your gentle croaks.
Toxic secretions (passive/standard)

Your skin is poisonous: your non-tongue unarmed

Hypersensitive reflexes (permanent)
attacks cause burn 1. You can also, as a standard action,
You have advantage on all rolls related to dodging traps, slather a melee weapon with your natural secretions in
jumping to safety, and so on. order to give it burn 1 for the next round. But this means
you only attack once every two rounds (unless you use
the stillrijder power double tap).
Ocular hyperdilation (free)

Burn 1 GRT: your pupils grow cartoonishly wide, and Languages: You speak one of the many mutually unintel-
you gain a +2 bonus to your next WIL/perceive check ligible mulruk languages (this rule is intended to create
or called shot. hilarity if more than one player ever decides to play a
sapient anuran), Mossish, and some Spin. If you were
born on Kakudun instead of Gigou, you speak Jash, ‘Ethi,
Predatory tongue (standard)
or some other local tongue in place of Mossish.
You can rapidly and precisely extend your tongue: as an
attack, this causes d4 damage and automatically disarms

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH09 ☉ THE COSMOS 257

 Today, the W.Co.’s base on Kakudun is not in
Howloon, but the Co.-built, near-a-stiffworks
town of Nolaster, in the swamps of the Jash.

Kakudun
already “belonged” to two Howlish trading companies,
both heavily militarized (like the Worshipful Company)
and independent from Howloon itself.
But the most important political development here is
the expansion of Thwoolf. The praetors of Thwoolf see

The cacophonous province it as their duty to conquer Kakudun and impose law
where there is now “wildness” or, worse, “false law.” They
The earthlike planet of Kakudun comprises one large, have forced many of their people into military service
relatively densely inhabited continent called Kaku, and are rapidly making headway in conquering the ‘Ethi
another far to the east about which nothing is known, peoples of the “waist” of the continent. Rumor holds that
and a Wetana. The origins of human life on Kakudun the Thwoolfish are buying up the loyalties of the Co.-
are mysterious. Rumors hold that Kakudun was sponsored mulruks, and of criminals of all types. War
populated by the Tephnians (but there is little evidence looms across the continent’s center…
for this—as on Calarash, they visited and left), a lost Meanwhile, the cool northern plains of Kakudun,
tribe of post-collapse Ancients (no evidence at all), the Flane Lands, are home to many strange and deadly
or time travelers from future Terra (not even a theory of phenomena. The humans who eke out a living here—
what would count as evidence). growing short-season wild rice and herding great
No great empire has coordinated political life on auks—obey a stricter social code than those to the south
Kaku, at least so long as anyone currently living can re- (except during festivals, which are many). Above all, the
member. People here move more frequently than on the culture of the Flanes revolves around constant vigilance
other provinces, following climatic shifts and avoiding regarding the Unnamed—a titanic, world-ending being
wars. Diseases often run wild. The variously hot/wet said to live thousands of miles directly east of Lode-
and cool/dry landscapes of Kaku make growing the few watch, the independent largest city of the Flanes. They
protein-dense Kakudunnais grains, which look like wild call this unexplored eastern continent the House of the
rice, arduous and uncertain work. Unnamed. Fear of the Unnamed unites rivals here. The
To Fleeters and non-Kakudunnais provincials, the Flane Republic feuds with old Flanelaw and with the
people of Kaku appear similar enough, one to the next. independent city-states, but all remain wary against
(To quote the famous wetan standup Fizzy Mist Flicker, incursions from the west and—mostly—the awakening
“Apes is apes!”) But to the Kakudunnais themselves, they hunger beyond the eastern ocean…
represent a stunning diversity of ethnoi, many of whom Of the “wild northwest,” the least dangerous kingdom
hold bitter rivalries against one another. is Sabya’s Ax: the loosely defined, ax-shaped “armpit” of
First-time visitors to Kaku are briefed with some ver- Kakudun is named after the noble-hearted, demi-mythic
sion of the following demographic summary by their “Pyrate Queen” Sabya. Legend holds that she convinced
refactors: the people of northwestern Kaku are a varied disparate coastal fort-towns, fish ranches, and trading
lot, lumped together by the Archivists as the Seafolk. posts to band together to repel the depredations of the
Most of their cities are, unsurprisingly, on the sea. The Plutarchs of the fortress–cartelocracy of Ghazioum, the
northeast is the land of the Flanes, who tell tales of a rogue automata of the far north, the raiding fex from
threat from the east yet to come, a great sleeping Old inland, the fathomless ones summoned by whatever
One—the one true “native” of Kakudun—living across cthulhicate reigns out in the deep seas, and especially
the eastern ocean. The middle part of the inhabited con- the searats of Tentlash and Ulux. Sabya’s Ax is currently
tinent is the home of the ‘Ethi and Marangali, who today ruled by an elected Sea Most Kakudunnais have three
are diasporic communities. The central-eastern coast is Commander from Port names—long short long—as
populated by Howlish peoples, including the Thwoolfish Eleskaber. Farther out, in “Shildane Exth Jasabas” or
and the citizen–workers of the Othrax and Aucher Co.s. the large, decadent city “Prithram Yat Jesenderl.” Given
In the South, the Maun and “Twinner” Haxaj dominate. of Graafa lies on an is- the long short long nature of
(Few voidminers remember any of this.) land off the west coast of wetan tri-names, some Archivists
There are many, many political entities on Kakudun, Darksea. Ku-Wetana lies ponder a potential connection
organized in a variety of ways, and these enjoy diverse yet farther to the west between the (human)
relationships with the Co. Two often encountered by and south of the main Kakudunnais languages and
voidminers are the Othrax Joint Stock and Aucher Co.s. continent, but many wetan Rasp languages: are
The (Worshipful) Co. was most annoyed, after discov- wetans now dwell in the the human tongues devolved
ering the useful stiffworks on the rich and peaceful northwest. versions of Rasp!?
city-island of Howloon, to learn that much of Kakudun

258 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PATTERNS

 The south of Kakudun, meanwhile, is so written over
with culture that it must have given rise at some point to
a great continental power, much as the far north did in
the era of the makers of the Ratworks. Today, the only
consistent southern cultural feature, besides language and
clothes, is a strong belief in a political order founded on
duality—checks and balances—wherein one polity votes
on policies for the other and not for itself. This prisoner’s
dilemma contours all aspects of life in the three Twin
Kingdoms. This system is currently working well in
two of the three surviving dualocracies, Valking et
Vasking and Brïomax en Brïowaltt, but failing in Halwax
et Wiwax.

Kakudunnais ecology
The flora in many regions of Kaku exhibit such gigan-
tism that they are used, living, as building materials.
The most striking example are
Of course, none of these
the urbpods that make up the city
organisms is a “plant” per se;
of Zankūr, which hang across the
all are plant-like xenoflora,
Great Chasm of the seasonally
evolved and evolving in
flooded Chasmlands: the edifices
extra-terrene conditions.
here are the hollowed-out, glassy-
blue fruit of great citytrees. Many hundreds of meters in
total height, these organisms are twisted by the Zankesh
painstakingly over years so that they bend down and
cross the massive chasm, providing solid “ground” for indoctrinate the desmudu into a culture of martial
roads with their trunks. service to the grand ideal of controlling space travel?
Most of the nonsapient fauna on Kakudun are not Or should the humans of the sky leave the bats well
dangerous. The seas are full of delicious fish, especially enough alone?
sweeteels. The automata of the north, however, are ex- Finally, the Co. brought thousands of mulruks to the
tremely dangerous—and cunning. The raccoon-like wetlands of Kaku to work. Often underpaid, these frog-
sapes called the fexellaj or fex folk are increasingly likely to run away and establish new
Most wetans of Ku-Wetana are
are the true native people of communities. These are open to predation both by the
terrified of fexellaj. The word
Kaku, along with the desmudu Co. and the warlike local powers; they may appeal to
for fex in Ku-rasp literally
(see below). Suspicious of hu- wandering voidminers for aid.
translates to “hateful rat.”
man expansions into the mid-
continent, the fex trade swampfruits and carefully culti-
vated drugbugs for rifles and chocolate.
The Big Drink Wranglers
Of the Wetanas, Ku-Wetana is the least populous
and the least useful to the Co. It is far from Kaku, and On Kakudun, most wetans have tiger-stripe patterns
the nations there do not seem to value Go-Throughing on their backs and antennae that are much longer and
This feature courtesy Fun City!

as much as they do on Calayat. The wetans on Kakudun more expressive than those of other wetans. The wetans
are slightly smaller, redder, and more prawn-like than of Ku-Wetana are typically also pink or red in hue,
those of the other wetan worlds. The wetans here are owing to a diet of brightly colored red algae that they
suspicious of humans due to a past injury about which farm from the seafloor off of the northwestern coast of
the Co. knows little (or so the Directorate maintains). the continent.
The Co. offers standing venture contracts to repair these While the Kakudunnais wetans are not amphibious,
relations. they make up 80% of the continent’s sea farmers and
The bat-like desmudu of T’keth—relatively few in an outsize percentage of its pyrates, according to
number and not yet enmeshed in human politics—pres- Archival surveys. These associations with the sea
ent a case similar to that of the mulruks of Gigou be- have earned them the demonym, translated from
fore the arrival of the Co. Should the Directorate seek to Ku-Rasp, “Big Drink Wranglers.”

Were the wetans fucked over by the human

builders of the Ratworks, long ago?

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 Desmudu
(“chirops,” batperson of Kakudun)
In a clipped assemblage of syllables borrowed from the
nearby tribe of sunpeople (humans) called the Jash,
the batpeople of the land of T’Keth call themselves
desmudu or bugdrinkers. The Archivists call them
Sunpeople spend a lot of chirops (“thumbs”), since their
time makin g machi nes and great wings grow out of their most
killing each other instead inward-pointing top-limb digits.
of eating fat, lipid-d ense, To the humans, most desmudu act
squishy bugs. The electri c essentially like great bats. To the
partic ularly good desmudu, the sunpeople are almost
ants are
season ! impossibly strange. The fact that
this rainy
one or two desmudu have been known to move into
Jash lands, however, makes them worthy of further
investigation in the eyes of the Archivists.

Class restrictions:

You cannot play a blooder, snakehead, or tremulant.

Species powers:

Bite/rake (standard)

Each round, you can either bite a target for d8 damage or

claw them for d4+1 damage and bleed 1.

Fly (permanent)

You can fly for a number of minutes in a row equal to

your max MOV times 5.
Languages: You speak in indexical chirps, inaudible to
humans and lacking in symbolism. You can make a few
Limber (permanent)
words of Jash, ‘Ethi, Marangali, Howlish, Flane, or some
You gain a permanent bonus of +1 MOV. other human languages of Kakudun, but you will need
a lot of practice to speak fluently, since you really don’t
understand what a language is or why you should use
Nocturnal (permanent)
one. You don’t know any Spin unless you have been cap-
You can see perfectly well in the dark. tured and brought to the Co.’s primary embassy-town on
Kakudun, Nolaster, to entertain the heartless rich.

Scream the unnoise (standard)

Burn dWIL GRT and roll WIL: from your belly up, you
generate an incredibly loud sound that is both sonic and
ultrasonic. Every hostile target who hears this must roll
WIL and score higher than you or else suffer from the con-
dition terrified. A terrified target suffers disadvantage on
every roll while not actively running away from you.
After one round of being terrified, they can roll WIL
again with no penalty every round to try to recover their
senses.

260 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PATTERNS

Fexellaj
(raccoonperson of Kakudun)
The 1.2-M tall raccoon-like sapes commonly called “fex”
are known to be inquisitive, intelligent, and energetic.
Until contact with humans, they used only wooden
tools. Today, they typically pride themselves on retrofit-
ting human and wetan gear for their small bodies. None
have gone-through from Kakudun to Spindle yet, having
immediately (correctly) perceived the Co. to be a venal,
destructive institution. But given the natural curiosity of
all sapes, it’s only a matter of time…

Species powers:

Aggro/dense (permanent)

You gain a permanent bonus of either +1 COM or WIL.

Defensive instincts (permanent)

In woodlands and wetlands, you gain advantage on all

Perform the marsh medicine (ten-minute)
MOV/run and MOV/sneak checks.
You can perform a simple dance-based healing art. Burn
8 GRT and dance for ten minutes over a wounded person:
Fun-sized (permanent)
that person regains dWIL HEA (your WIL).
Full grown, you are the size of a human child: You per-
manently lose −d6 HEA at character creation. Your min-
Release your rabid rage (free)
imum starting HEA is 2.
Once per level per day, you may burn 2 GRT: for the next
4 rounds, your COM rolls gain advantage; your MOV rolls
Sharp, grimy claws (standard)
gain disadvantage.
You can make two natural attacks per round for d6 each.
If you are trained in martial arts, then you instead inflict
Sharpened scratchers (permanent)
dCOM damage with each attack.
Your natural attacks gain bleed 1.
Choose 3:
Track/pet (permanent)
Bestial empathy (permanent)
You gain the razi power track. If you are already a razi, you
You can hold very basic conversations with non-sapient gain a free animal or motile plant companion with the same
vertebrates in threespace. Bugs, plants, fungi, and au- COM and MOV scores that you have, REA 1, WIL d10,
tomata don’t respond to you. CHA 0, HEA equal to your maxCOM plus max MOV, GRT
11, and no DR. Choose: either this pet can attack for d8
damage, or it gives you a +2 bonus to WIL/perceive checks.
Killer instinct (permanent)

You gain a +2 bonus to either (choose one): rolls to attack

Woodpunk aptitude (permanent)
or rolls to determine damage.
You gain a +4 bonus to checks related to clank-stratum tech.

Nonvascular vegetable empathy (perm.)

Languages: You speak the language of your people, typically
You can hold very, very basic conversations with moss described by Kakudunnais humans as “greebling.” You also
and other nonvascular plants. speak Jash and some Spin, with a heavy Nolastroix accent.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH09 ☉ THE COSMOS 261

Nasudrun
to the great engine-stiffworks. But the Fabriekanters of
Fabriekgaan—whose capital was named Falkangaard,
the Fallen City—found themselves far from home and
surrounded by enemies. By all rights, they should have
developed a culture of severe, paranoid military order.

The lost province Instead, Falkangaard became a den of libertines resolved

to die drunk and satisfied.
Which sapient species arrived in what order? How did For reasons that are unclear to the Archive, the mul-
the quan (aquatic posthumans common on Terra) get gulm never marched on the city of Falkangaard itself,
here? Where is the Nașud Wetana? No one knows. The and the human province flourished… until the stiffworks
facts are these: during the reign of the First Five Direc- stopped working, and contact with Spindle was lost. At
tors Prime, an acclaimed voidminer named Ultan Rikist that time, Falkangaard had become home to some fifty
led a team to tack out from a previously unused Far Bay thousands humans, at least two large families of yaan
stiffworks whose destination turned out to be a perfectly (Nașūd wetans) and a few orphaned șidraș (“grass
preserved, C-shaped Late Tephnian arkship that they elves”—photosynthetic posthumans). No permanent
called the Falkan and the Tephnians (Archivists later mulgulm embassy was ever set up, but temporary ones
discovered) had called the ANSAL•DUUL. were not unknown.
Exploring the ship extensively over weeks, Rikist’s How much has changed in two hundred years? Why
team found no life onboard. Of course, they had not did the stiffworks from Spindle to the engine of the
been able to access many areas whose nanotech security ANSAL•DUUL stop working almost two centuries be-
features baffled or attacked them. But the ship orbited a fore the Groot Tachquake? And are the yaan legends of
Goldilocks world teeming with life: for many centuries, another stiffworks in the woods true?
a wandering polity of gulm—lichenoid moldfolk who
are called mulgulm in Spin—dominated this planet, The six sapient polities on
shaping it to their liking. They were not exactly friendly, Nașudrūn after Ringfall d6
but neither were they hostile. For they had lost the ability
to travel the stars (tales differed as to why) and welcomed 1 The Cliff People or Mulgulm – Gulm puritans who
the coming of new sky people. left space a thousand years ago. They possess
advanced tech, some leftover from their starfaring
Thus, Rikist decided and—upon reporting back—the gulm ancestors, but most from the Tephnian ringship
Directors Prime themselves agreed that he should “land” that fell into Mūlașalūm. They speak a language of
the ring-ship on the planet and found a province… Dur- whispers called Ūlulglulū, forms of which have over
time more or less displaced the languages of the
ing Ringfall, the entire sky over inhabited Nașudrūn so-called barbarian peoples; now the natives of
shone “golden, purple, violet, gray, and blue” in a rapid Nașudrūn speak a common tongue called Nașrūd.
but calm succession of colorful lights. Then everything 2 The Forest Peoples or Yaan – Wetans, various
went wrong. The few hundred Late Tephnian sleepers tribes. They make stone and wood tools, and they
aboard the Falkan—safe in their sealed sleeping have gained some early modern technologies via
trade with the Fabriekanters.
chambers—were brought out of their slumber by the
ship’s lonely and paranoid AI. Though Rikist’s team had 3 The Hill People or Fabriekanters – Provincial
humans—the descendants of Co. traders (Fleeters,
no real chance of defeating these advanced and irate mostly) who were cut off from Spindle one century
posthumans, they managed to cause a lot of damage, ago, perhaps by a localized tachquake. The Fab-
all around, leading to a catastrophic failure of the AI’s riekanters are called the Janmakūd (from the Ūlglulū
Janașūșanaj, “fallen, [fast-]talking people”) by the
astrogation subroutines. Nașūd. Some humans find this term to be pejorative.
As the voidminers and LT sleepers battled, the great Fabriekgaan (the human nation) includes the giant
ship crashed onto Nașudrūn, splitting into pieces. The irradiated Vaach—the engine of the fallen DUUL.

ship’s bridge landed in the dark vale between the vast 4 The Ryefarers or Şidraș (“SHEE-drahss”) – Posthu-
highlands of the moldfolk and the grassy plateau where man “grass elves,” various tribes. They make stone
and wood tools, and they steal Tephnian weapons as
Rikist planned his province, called the Rood Karst. The possible from the humans and mulgulm.
engine—and the stiffworks—landed on that plateau.
5 The Sea Peoples or Harșaori (“har-SHA-’or-ee”) –
The bulk of the ship fell into the lands of the moldfolk, Quan, various tribes.
Mūlașalūm (“MOO-lah-sha-LOOM”).
6 The Valley People or Voorbijn – Late Tephnian
The fleeters who survived Ringfall by hacking into the sleepers, awoken by Ringfall. The Fabriekanters
ANSAL•DUUL’s lifeboats proved an enterprising lot. call them “devils.” They are called the kakulj’n
They built a city out of what pieces of the ship that they (“hunters”) by the Nașūd. Kakajal (the valley of
the sleepers) swallowed up the great bridge of
could scavenge, maintaining contact with the Co. thanks the DUUL, including its armory.

262 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PATTERNS

Seasonality on the Continued contact?
Lost World
Was Nașudrūn ever really “lost?” Fleeters breathe
Nașudrūn has three distinct seasons, and all non-Fallen and piss conspiracy theories like this: the Co. planned
cultures plan their activities around them. The humans for Ringfall to go barmy; contact with Fabriekgaan
only slowly came into the rhythm of the seasons, but was never lost, etc. If any director still has contact
by now much of their culture must reflect the planet’s with Nașudrūn, both the Archive and the Shining Sky
geoclimatic cycles. The towns must deal with seasonal Climbers’ deputies in Little Wetana would pay
flooding and the semi-predictable migrations of nnative handsomely to know. The other directors could use
fauna, very little of which is edible to humans. the ensuing scandal to clean house. Just think: a very
Optional rule: In game terms, roll d3 to determine what dangerous world-shattering truth comes to light, and
season it is right now. This has effects on the scores of everything on-Spin changes…
Nașūd species: they gain bonuses or suffer penalties to
COM and MOV according to the season’s effects on
their bodies.
Mulgulm
1. Summer (hot, dry) – Sidraș +2, yaan +1, mulgulm −2,
harșaori −2. (puritanical moldfolk of Nasudrun)
2. Monsoon (warm, wet) – Harșaori +2, șidraș +1, yaan Products of long-ago mi-go experimentation on
+1, mulgulm +1. humans, the mulgulm (singular and plural) are the
3. Spore (cool, wet) – Mulgulm +2, harșaori +1, șidraș haughty lichenoid children of the stars—now sans a
−2, yaan −1. starship. Mulgulm appear to be hairless, gray humans
with flaky skin and broad, flat heads. On the lost
province of Nașudrūn, the mulgulm are hegemonic;
Avenues for rediscovery
d6 the few humans on that green world fear them. Any
mulgulm traveling through the void, however, will be
1 One Grindesaleer has this special map, you see…
alone, perhaps lost, perhaps even humble (though
2 The șidraș came from an alter-Terra planet called probably not). Although technically a refugee, their
Pays. They can travel back and forth, in fact. But
their stiffworks stands far to the west of Fabriek- richly ornamented clothes and speciesist arrogance
gaan, in an unexplored region of Nașudrūn. will set them apart from the other Canteen-wretches,
3 The void elves pick you up and drop you off—right begging for work.
into Kakajal—and proceed to watch the mayhem
from their ship, chuckling warmly as you fight back Species powers:
waves of advanced sleepers…

4 The kakulj’n who is least patient uses the

ANSAL•DUUL’s half-alive AI and damaged bridge to Saprotroph (permanent)
reach out to the Co., hoping to shake things up…
You eat starlight and decaying organic matter. You can
5 Reformist mulgulm sectarians reach out, finally
seeing an end to the long Wait: it is time to return eat almost anything organic (carbon-based) and need
to the void… very little of it, and very little water, to survive. This
6 The Shining Sky Climbers find a way into the dead makes you a very cheap date, as far as venturers go. You
mulgulm city of Rūqūq—a strange, monument-filled eat roughly 1/10th the rations of a human, although you
hollow mountain at the edge of Mūlașalūm that require 5+ hours of sunlight per day.
supposedly predates any known sapient’s arrival
on Nașudrūn…

Unloved by the Yuggothi (permanent)

Mi-go attack you whenever doing so is not highly

inconvenient for them. Other gulm (moldfolk) will not
outright attack you unless provoked, but they find you
grating, severe, and unworthy of their time or aid.

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Choose 3: Sporulate (special)

When you fall to 0 HEA, you become prone and can-

Ancient star-gnosis (permanent)
not act, but you also cannot be killed merely by someone
You gain a permanent bonus of +1 REA. shooting you or cutting your “head” off (you don’t have a
central brain), e.g. Instead, someone must destroy your
entire body, which is already rapidly drying and hard-
Etiquette of the daj Hakkun court (perm.)
ening into a gray-white, heat-resistant husk. This means
You gain a permanent bonus of +1 to all CHA checks that no one can permanently kill you without stealing
except regarding seduction. This has no effect on other your body and spending many minutes, out of combat,
gulm and mi-go. burning it at very high temperatures or dissolving it in a
powerful acid bath. Your friends (if you have any) should
have ample time to rescue you. If you are saved, your
Mycelial non-mind fungus-mindbody (perm.)
body regrows in 10 −dWIL days, minimum 1.
You gain permanent bonuses of +2 HEA and +3 GRT.
Languages: You speak the common language of Nașudrūn
as well as the ancient moldfolk tongue of Ūlulglulū. You
Pistoleer training (permanent)
can learn most new languages quickly (given 20 −dREA
You have trained for hundreds of hours in the ritual gulm weeks of exposure), but you can never make the sounds
art of killing things with bio-kinetic laser pistols. When necessary to speak the rasp-languages of the wetans.
shooting any one-handed missile weapon, you receive a
+2 bonus to hit and may roll twice for damage, taking the
higher result.

264 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PATTERNS

 Qreyjal
Over the past fifty million years, simple vascular
plants evolved first sapience, then motility. These plants
call themselves, in their whisper-language, the enjan—
that is, the Silent. The enjan occupy the inland tem-
perate woods and semi-arid plains of all three major

The green and happy continents on Qreyjal. They do not speak with one
another because they can communicate through soil-

province conducted electrochemical pulses and subtle changes in

secondary-metabolite density and hue. This makes them
Qreyjal is a balmy, ecologically well-appointed world nigh-telepathic, from a humans’ point of view.
whose oceans are ribboned blue-green and purple in
alternating, many-kilometer-wide bands. The blue-green
waters are composed of the same saltwater as earth’s;
Should I eat the pink slime?
the purple bands are the unfathomably vast body of a
paralytic “pseudo-water” or “living sea…” Untreated zanj poisoning lowers COM and MOV by one
Three billion years ago—or so the die type per minute until death. In combat, someone
The only theory that most
Archivists guess—autochthonous with zanj poisoning faces a 1 in 4 chance each round of
folks on-Spin believes life evolved here, converting water being stunned and unable to act. Zanj poisoning can be
about the origin of life on
and seafloor minerals and air into cured with a cheap emetic called fashlen’gura on Qreyjal
Qreyjal is that the heechee
energy (it is not photosynthetic) and and “unzanj” on-Spin.
interfered, trying to pre-
covering the ocean in great uneven
pare the world for human-
violet jelly-like strips, many thou-
ity: in theory, they either
sands of kilometers long and hun-
created the zanj or linked
dreds of meters wide. The humans
The Silent faith
Qreyjal to Terra knowing
who later came here named this
the zanj to be edible when
lifeform “zanj.” They respect it as Enjan in space are a mystery to the Archivists. Most
boiled, and essentially
they would a god, or any truly awe- plantfolk would never leave the soil for space. But some
limitless. But this theory
some mystery. Zanj is one of the only claim to “hear”—in a metaphorical sense—the call of
still doesn’t explain why
known “true” aliens—not a posthu- other photobionts, mostly sessile ones, who need their
the zanj is ribboned.
man or time traveler. help. The Silence must be cared for, tended. Many want
Within the zanj float many thousands of dead organic to see Terra, Calayat, and Gigou—the other great plant
things, all food for its distributed body. For the zanj is worlds. These “plantpriests” or “green missionaries”
highly paralytic, and eating even small amounts, un- (Spinnish terms) don’t represent a single faith with a
boiled, can shut down critical clear system of belief and attendant ethos. But they
Boiled, zanj is filling but only
functions in the digestive and do want to hire out freelance venturers to guide them
partially digestible. To extract
renal systems, and ultimately around plant-inhabited worlds, performing a mysteri-
a near-complete range of
the heart and nerves. The zanj ous act of care upon which they agree without being
human nutrients from zanj,
is fairly harmless to humans able to articulate further. Secretly, the directors suspect
the Qzellish folk soak it in
now that they know about it, foul play, and curious Archivists yearn to document the
a “lime” called dashenjen
however, as they must simply plantpriests’ thinking.
made from Vrandi white­
not fall in while sailing.
cactus flesh. The Haricans
In fact, the entire human
Humanity on Qreyjal
and Yalantines mix their zanj
population of Qreyjal survives
with fish guts and let it dry in
on boiled zanj without sig-
the sun before chopping into
nificantly hurting it. The zanj- No one knows how the first humans made it to Qreyjal,
square cakes called “Polite
harvester dhows float lazily out but at some point, many thousands of years ago, they did.
Brothers.” Eating zanj causes
from the cities and return with (The Archivists assume this group came from Terra.) Ac-
one’s bowel movements to
great barrels of the jelly, diluted cording to the enjan, humanity first arrived in the middle
turn a lovely violet shade.
in color to pink by separation of the Eastern continent, Levenmir, and eked out an ex-
from the dense sea-bands. This means the people istence among the dominant enjan. The plantoids and
of Qreyjal scarcely have to work to survive and may apes came to a sort of truce, and then… more: at some
instead pursue the grander things in life, such as art, point, plant DNA entered the bodies of the humans in a
politics, and feuding. safe, stable manner, granting them the ambrosial gift—

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH09 ☉ THE COSMOS 265

 One intrepid Carvolian family had brought good-
eating north Palan fish—at great cost, in heavy tanks—
and kept them alive during the entire journey. When
they found the coast, they despaired upon the sight of the
purple bands of unmoving jelly. In fact, they despaired
so greatly (or so the story goes) that they dumped out
their fish into the water, thinking they would rather give
up all meat and slowly starve while eating berries than
continue to pretend that this Third Carvolia was the
paradise it had been promised.
But the fish lived. They naturally avoid zanj, it turns
out, have no predators in the oceans, and can eat the
abundant diving and low-flying insects that range over
the waters, at times as big and far-flying as birds.
So for a little less than a thousand years, that small
coastal group of humans splintered, recombined, and
fared the ribboned oceans, discovering for themselves
the smaller continent of Drasqia (home to no stiffworks)
and the larger western continent they called Harica
(home to several—including some of Late Tephnian origin).
During this “Interregnum” between Carvol and the
Co., the human population boomed, and technology
rose to a high-medieval level. Two empires divided the
world: that of the martial, authoritarian city-state of
Yalantina, on the western coast of Drasqia, and that of
the fecund river-valley towns of Qzelay, on the northern
coast of Levenmir. The largest Qzell city, Great Transo-
may, rivalled the largest cities of Terra in size.
Over the next few centuries, another ethnos differen-
tiated itself and, shortly before the Co.’s arrival, rose to
political prominence. The people of Aestitia on the west-
ern coast of Levenmir marched from their homelands
eastward, igniting another front for the various Qzellish
peoples, who had long been at war with the Yalantines
of Drasqia, and denuding wide swaths of the central
rainforests. Money flowed west as the Venn diagram of
wars dragged on. Political economy—efficient, deadly—
photosynthesis. Via this “Great Blending” came the three grew in the western half of Levenmir.
great groups of “Qreyjan” or natively Qrey humans. The Yalantine, Qzell, and Aestitian Empires
A little less than a millennium ago, the Carvolians remain locked in a stalemate for now. Qzelay has the
(the “Payjan”) arrived on Qreyjal via the Great Tangle, a largest population, economy, and nominally controlled
biological stiffworks of possible heechee origin in area, and Yalantina the largest armed forces due to
Gangasa, the rainforest home to the Qreyjan called the conscription. And the western nations of Harica remain
Garuá. The Carvolians made a settlement in the forest, more concerned with enjan reprisals than their human
but it was difficult for them to deal with the native rivals to the east.
fauna, eat the non-enjan flora, avoid angering the Thus the Co. found the planet already rich with
Levenjan (Levenmire enjan), and understand the ways of culture, trade, and an abundant foodstuff that freed the
the demiplant Garuá. humans here from serfdom. When it came to selecting
Within five years, the Terran-borne humans lost most trading partners, the First Five courted the major
of their numbers to a plague, and the survivors—unable powers, even bringing a few of their legates aboard
to reopen the Tangle without a banshee and having no Spindle. Ultimately, Qzelay proved the most stable
word from Terra following the death of Carvol—fled, choice. This decision ignited another round of wars in
eventually finding the coasts—and the zanj. which the Co. did not intervene.

266 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PATTERNS

Rugun
The new province
Ruguņ is an earthlike planet with a middling-large
human population of time-traveling Snakeman origin
and a medium-poor concentration of natural resources
according to (inchoate) Co. surveys. Demographically,
its societies are comparable to those on Calarash and
Kakudun: dense, fractious, and pre-industrial.
Geographically, Ruguņ has one irregularly shaped,
eponymous continent surrounded by many islands.
Due to this layout, it has been called “Cold Calarash,”
although it is not cold, simply cooler than both the hot
human worlds (Calarash, Terra, and Qreyjal) and the
“tepid” worlds, which have cool regions only at their
poles (Kakudun and Calayat). Climatically, Ruguņ
resembles the other “cool” worlds, i.e., those with
temperate climates (Gigou and Darasan).
Whether the Snakemen heavily engineered Ruguņ’s
climate and biosphere or merely selected an existing
planet suitable to them is unknown. They do not seem
to generate their own archives per se (other than
their mocking “mall directories” and “seasonal catalogs,”
etc.), and in fact they destroy—along with much else—
the Tephnian and other knowledge repositories they
encounter.
Unbelievably to Fleeters and other provincials,
some Ruguș polities still celebrate their future-Snake
heritage—in Veywald and Ophylarrad, in the west, and
Snakeman oddments
Jugund, in the south. Other Ruguș preserve only minor d6
aspects of their originary culture: strange bloodrites
and taboos about bees, complicated consumer surveys, 1 Brass scepter with a fox-head top; when pointed
at any child, it shrieks.
many synonymous words for cruelty…
On the other hand, the rulers of the Co.’s primary 2 Trapezoid-faced clubs (d4) and exploding pale gray
dimpleballs (d6) used for playing meatgolph.
trading partner on Ruguņ—the upstart plutocratic state
called the Ambaranthine League, in the east of the 3 A large plastic sack with… what appear to be human
teeth growing on the inside?
world’s single continent—have banned the possession of
Snake artifacts. (Though these are still traded illicitly to 4 Sailor’s eyeballs (giant algae) and one human eye-
ball, floating in a plastic jug of rose-smelling liquor.
some ex-Archivists.)
5 Toaster-sized/-shaped nanite printer that takes
water for feedstock but only prints very strange
toys (whose names might be translated as Hotdog
Specter, Jake the Horny Rat, Der Burger, e.g.).

6 Exquisitely wrought fountain pen that never runs

out of blood-colored/-scented ink.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH09 ☉ THE COSMOS 267

 Demarach/Paldanaar
Marches When they can physically do so, voidminers general-
ly enjoy tacking to the world called “Demarach” in its
under-explored, dry, grassy or montane eastern

The minor provinces archipelagoes and “Paldanaar” in its better-known, west-

ern, jungle-covered archipelagoes. The weather here
Are these “lesser” worlds mismanaged, doomed, or is generally decent (the odd typhoon aside), and the
simply too poor in resources for the Directorate to locals—while variously obsessed with different nostalgic
bother “guiding” their “development?” Factions on- faiths—are interested in long-term trade agreements
Spin disagree. Before the ‘Quake, the minor provinces that, in the directors’ minds, benefit all involved.
collectively constituted a significant portion of the Co.’s The Co. has a semi-stable partner on-world in the
total trade volume. Today, some are lost (Radanaar), and form of Paldanaar’s Weltauring Archipelagic Joint Stock
some that were only recently contacted have moved Company, or W.A.J.O.,
This Far Bays stiffworks has only a
on without the Co. (Ruoin). On these worlds, through which is headquartered
3 in 8 chance of working properly
various crews of voidminers, the directors are struggling on the island of Ookran
each day. Increase these odds by 1
to prove that the Co. still exists and is still a beneficial and centered on the Co.’s
every 8 days to a maximum of 7 in
partner for various provincial states, and to renew one known stiffworks.
8. Opening it costs 30 GRT. On the
expired deals. The neighboring polity of
Paldanaari side, it is nicknamed
Wayfire, an archipelagic
the Trouble-Engine of Mourning.
Carlivago republic, also trades with
the Co. whenever possible. Unfortunately, the “dæmon-
Fleeter in origin, the “World–City” stands in the one worshipping” island called Dread Immoth is quite close
biotically active swamp on an otherwise lifeless planet. to the waters of the republic and WAJO. Pyrates abound.
The Carlivane are always paranoid that their city will be Alas, that one stiffworks that can be tacked to
discovered and conquered by the mi-go; they view all Paldanaar, in the Far Bays, seems to work entirely at
visitors as potential spies. random. Sometimes, it simply opens a connection to
Over the two decades of the Groot Tachquake, the the Heechee Tombs on Terra. Other times, it

For a venture hook on Paldanaar, see

dense swamp upon which Carlivago exists seemed to leads somewhere far less hospitable. The Archivists

the Stillfleet Quickstart Rules.

sprawl more by the month, while the city itself gained believe that this is because Demarach/Paldanaar is
not one additional corridor or rampart. The city’s not simply “far away” in space but also in time, and
residents noted with concern the encroachment of that some specific conflict in Escheresque physics
the planet’s wilderness: plants, insect-analogs, and is “gumming up the blasted works,” to use technical
fungi oozed in greater and greater numbers into the language.
municipal cisterns, and then through the pipeworks. The
Cartel and its various administrative puppets, however,
viewed these changes with less suspicion—just as
Faneslary
they blithely waved off the regular disappearances of When you sign up to work on the so-called Mining
night guards and maintenance workers. World, your refactor will read to you a boilerplate
In fact, it is an open secret here that the mi-go have warning explaining that it is only “half-terraformed.”
long laid claim to Carlivagospace. Since Carlivago’s When you get to Faneslary, you will be reminded again
reconnection with Spindle, secret treaties long ago to keep your rebreather on when not in a vac-sealed
ratified between elements within the Co. and the Spo- room at home, and to avoid going outdoors as much
radic Cancectorate of Yuggoth seem to be in flux as as possible. For although the planet is Goldilocks-
the minor provinces jostle for a leg up in the new, sized, orbits at the right distance from Faneshsol, has a
post-‘Quake social order. As a result, the already para- comfortable atmospheric pressure from a nitrogen-
noid rank and file of Carlivago are even more on edge. based atmo, and even sports some liquid H₂O on the
Reports of suddenly, joyously back-online technopylons surface as well as simple life-forms, Faneslary is not yet
overlap with rumors of scuttling shapes in the tunnels fit for human or wetan habitation.
of the old city below… (For more, see the feature on The acrid air of Faneslary can’t be breathed without
Carlivago in “Profits.”) mechanical aid: it is oxygen-, carbon-, and nitrogen-rich,
but rich too in chlorine and sulfur compounds that burn
The Fanesh air kills any Terran atmo-breather in
d4+1 minutes unless they wear a mask! Rebreathers
the lungs and eventually melt down rebreathers. The
must be changed out every d4 weeks.

268 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PATTERNS

planet’s surface, meanwhile, is a mix of sandy deserts, From a Far Bays Malkovich tunnel on-Spin, those early
high red mountains, and dense boreal forests dotted Fleeters arrived in the engine of an Ancient hulk on a
with lakes: that is, the planet lacks a single ocean. Most beach not far from a forest. The First Five prepared to
of the explored surface consists of the flat, hot, rocky raise Grimmle to the status of province, declaring the
desert called Kaltana, the “Sun’s Tears.” fort that had evolved within and then around the ruins
The “good half ” of explored Faneslary (it is much less of the stiffworks-bearing hulk—the wreck of The Reneb—
than half ) consists of dense swathes of xenoflora that to be the provisional capital. The people of Fort Reneb
are collectively called Weenowak, the “Unstructured dreamed of founding another Terra.
Forest.” Thanks to some feat of long-ago bioengineer- Reality proved crushing. Only one Terrasol-standard
ing, the plants and fungi of Weenowak can breathe the year after discovery by the Co., contact with Fort Reneb
acrid atmosphere. Archivists believe that the heechee was interrupted for several weeks. The First Five
or some earlier cohort of humans half-terraformed this sent through their own personal scouts, and one
world, millions of years ago, and they left behind copious returned to report scenes of carnage that rivaled any yet
technoruins beneath the mountains and the woods. relayed on-Spin. It seemed that thousands of 5-meter-
The famous Fanesh mines, in fact, are not of Fleeter tall, pale, crab-like xenofauna—locally called titan
construction, but appear to be the remains of an chuuzul—migrated seasonally from the deep oceans
unknown megalopolis that once extended beneath to the northern coasts of the continent, and these proved
seemingly the entirety of Weenowak. Miners complain so titanic and numerous that Fort Reneb had been
of the danger of xeno “ghosts” deep below… If these reduced within a week from a sturdy outpost defended
surprises weren’t enough, the Fanesh lost all reason to by a restored naval laser cannon to a smattering of
work or even believe they would continue to survive lean-tos in the belly of the half-buried starship, defended
during the long two decades of the Groot Tachquake. by silence and insincere prayer.
Today, the Co. controls only the largest of three dis- The First Five signed off on orders to exfiltrate all
tinct Fanesh polities, the one that harbors the stiffworks, humans and wetans from the planet—already by then
called the Merripassage. This city-state, Port Merrisqué, given its “doomed” sobriquet—but many refused the
has a strong rival in the nearby miner-held anarcho- exfiltration order, hiding from the stillrijders sent to
socialist republic of Tansvaal, which has been pushing find them. The First Five turned the matter over to the
to explore more of the planet beyond Weenowak. Both Afdeling of the Void, speaking no more on it.
larger states are threatened by the smaller southern state In time, the Forters—having renamed their hulk-
of Jackay, which is also held by miners but ruled by capital “Defiance”—journeyed farther south, eventually
a junta that allows all manner of social vices but no discovering that Grimmle was not dead at all, but home
questioning of its supremacy. to various post-Carvolian towns. The Forters traded
While the directors on-Spin are “confident” that they with them, becoming a class of gentry that intermarried
can somehow “negotiate” a solution to this political at times and sired children out of wedlock far more often
crisis, the situation on the ground betrays long-term with the locals. But cultural exchange was uneven and
cultural rifts between those loyal to the idea of the Co. slow. The north and south regions of the continent were
in the void and those who have only ever known separated by hundreds of miles of mountains. The towns
Faneslary as home. along the way remained small, prone to war with one
another. And every very few years—as the impossibly

Grimmle large sea-things returned—the Forters had to suspend

and then rebuild their society in the north, making the
Grimmle was discovered by Ancient Terrans millions of Co. hesitant to waste resources on such a slight return.
years ago, but seems to have been mostly bereft of human
life until a little less than a millennium ago. At that time, For a venture hook on Faneslary, see the
nanotechnology sourcebook, Subtle Fluid.
the rulers of the Terran nation of Carvolia discovered
the now-famous stiffworks called the Heechee Tombs
and seeded many Goldilocks worlds with medieval
societies. These were soon cut off from Terra, however,
by war. Grimmle was listed as officially “dead” according
to the Co.’s ever-sensitive sociological jargon when redis-
covered by the proxies of the First Five Directors-Prime,
some three centuries before the present.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH09 ☉ THE COSMOS 269

 has not reported any links (so far) between events in
Kavaraat-the-province and its ruined future. But killing
the so-called “cave folk” of the distant past has been
known to eliminate provincials from the world’s

Co.’s collective memory for years due to a clerical error, one Archivist has
Good news, voidminers: while the very existence of Radanaar faded from the

just rediscovered the planet! For much more on Radanaar, check out the official
“present” (from the Co.’s point of view). (For more, see the
feature on Kavaraat in “Echoes.”)

Stillfleet venture and setting sourcebook, The Rain Thieves, by Aaron H.

What happens if you kill
an Ur-Kavaraaq? d6

1 The victim’s founder effect was major – Thousands

of Kavaraaq disappear from existence, including all
of the provincials whom you cared about.

2 The victim’s founder effect was minor – Dozens

of Kavaraaq disappear from existence, including at
least one of the provincials whom you cared about.

3 The victim’s cultural legacy was major – All of

your major contacts in Kavaraat are now completely
different people, and all major aspects of life in
Kavaraat are changed (e.g., the Prince is a different
person; Kavaraat is now Qarvaraan, etc.).

4 The victim’s cultural legacy was minor – At least

one of your major contacts in Kavaraat is now a
completely different person, and one major aspect
of life in Kavaraat is changed (e.g., the Prince is a
different person).

5 No change – The victim would have had no offspring

or important ideas, and nothing in the future is
altered.

6 The victim’s founder effect was minor (lucky for

you) – Dozens of Kavaraaq disappear from existence,
including at least one of the provincials with whom

Kavaraat you had a serious conflict; if no such provincial ex-

ists, then you notice no change.

This earthlike world exists in three phases of time

at once. Roll a d3: on a 1, it is currently stuck in the
ancient past, populated by neanderthal-like sapes. On
Radanaar
a 2, it is currently Kavaraat-the-minor-province. This In Carvol’s time, many almost-earths graced the ledgers
is not really a “province,” but a market—a politically of the royal strategists. Radanaar—a hot, earth-sized
independent, medieval autocracy. On a 3, it is in the planet whose native life is limited to photosynthetic bac-
far future and currently inhabited by a mix of pyramid- teria and a complicated web (pun-intended) of car-sized,
building “gray” Tetrahelian aliens and brain-sucking, venomous “spiders”—was known to the strategists but
jellyfish-like metrads. Tacking back and forth from not even counted among their almost-earths.
here is dangerous but—given the technologies of the Today, Radanaar is a barely alive province that has
advanced aliens—potentially lucrative. literally been forgotten by the Co. The human popula-
Going back and forth in time does not “feel” weird; tion is mostly clustered into a city of small apartments
it is not like “entering” the Escheresque. The future of cut into the yellow rock on the side of a great cliff—at the
Kavaraat is, probably, a wasteland in which scattered end of a long canyon—that overlooks the vast desert that
remnants of humans struggle to steal provisions from the Radannais call Jadran, the Sea Despondent. In the
the mobile blue-crystal cities of the Tetrahelians (or deep dunes of Jadran, under the unmitigated sun, noth-
whatever). In the past, the planet is cooler and drier, ing larger than a patch of red-green lichen can survive.
with roving tribes of Ur-Kavaraaq hunting megafauna In the rocky terrain where the provincials live, so too
and running away from eerily floating metrads. dwell the great spiders…
The most serious problem with time travel, from The cliffside quasi-city, Radanch, is controlled by a
the voidminers’ point of view, is that altering the past cagey but selfless shaman, Akaal, their neophytes, and
potentially alters the present and future… The Co. the great yoghurt-making families, which control the

270 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PATTERNS

Radannais yoghurt, made from centipede “milk,” is
quite tart and delicious. It sustains the Radannais,
Ruoin
along with baked “moss” of chemosynthetic bacteria. “The Rightside-Up, Outside-In” is a Goldilocks world.
planet’s largest herd of galorepts (milk centipedes). The part known to the Co. is ruled by the early modern
Other families bake bacteria flatbread, hunt spiders, and empire of Maalkangaard. Strangely, Ruoin is now the
fashion tools from rocks and spider-parts. The culture home of an advanced, Escheresque (“Inside-Out”) alien
here is radically survivalist in nature, and therefore com- species called the hrijn (pron. “huh’RHINE”), who ap-
munalist. All share; all work; and all are welcomed. The pear to three-spacers to be 3-M tall elephant-squids with
Radannais have waited patiently for the Co. to find them, no faces or orifices of any kind. They natively manipulate
and some will continue to wait as long as they exist. the strong force and cause toxic pink crystals to grow
A few smaller polities exist in the shade of caves along wherever they live, endangering the Maalkane over the
the main canyon, and in smaller chasms to the north. long term. Yet they are peaceful and have come to a trea-
Caravans of ant-milk merchants, moss-jerkiers, stone- ty with the humans, who have migrated out of their im-
cutters, and water farmers pact site, the Hrijnvaal. Both the Maalkane and the hrijn
The arachnoform fauna of
ride east from Radanch on are suspicious of the Co. but may be convinced to trade.
Radanaar (“spiders”) live mostly
the backs of centipede-like The recently elected queen of Maalkangaard is Vrach
to the north of the great chasm
quasi-spiders called repe- XVII. The current Laird–Commander–Seeker of the
inhabited by humans; the
noverms. Weeks later, they Order of the Knyghts of the Dolphin is Drych, daughter
brachyuraform fauna (“isopods”
return with wares made of Queen Vrach. Neither has much power, as all
and “crabs”) live to the south.
by the various cave people, branches of government are controlled by a junta of
The milk centipedes live across
such as the Separatists of nobles known as the Ice-Wine Contessas, who have
the rockier sands but are concen-
the eastern caves and the for three centuries bankrolled the Philosophical Order
trated near human settlements.
Crag Monks of the north— of the Glassmakers—natural philosophers who view
unless they’re caught by the spiders. themselves much as the Archivists do on-Spin. (For
In addition to the well-known Caves of Usk, three more on Ruoin, see the feature in “Edges.”)
other anomalies here may be stiffworks: the “Feature” of
Jadran, about which literally nothing is known; the Eye
of Ôrdh, an edifice in the the deepest of spider territory,
northeast of Radanch; and Kildz’s Antenna, to the south.

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Hrijn
(elephantine legs-only X-dimensional
of Ruoin)
The hrijn (“huh’RINE”) are Escheresque ultrasapients
that cannot (or will not?) fully manifest in threespace.
Threespace sapients describe hrijn as a bunch of 3-M
tall gray legs that rarely move and cause pink crystals to
grow around their toeless “feet.” Each hrijn sees them-
self, however, as a colorful vibrating diagram of ellipses
and feelings. They talk of themself and their culture as
“intersections,” “vertices,” “escapes,” “flows,” and “seg-
ments” of “the Manifold.” The hrijn often find humans,
for some reason, very funny.

Class restrictions:

You refuse to be a stillrijder, razi, or blooder.

Species powers:

Awkward (permanent)

You are huge—3 M tall. You cannot fit in small spaces.

You can fit within a blob-room on-Spin, but just barely.

Inside-Outer (permanent)

You gain a +dREA bonus to all checks involving knowl-

edge of the Escheresque.

Noökinetic (standard)

You can telekinetically move objects in threespace: burn

d10 GRT to throw a heavy, cabbage-sized or larger ob-
ject and cause dWIL damage.

Ultrasapient (permanent)

Your REA die goes up one type. It cannot be lower, at the

end of character creation, than a d10.

universe, you may find yourself nowhere “near” them

Uncomfortable in lower dimensions (free)
when you re-manifest. Note, the speed of appearing/
You must spend 1 GRT per round to physically manifest disappearing from threespace is free.
in threespace. This means that you are often “not there”
when others think you are there. They still see you Languages: You think-speak Hrijn and Maalkane at
standing there (the parts of you they call “legs”), but present, but you can quickly learn any language after
you’re not there. Thus you can easily be cut off from a d6 days of extremely awkward mistranslation and
group of threespacers: if something pulls you deeper unintentional offense-causing. Regardless of language,
into the Escheresque or a physical force (cyclonic wind, you always speak in terms of geometrical abstractions
e.g.) threatens them, causing you to retreat from their (what else is there?).

272 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PATTERNS

 What phase of Tyharin you experience is not entirely
random but tied to your own emotional state as you tack
through: if you’re in a despondent or cynical mood, the
timeline is shifted forward into that sparse rump state
after the Empire has fallen into a long and inevitable
decline. The planet is overrun by gangs of mutant light-
bikers, mole-folk, and raptoroids (e.g.), all seeking long-
buried stores of food or control over the “Bullet Temple”
(the last auto-factory).
If you’re in an optimistic or aggressive mood, you in-
stead enter the high-Imperial world-city, run by corrupt
clerks with robotic multi-fingers, thieving politicians
seeking re-election, gendarmes with “bolt” weapons,
megalomaniacal “superheroes,” rebels, bounty hunters,
and space merchants.

What phase of time is Tyharin

in right now?
Assign Tyharin a state by fiat, based on the players’
collective mood. Or, if you prefer, have each player
make a standard CHA check, difficulty 6; 4 or more total
successes indicate the high-Imperial phase; 3 or fewer,
post-Imperial.

During this high-imperial phase, Tyharin is home to

a caste of shady technology brokers with names such
as Bob the Gorilla, Mosquito Kim, Pharaoh the Banker,
Tsawald Zhang the Shiv, Big-and-Small Kojo, Scabby Pete, and
Yara Four-Eyes. The Co. wants to set up permanent trade
“The Saffron Anax’s Worlds” (originally a sort-of-acro- with the Empire through these brokers, thus avoiding
nym, T.S.A.Wld.) is an unstable double planetary system Imperial suspicion regarding Spindle’s existence. Thus
ruled by a powerful, tyrannical Escheresque being called the Directorate needs to create a cover company here,
the Saffron Anax. Funny enough, however, the Saffron and—perhaps most importantly—find any permanence
Anax is a believer in law and free trade, and the Co. has a between the timelines.
three-centuries’ old deal with him that he has continued A vigilante-outlaw named Jaq may be that link.
to honor, post-‘Quake. It is said that the strain of keep- Tyharin always has existentially dangerous outlaws
ing the two planets sufficiently distant from one another to put down, and Jaq is always after them. She, he, or
and their sun in order to harbor life is slowly killing the they appear physically different in each time phase, but
Anax, and soon the entire system will die. Tacking back they always are the same person, the same mind. They
and forth from here is dangerous. (For more on Tsawald, are trapped here but seem only dimly aware of this fact.
see the feature in “Profits.”) Even so, Jaq seems to be a moral person, if violent and
melancholic. Finally, of the people on this world, only

Tyharin Jaq seems to know about its sole stiffworks, the “Lake
Cave Oddity” beyond the craggy outskirts of the city.
With a high land-to-water ratio planet and few human In the post-imperial phase, the lake is guarded by
habitations, Tyharin is both an almost-empty backwa- swarms of reanimated mutants or cultists, and the mud-
ter—a ruined place—and home to a major frontier city farmers eke out lives in the hinterlands beyond the vast
within the Galactic Empire—a vast web of advanced ruined city region, avoiding nihilistic post-“supervillains”
Ancient human planets and arkships, powered by the who would enslave them as bloodbags, breeders, mush-
science of “nucleics.” feed, or organfarms. Signs crafted of human skeletons

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 world past its prime. In the great acid-marred wastes
that stretch to the northeast of the principal remaining
state—eponymous Uricon, the Fuchsia City—intrepid
voidminers can discover archaetech including the paral-
lel-to-human artifacts of a race of star locusts who some-
times visit (haunt?) this world, transforming it whenever
they do.
The queen of the principal city is either old, fat, and
corrupt, or young and goodhearted and selfless (or some
mix of these descriptors), depending on whom you ask.
The city itself is sometimes an advanced cesspool of
post-apical humanity and more often a sprawling medi-
eval capital that is slowly emptying out as citizens flee
into the wastes, concerned about encroaching “barbar-
ians” and mass-nightmares about the locusts…

demarcate the boundaries of the new districts. Some

survivors grow beautiful fruits in underground
agristeads. Others patrol the dead city, looking for useful
parts to salvage from cracked, radiation-spewing nucleic
drives. Jaq defends whom they can and will call upon the
PCs for aid if they prove humane in mien and stalwart
in constitution—or if they have any canned food, booze,
or bullets.
In either phase, the language here is difficult for
you to learn. The Archivists assume it’s a highly corrupt
Ancient tongue that does not otherwise appear in the
historical record, but its grammar is unique.

Uricon
The earthlike world of Uricon is difficult to reliably tack
to, and every time you travel there, it seems different… It
is as though Uricon were not a stable place per se (back-
ward or forward in time, even), but an idea about a type
of place, with certain persistent features and even peo-
ple, but many more shifting elements—a kaleidoscope-
world. Few fleeters feel compelled to travel here except
by the sting of a certain melancholy itch, a nostalgia to
relive experiences that they never in fact personally had…
Travelers to Uricon describe it like Terra: a once-lush This setting is an homage to M. John Harrison’s
excellently genre-skewering Viriconium books and
stories (collected in the book Viriconium).

274 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PATTERNS

 Pala
Dreams On Pala, human civilizations have risen and fallen again
and again, lately resulting in the hegemony of the four-
armed unhumans, a species that evolutionarily diverged

The monuments of Terra from and was then (of course) hubristically oppressed by
humans in the distant past. The unhumans were driven

Slangmoeder into the great western jungles over a thousand years ago
and largely stayed there until a century ago, when a vi-
The enormous richness of Terra Slangmoeder (Snake- sionary leader named Gazaar’ou led a brutal war against
mother) can be daunting to those born effectively the humans and succeeded in rendering the Federation
infinitely far from its waves and clouds, its peaks and of Unhuman Kingdoms the dominant power on Pala.
prairies, its entombed cryptocerid ultra-cities and Now the scientists of the Federation have recovered
floating Tephnian obelisk-manors… As far as the much Tephnian knowledge and built up an impressive
Archivists can determine, Terra is the ur-home of all store of archaetech weaponry—as well as more than a
humanity and quite possibly all sapient life in threespace. few jet-propulsion systems for artificial satellites, and
(This is a matter of heated debate, in some circles.) Terra even (if rumors hold true) a functional prototype stiff-
is unquestionably the home of the last great civilization works…
to unite (most of ) the habitable worlds known to Much has changed since the era of the distant An-
the Co.—the bloody empire of the Late Tephnians. And cients and even that of the Tephnians, whose legacies
Terra is the home of the humans and giant hamster- remain scarcely buried by sand or eroded by waves. In
thyng who founded the Co. itself. the years since these legendary makers walked the earth,
Today—100 million years after 2266 CE (give or take a myriad worlds have been seeded with sapient life, ex-
few thousand years)—Terra is hot, with ice covering only ploited, and abandoned. The very earth of the earth is
a small radius out from the South Pole. There are two no longer whole but a porous mausoleum of wires, bug-
supercontinents. On arid Latura, the original mysteries made crypts, and hollow anti-cities.
of humanity remain buried under sand and steel. But it
is the larger, lusher eastern supercontinent, Pala, that
is the origin and ongoing focus of Co. scheming. A
Home
torrential monsoon drenches much of Pala for months
of the year, while the middle-south of the continent— Regardless of what they say when drunk and boastful,
like most of Latura—receives no precipitation and most Fleeters and provincials alike harbor an ardent
supports little non-microbial life besides that of danger- fascination with Terra. The Archivists strongly suspect
ous, antique solar-powered automata. (Meanwhile, in that they will eventually find conclusive links between
the long, narrow, hilly archipelagoes of the West stand Terra and the stubborn human cohorts on Calayat,
the colossal egg–cities of the mantids. For more on the Darasan, and Kakudun. In fact, they suspect that all of
Eggs, see the feature in “Whispers.”) humanity and posthumanity descends from Terra, as
High above, a half-terraformed Luna is joined in does all of self-aware machine-kind, reptile-kind, and
stable orbit by a smaller, sickle-shaped moon that insect-kind—including even wetanity. The dream of a
stillfleeters call Tsune (and whose inhabitants call single, capital-H “Home” animates not only the culture
Gnarcosa)—ripped off the face of the earth in a cata- of Fleeters but also those of many disparate human-
clysm called the Chasming at the close of the Tephnian inhabited worlds and perhaps many alien ones..
Wars of Succession. The new two-moon gravitational tug
on the oceans has proven disastrous to oceanic travel, as
unpredictable and powerful rogue waves threaten ships.
These lands are inhabited by roughly one billion
sapients—humans, mantids, various posthumans (in- An old sci-fi trope is that one species “uplifts”
cluding the politically ascendant, four-armed unhu- another using some as-yet-impossible-to-imagine suite
mans), and smaller populations of varanids, gekkids, of biotechnologies. (How does consciousness, mind,
really relate to the physical brain? We don’t know!)
and scincids (Tephnian-uplifted reptilians), gmothi If you find uplifting problematic, ignore it! Nothing
(diminutive, nomadic posthumans), ammon (octopus­ in Stillfleet depends on this trope. We just assume
people), freemasks (translators for aliens), greens that amoral techno-capitalists like the Late Tephnians
probably messed with a lot of brains.
(photosynthetic posthumans), HNNH (clockwork
assassins), horseheaded men (biotechnological golems),
and quan (aquatic posthumans).

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The Federation of famously deadly legions of the Sanguinarch of Saspara,
no Palan power can take dramatic political action
Unhuman Kingdoms without the knowledge, and in many cases approval, of
the Federation’s ruling council, the Heresiarchs.
The most powerful state on Pala today, the vast and The Federation’s success, heterogeneity, rapid growth,
heterogenous Federation, comprises the forests and and most especially political culture—urging toward
savannas of the old unhuman kingdoms—many of which democratic governance by workers, however sincere the
are home to large populations of humans and small urge, however successful its expression—are all mon-
populations of other sapients—along with the cooler, key’s paws, gifts enveloping curses. Every year, more hu-
hillier lands of what was southern Carvolia as well as, mans (most of whom speak Carvolian) and unhumans
to the west, the deserts and wide, dry steppes that were (most of whom speak Old Tephnian) flock to the capital,
once the heart of Tephnii. In fact, the Federation is so Banakarum, and the largest city on Terra, the sprawling
vast that it effectively separates the other nations of port of Caltaraan. This leads to expansion of the state,
Pala from one another. With the exceptions of the rich faster cycles of technical (re)discovery, and the homog-
lairds of the Vennari Houses (backed by the Co.) and the enization and pacification of once fractious elements.

276 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PATTERNS

 Vennar
The so-called Human North was physically spared by the
Second Unhuman War, but then it was long less populat-
ed and poorer than the South. Today, the average inhab-
itant of the North is a poor ant rancher or kelp farmer
who can no longer fathom the possibility of reclaiming
the glittering techno-ruins of the South.
The North is dominated in the west by the human-
chauvinist New Dukes of Carvolia; in the center by
rich “Houses” (mafia families) of Vennar, who employ
the fiercest varanids (monitorlizard-people) of Arakha
as enforcers and assassins; and in the east by the ever-
moving courts of the gmothi (diminutive posthumans)
of Fjatal (“fee’ya-TALL”), who navigate a land ravaged
by fungal “forests.” Nothing unifies the scattered polities
of the North except a deep mistrust of both the Federa-
tion of Unhuman Kingdoms and the distant, totalitarian
Sasparadan Empire.

Stiffworks and the Houses

The Heechee Tombs lie in Etruvia, a duchy of what

was for many centuries Carvolia. Though technically
annexed by the Federation during the war, Etruvia
remains a largely unpatrolled asteland—which serves
the Directorate just fine. The Tombs are too valuable to
reveal to Terrans.
While the Heechee Tombs are a secret from most
At the same time, the administrators of these mega- Palans, they are the safest waypoint between Terra,
cities strain to provide basic services equitably to their the other worlds that the Co. seeks to dominate, and
constituents; corruption rots away at complacency; state Spindle itself. Though only partially powered, the
discoveries are leaked to the Federation’s bitter enemies Tombs stably connect Terra to many colonies seeded
(Saspara, to the east, and the revanchist New Dukes of during early Carvolian times, worlds which enjoy
what remains of Carvolia, to the north). The Heresiarchs, variously strained or amicable relationships with the
if they exist, ponder increasingly drastic measures to peoples of Terra, the Co., and one another (and, per-
maintain the fragile status quo. haps, H.Co., the Yellow Order, the xanjin, sentient mold-
And yet, far from the cities, most Federati are classed ships, time-hopping Snakeman infoliches, etc.).
by their (elected) union representatives as “land keepers,” Most Co. business on Terra today, however, is
meaning farmer-herder-artisans who do not aspire to conducted logistically through stiffworks in the Late
leave their traditional homes. These citizens—human in Tephnian ruins scattered across northern Pala,
some regions, unhuman in others—wonder who really facilitated politically by merchant guilds such as the
rules them, how their votes translate out of the worker four great Houses of Vennar—Ghaintlian (“Ghaint”),
committees and into the distribution of resources for Quinze, Vermuuk, and Inrilaggia—and similar trade
an empire stronger than has existed in five millennia. unions and pyrate cooperatives in Caltaraan. Officially,
While widespread corruption and human–unhuman the Co. has no ties with any Terran state; indeed,
tensions (the Old Tephnian word is loosely translated as none are supposed to know of its existence! But, in
“armism”) are very real problems, the majority of the practice—having sprung from the bosom of Vennar’s
Federation’s inhabitants see themselves as benefiting city-states—the Co. trusts the plutocrats of the Vennari
from what those outside the FUK recognize as the “Pax Houses and their soldiers both with the secret of the
Monstra.” Again, forgive our humble efforts to translate Tombs as well as that of numerous LT shardspires.
from New Tephnian to Spin and then to English.

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 It is here in the Human North that the Co. was con-
ceived, and it is here that some of its most lucrative trade
deals keep today’s directors supplied with raw materi-
als, advanced technologies, and, above all, information.
The largest Co. embassy on any world soars over the
neighborhood of Qallantope in the Vennari mega-city
of Llamagino. The station chief there, Oyyib v’Huust,
will generally pay a crew of voidminers quadruple their
See page 318 for map.

base rates to conduct some covert operation of another

against the Federation, the New Dukes of Carvolia, any
number of the Houses of Vennar, and/or an ambitious
mercenary company of varanids from Arakha.

The Sasparadan Empire

and the Chasm
This large and ancient state—desert in the west, fertile
plains along the coast, swamp along the south, night-
marish nu-urth spore-forest in the middle—is all that
remains of the super-civilization, Tephnii, that once
dominated Terra and a hundred-hundred worlds
beyond. The Tephnians left behind many empty palaz-
zos, impregnable redsteel spike-and-antler skyscrapers,
kilometers-long factories, floating ziggurats, and sink-
holes leading to bunkers that are still patrolled by
various intelligent weapons called warmachines by the
Archivists…
After the fall of Tephnii, the people who would be-
come the Sasparadans fought the people who would
become the unhumans amid
Many Archivists suspect that
these techno-ruins. Today,
the Sasparadans of today
radiating out from their tre-
are the descendants of those
mendous capital of Saspara—
underclasses of Tephnii who
the second-largest and
did not possess access to nano­
technologically richest city
technology; the unhumans, then,
on the continent—the Sas-
are the descendants of those
paradan legions have never
nano-powered noblefluencers
ceased to prosecute war
who didn’t die, enter cryosleep,
against the unhumans. While
or flee Terra during the Wars
the unhumans are ascen-
of Succession. Other Archivists
dant elsewhere on Pala, in
believe this theory to be base-
the Empire, the paranoid, rit-
less, a propagandistic narrative
ual-driven, human-chauvinist
by the Co. to inspire voidmin-
govern­ment celebrates their
ers to travel to Terra and bring
millennium-long hold over
back its atomic-scale largesse.
the great city and the desert
beyond. Many Sasparadans believe they have strong
cause to celebrate, even as their empire slowly shrinks: the
hell science is most common here, as is command over
what remains of the nanotechnologies of Tephnii.
In fact, many imperial subjects, military and civilian
alike, literally worship the former technical glory and

278 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PATTERNS

 genetic heritage of the Tephnians according to the laws Most recently, Late Tephnians built up a sea of floating
of the Sanguinity (the Blood, really “the Bloodness”). The palaces and prisons around Terra, and then again around
Empire is the home of the largest known reservoirs of ac- Mars (but grander and more desperately), and then
tive nanites. In redsteel holy chambers small and titanic, again around the picturesque moons of Saturn (much
the Late Tephnian Imprezzas’ genetically engineered grander and much more desperately—the rings were
priests and deadly android servitors kept careful watch quilted with individual pleasure-yachts like twisting
over the purest, most human-enhancing aliquots of dumbo octopuses). Finally, some “settlers” in the void
nanite-suspensions—the Blood. Passed after centuries moved as far out as the dark and icy Kuiper Belt—
from noble “parent” to adoptive “child,” each was worth where their civilization ran into that of the vaguely
a fortune even in the halcyon days before the Wars of crab-like mi-go (see “Yuggoth”).
Succession, for it was said that the Blood learns over Today, the rest of the rocks that make up Solspace
time and passes its wisdoms from body to body… beckon to the directors, who hope to use teams of
The greatest extant prizes of the Tephnians, however, voidminers to map what remains of the Late Tephnian
lie not far south of Saspara but utterly far away from shardcaster network, quietly—that is, without awaken-
the Sasparadans, buried as they are in the rich cluster ing the remaining Late Tephnian sleepers, attracting
of “haunted” cities at the center of the Chasm—the the attention of the mi-go, or giving away information
hole in the earth left by the climax of the Wars of Suc- about the network to their new rivals in the Federation
cession, in which the political faction known as the Red of Unhuman Kingdoms or beyond.
Pyramid sought to destroy the planet in order to finally

Sirens
defeat the Gray Pyramid (or vice versa). The result, in
any event, was to sculpt a very
What are the fungal (?),
deep irregular puck-shaped hole
“tree”-like structures of the
into the heart of Tephnii, blasting
rich and varied nu-forests
some of the wealthiest cities off
of the Chasm feeding on?
How do they grow so quickly
into space, submerging others be-
tween tons of sediment and later
“Habitable” alien worlds
and to such Brobdingnagian
fungal nu-marsh, and leaving a Many quasi-habitable worlds have been visited by but
heights? The Guildmeisters
prize few—KALKATH grandest never brought under the economic or political control
of the Right Pragmatickal
among them—standing on me- of the Co. since its founding, three centuries ago.
Rosarians understand that
sas that tower over the copses of A few old-timers whisper of the days when an
the Directorate has banned
nu-green fungal “trees.” enterprising type could more or less claim a whole world
trafficking in the materials
While the spore-soaked air of as their own—if they could keep the sleepers there
that would answer
the Chasm is poisonous to humans, asleep, and the mi-go unaware (e.g.). Today, at least
these questions, but they
unhumans, wetans, and other bio- eight of these worlds are commonly known, to vary-
absolutely must know…
logical sapients not born out of the ing degrees. Djannaj, for example, is mostly a rumor,
vast region’s traumatic accelerated evolution, the Chasm a means of frightening children into their sleeping-
is home to an entirely new species of posthuman—the hummocks. Luna, on the other hand, has been tra-
photosynthetic “greens” (in Spin) or rÿf (in Rÿf ). As the versed many times but remains physically in­hospitable,
newest and most closed-off cohort of sapients on Ter- bereft of sensible trade deals. “Alien planets: those
ra, how will the greens react to the arrival of suited-up Since the information available celestia
l rocks inhab-
voidminers amid their 100-M-tall fruiting-body “trees?” about alien worlds is scant, typical ited
by sapients of
The greens have no concepts of hierarchy, money, or venture contracts to explore them any kin
d who have for
“advanced” technology… And dead KALKATH—once a include some hazard pay for those any rea
son thus far
major hub in the shardcaster network—contains many voidminers who survive (at least resiste
d Co. overtures
working stiffworks, some of which must lead back to +200 gl for the group, per average regard
ing permanent
Spindle. voidminer level). trade contracts and
population exchanges.”
The ruins of Solspace –Official memo of the Subcom-
mittee for Exploration.
Glittering gems, coy—not-forever (but often) distant…
The entirety of Solspace, like so many other collections
of fire, dust, and ice, has been explored, built up, ripped
down, and forgotten multiple times across the æons.

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 Enshaga
A cool, land-rich Goldilocks world dotted with tech-
noruins from multiple long-dead empires, Enshaga
has captured the imaginations of voidminers for three
centuries. Yet for all of the ventures there, little is known
about Enshaga; no settlement has survived there; and
it is not a priority planet for the Directorate. The
ziggurat-building “yetis” thought to have evolved here
left their homeworld for the stars thousands of years ago
and have not returned. Some of their ancestors, however,
remain frozen in cryocrypts, awaiting a sufficiently
interesting stimulus in order to be awoken.
Related to the yetis in an indeterminate way, the
“Golden Ziggurat” floats upon Lake Vaulaumann. This
techno-wonder is home to a vast array of archaetech—
as well as a cohort of charred, faceless, humanoid
sleepers wearing golden power armor (force-stratum
archaetech). Voidminers have dubbed these the “golden
mummies”—and they are no longer alone. The Golden
Ziggurat now houses 4d100 xenoglade eggs awaiting
human hosts… (See page 109 for more on Enshaga.)

Do the golden mummies hold some

key to understanding d4

1 The past of Enshaga/the yetis?

2 The origin of the xenoglades?

3 The ring-shaped ultrastructure called Faalaanjaar?

4 The purpose of the Snake-mall of Gnarcosa?

Gnarcosa
The smaller, newer moon of Terra is home to a Snake-

Djannaj man proto-civilization in the form of a vast, continent-

sized shopping mall populated by
The elder-gnomes claim
Djannaj—AKA the Melodic Lantern, Dnajjand, or the abject, pastel-colored mini-human-
to have decoded the story
Whispering Torch—is a hot, green world with typhoon- oids dubbed “vat gnomes” by the few
of their people’s origins
generating weather complexes swirling in its polar fleeters who’ve visited.
at the hands of the
oceans. The planet’s sole continent consists mostly of Gnarcosa is also home to “chromatic
time-traveling techno-
rainforest but sports a few narrow regions of semiarid humans”—like the gnomes, printed
sorcerers called the
savanna, scrub plains, and high, dry mountains. Edible in a rainbow of colors, including
Snakemen by carefully
motile red plants and shrieking fungi allow biological many colors that humans cannot
inspecting the ever-
voidminers unlucky enough to travel here to eat, at least. perceive—who live atop mesas and
shifting ad-scape of the
One map and a Late Tephnian cyclocodex regarding ride dwarf dinosaurs, protected by the
three-meter-tall Sibylline
the planet’s long-extinct natives are all that the Archi- great arcology dome.
Mall Directory.
vists know of it—those, and the more recent reports Archivists conjecture that the civili-
from voidminers of a species of horrific xenos now zation on Terra’s new moon is a complex puzzle, prank,
endemic to Djannaj: called the voidworms by the long-con, or abandoned experiment: that the chromatic
venturers who encountered them, they are said to humans are meant to work with or displace the gnomes
control humans’ minds and seek the end of the and take over the mall, learning about advanced technē.
universe itself… To this end, the ‘worms call themselves Some Archivists, however, insist that the whole place is
the n’Druj—the “Nothing.” meant to lure outsiders (i.e., the Co.) into a Snake-trap.

280 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PATTERNS

Luna The Far Side today is home to many strange xenofauna,
most famously the Slug Lairds (who are—in their own
Seven thousand years ago, Luna was a partially terrafor- autocratic, mafia-like, extradimensional way—social
med vacation destination for the High Tephnians. Their beings), vultors (zealously evil dieselpunks), and
domed lakes and chalet-ziggurats dotted the landscape grylloids (cunning, ribcage-shaped dive-bombers who
of the Near Side by the hundreds. Chalets evolved into live only to feed on other sapients’ thoughts) as well
city-states. Humans consistently traveled to Luna via as various empty starports, dead cities, pocked battle-
slow nearspace Dysonboats (solar shuttles) and, after a grounds, and overflowing underground slug-vineyards
time, a grand Space Elevator. (the birth-plains of the Lairds?) tended by robots.
Then everything went wrong: the Lunan polities
erupted into civil war; distant, slug-like ultra-beings
discovered the budding mini-world and entered three-
New Singapore Two (NST)
space in order to dominate it; and rebels finally destroyed No known Ancient space habitation survived the long
the Space Elevator’s Terran anchor. This last act—the æons since the Collapse. NST stands as an empty
Crippling—sundered the Lunans from Terra for a time reminder of what once was. Picture a gleaming-gritty,
and ushered in the end of High Tephnian hegemony. future-Singapore/Sydney/São Paulo underneath a tre-
The Lunans had a hard time after the Crippling, with mendous blue protective egg, conspicuously bubbling
flights down restricted to military personnel. Ignored out from a red, lifeless planet below swirling yellow
by the Tephnian Sanguinarch—who after the Crippling clouds—a Van Gogh or Munch painting of a future
seemed to lose interest in near-Solspace—the rump stalled and rendered fragile by time.
states on the moon succumbed, one by one, to anarchy. Outside, tiny native microbes capable of eating silicon
Only two nations, Kalidash and Khalinaar, survived have evolved into massive, 30-M long silverfish-like
intact. beings—lithovores—that threaten the integrity of NST’s
The High Tephnians spent years fighting to tame “their” dome merely by bumping into it. The xaalii (the word is
moon but ultimately gave it up as a dream corrupted, not The dome needs a new treatment singular and plural) are
worth the trouble. By the time they were displaced by of restructor nanites, which can vaguely toad-shaped
the Late Tephnians, humans inhabited much richer, less be found and programmed at the collections of negative
annoying worlds, far beyond Solspace. Meanwhile, on University of New Singapore Two. spaces, unseen corners,
Luna, the various polities remaining after the wars with But the university’s advanced equip- distortions in percep-
each other, the Tephnians, and the aliens recovered and ment has attracted visitors, includ- tion, and moments of
went their separate ways. The Slow Quiet Truce set in… ing a dedicated mi-go committee fear-paralyzed empty
and a lone random Escheresque thought.
horror called a xaalii…

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH09 ☉ THE COSMOS 281

 Pays costs. This singular decision rendered a minor province
back into an “alien planet.” (It is now sometimes called
A few ventures setting out just before the Groot the Rejected Planet.) What
It is said that, before the Groot
Tachquake from a series of five neighboring stiffworks must it have felt like to have
Tachquake, many voidminers
in the Near Bays ended up on a previously unknown, been so totally betrayed—a
traveled to Pazūzūn to learn
human-inhabited Goldilocks world. The locals variously whole world deemed “cursèd”
its secrets and help the people
pronounce its name “Paize,” “Pies,” “Pazz,” or “Pah-YEE.” and left to dissolve under the
there, but these venturers
The Paysan are medieval humans, “rye elves” (none of attacks of the mythic Mirror
would inevitably fall for some
whom have heard of the biologically identical “ryefarers” Kings from the Escheresque?
local, die horribly in the wild,
Pays is intended to work as a low-fantasy, classic RPG setting…
with the option of injecting into this setting a genocidal cyborg
supervillain of uncertain nature. (The Wasp is a sci-fi Sauron.)

of Nașudrūn or similar greens of the Chasm), and a few How could culture here con-
or cross the wrong laird. The
other sapients and quasisapes. All of these live in fear tinue?
Directorate, putting suspicion
of a nano-biomechanical ultrasapient called “The Wasp,” And yet, it does. Today, hu-
before greed, finally pulled
which dwells far to the west of the humans on an arti- man life in Pazūzūn centers
all contracts to Pazūzūn.
ficial continent peopled (supposedly) by replicants and on Bartizan, the weak southern
terrible killing machines. city-state in the heart of the safest known region (in the
On the great, squarish, human-dominated eastern relatively small part of Pazūzūn known to the Co., that is).
continent of Paysa, most serfs report allegiance to the The city and surrounding Dominion is ruled by a coun-
northeastern sovereign called the Marble Throne; the cil of five mutually suspicious “Barrow Lairds.” These
southwestern polities are independent. Between them, potentates also have loyal representatives in the younger
an ageless, vampyric brigand–lord called the Ecru reigns town of Quoinhoof—three days’ ride east through the
over the mountainous center of the continent. wetlands—and the further town of Mascarōn, against
Or, that was the situation twenty-odd years ago. The the Braided Wall that keeps most of the colossal north-
Co. has no official or unofficial Paysan safehouses. And ern “scorpions” away. Mascarōn is seven days’ ride
no voidminer has gone back yet, mostly because the stiff- north of Bartizan through the plains past the stiffworks
works that lead to Pays are notoriously difficult to open: 5 called the Rod of Ghenîb—relatively safe—or five day’s
times out of 8, they lead to the Heechee Tombs on Terra through the great western woods, past the stiffworks
instead. Why this is, the Archivists can only guess at, but called the Cloud Arcade, which is guarded by the
they suspect—to use a technical term—timefuckery, as Legion Immaterial…
“This dust and mud knows us
in the cases of Kavaraat and Tyharin. The daily life of the Pazūzūni
and tricks us into thinking we
The Co. is interested both in changing this situation farmer is difficult, owing to the
know it. It is not for us. We
and in finding other ways of traveling to Pays, since the cold hard ground and the various
should go home. Were that
one known stiffworks there stands in the weird ruins of xenofauna here. Farmers rely upon
home anywhere—” [Here the
Vultursturm, deep in the swamps of the county called the aid of hardy, 2-M tall riding
journal ends with a long and
Maray. Whoever solves the timefuckery of Pays earns snails brought long ago by the
untidy slash of ink.]
the title of “Timewarden,” a huge bonus, and governor- Carvolians. Elites ride slower, –The conclusion of the last report
ship or its equivalent (or so the Afdeling of the Void fancier breeds of snail brought later. by Red Storage Brewer, witness of
promises). the fifth venture to Pazūzūn.

The Five Barrows of the Mirror Kings:

Pazūzūn Pazūzūni stiffworks d6

Carvolian explorers found two Goldilocks worlds— 1 The Cloud Arcade – Haunted by the Immaterial
Pazūzūn and Grimmle—and Co. explorers, a third—En- Legion.

shaga—which have proven resistant to settlement and 2 The Cancellus – A barrier between many worlds.
even systematic exploration: Enshaga has no human 3 Modillion – A great red city out of time.
population, but is instead home to both “yetis” and ex-
4 The Manufactory – Still crafting diverse horrors.
human “mummies”; Grimmle, meanwhile, has a small
human population in dire need of aid from gigantic xe- 5 The House of Ruby Corpses – Silent as you pass.
Home to a Thing that shall not be awoken.
nocrabs. Pazūzūn, on the other hand, has sustained a
small human presence all the way back to Carvol’s reign. 6 The Syzygy – You have discovered a slippage
between two barrows: roll d6 and consult the list
The Co. rediscovered these agrarian folk, attempted to above until you have two unique results. You have
reconnect their society to those of other worlds, but ul- simultaneously entered both of these barrows. With
timately abandoned this project, deciding that the ben- effort, you can now exit “into” either of them and
tack it to travel beyond. You are also “close” “to” the
efits of voidmining on Pazūzūn were not worth the high Escheresque and can enter it easily. However, two
Mirror Kings are now aware of your presence…

282 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PATTERNS

 The Four Enigmas: utterly
mysterious ultraruins d4 Yuggoth
At the icy edge of Solspace, Yuggoth (once called Pluto)
1 The Walking Dradek – NE of the Dominion. A is the small and terribly cold home of the mi-go, AKA
gigantic boxlike thing with leg-like extensions that the “flying fungi.” The fungal humanoids called the gulm
walks awkwardly across the dry wastes, somewhat
in the manner of a great headless dog. and mulg escaped Yuggoth long ago, but other created
servitor–species still patrol the planet, which the mi-go
2 The Shard of Quant – SE of the Dominion. A pane
of translucent yellow glass 3 M thick and hundreds have completely hollowed out in order to make space
of M tall. for their various complicated scientific projects,
3 The Septarian Loft – In the center–north of the gengineering (genetic engineering) tryworks, individual
Dominion. A crystal the size of a starship floating ganglia/brain storage and revival facilities, the Ancestral
over the central swamp of Arqtarån. Inaccessible. Spore Matrix, and—it is thought—proto-stiffworks.
4 The Rod of Ghenîb – In the center of the Dominion. The “proto” is key, because—as advanced as they are—
A tall, thin, crystal tower topped by a stiffworks. the crab-fungi of Yuggoth are not capable of precisely
The top can be tacked back to Spindle by making a
9+ REA check and burning 2d12 GRT. folding timespace on their own. Thus the Directorate
demands that the mi-go be carefully monitored.

Rumors about Yuggoth

d6

1 The Co. has a secret backup plan

to blow up Yuggoth.

2 At some point, the Directors

Prime—or at least one of them—
made a deal with the mi-go. Was
this a non-aggression pact, or
something sinister? Is it still in
place?

3 The mi-go are close to creating

their own stiffworks but need a
critical component from a hulk:
any new venture birdside (on
a hulk) could be part of a mi-go
plot, and everyone is paranoid
about this fact, slowing down
recruitment. Get to the bottom
of this rumor for Senior Archivist
Alxaamal herself.

4 This is all a big misunderstanding:

the mi-go never wanted to dissect
humans, just understand them.
In Yuggothi culture, since organic
bodies can easily be brought back,
a dissection is like a handshake!
Please accept this large, pulsating
gift by way of apology…

5 The Yuggothi are under the con-

trol of an Old One. Many of them,
however, want not only to escape,
but also to somehow kill the foul
thing permanently. Team up with
them and enter the Escheresque…

6 At the center of Yuggoth stands a

black stone portal—to the linear
ultrastructure called Narm…

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH09 ☉ THE COSMOS 283

 NIGHTMARES

Ships have feelings.

—Ann Leckie, Ancillary Justice, 2013.

Engines
Hulk class
d6

1 Exploratory scale – The technological capability of

NASA today.

2 Near-planetary scale – The technological capability

The golden rules of a near-future Chinese state–corporation à la The
Three-Body Problem, or a villainous network in a
1. Space is full of hulks—the Stillfleet equivalent of James Bond or Mission Impossible movie.

dungeons. And 2. PCs should not be allowed to pilot 3 Solar system-wide scale – The technological
hulks—except as a reward after concerted effort. capability of state-like entities in “hard” SF à la
the novels of Kim Stanley Robinson, The Expanse,
To make it plausible for the PCs to get up to these sky- Eclipse Phase, or The Dark Forest.
dungeons without their own vessels, spam para-hulks:
4 FTL/galactic-scale – The technological capability
give them space elevators, launchpads with working of state-like entities in classic interstellar SF such
one-off shuttles, and quantum tunnels pre-tacked to the as Star Trek: ships of this class can travel faster than
coordinates of teleporter pads on warships. Give them a light, but they otherwise seem “hard” (ship-like) in
design.
ride from a mi-go who wants them to do it a “favor” (the
kind of favor backed up with a death ray). 5 FTL/fantastic – The technological capability of
state-like entities in far-future SF. These technolo-
Remember: exploring and especially fighting aboard gies verge on magick. Examples include the Death
a hulk—especially-especially one lacking atmo—is Star (arguably—it proved very easy to destroy,
inherently dangerous. GMs, amplify the stakes of hulk- multiple times) or the kinetic bio-fleet of the volcryn
in Nightflyers.
side encounters by poking holes in the voidminers’
suits! (Refer to envirosuit rules in “Screams”) 6 FTL/sublime – Technology that manipulates a
physics unknown to us today: this SF is indistin-
guishable from magick.

Types of hulks
“Hulk” is a purposefully vague term. From the perspective Hulk type
d30
of the Co., ships, stations, large drones, and retrofitted
asteroids can all function as sources of salvage, ad hoc 1 Ark (worldship/mobile world-station) – Class
dwellings, and sites of encounter with xenofauna. One 4–5. A ship as large and environmentally complex
as a planet. This type of wondrous vessel can serve
way to classify hulks, other than by their originating as the setting for an entire campaign. An ark is an
civilization, is by an arbitrary representation of their ultrastructure (see “Ultrastructures”).
overall technological sophistication—their hulk class. 2 Asteroid/comet, retrofitted – Class 2–4, depending
Imagine an arbitrary and even whimsical 1–6 scale. on size and capabilities. Smaller, simpler stations
Non-world-sized ships of class 4 and above tend to have are mines or hard sites; larger such hulks contain
entire cities.
their own Alcubierre drives and/or dimensional vortices.
Thus PC encounters with working ships of class 4 and 3 Casino – Class 3.

above should be Big Damn Plot Moments. 4 “Dead god” (living ship) – Class 6. See “Ark,” but
In game terms, hulk class works like technological even weirder because alive, or once so. Imagine a
great space whale—or a sleeping cthulhicate… This
complexity (see “Wires”). Thus, hulk class influences the is an ultrastructure (see “Ultrastructures”).
GRT costs of the powers astrogate—to run the entire
ship—and jack—to use specific modules. For more on
these powers, see “Wayfarers.”

284 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PATTERNS

 5 Destroyer, alien – Class 3 (a sentient moldfolk 24 Research vessel – Depends on the researcher:
grand junk)–5 (a far xanjin hellvortex, FTL-capable). Class 1–2 for many Ancient human civilizations;
3 for the Arkheion as-presently-understood-by-
6 Destroyer, Snakeman – Class 5, almost certainly the-Ordo-Pallida (it is a 6 as-understood-by-its-
empty (right?). A terrifying warship, as large as a creators); 4–5 for the vestibula of Late Tephnian
rockside nation. FTL-capable. time-vampyres and the listening posts of Snakemen
7 Destroyer, Tephnian (dreadnought) – Class 4 or infoliches; 6 for the remains of the great nurturing
5 depending on era. FTL-capable (at some point— timewells of the beneficent heechee.
perhaps no longer). 25 Ringworld – Class 5–6. This is an ultrastructure
8 Drone/probe/weapons platform (large enough (see “Ultrastructures”).
to enter) – Class 1–4. Hulks never intended to 26 Shuttle – Class 1–2, depending on bells and
be inhabited include large satellites and weapons whistles. A vessel for transporting passengers from
systems. Some contain lifeboats… and/or self- rock to bird and vice versa. Shuttles can be armed
destruct protocols. but are not primarily used for offense.
9 Enigmadrome (labyrinth) – Class 6. See “Dead god,” 27 Space elevator – Class 2–4, depending on its
but more mysterious. This is an ultrastructure (see carrying capacity and security, and the capabilities
“Ultrastructures”). of its anchor-station. A sort of rail line anchored to
10 Fighter/mecha – Class 3–4. Most larger ships a rock, ending at a Lagrange point in the void.
contain fleets of drones (or equivalent nano-mists); 28 Station, city (stationary) – Class 3–6. A home in
a few types of larger ship contain—for some the void for many. All voidfaring civilizations eventu-
reason—fighters intended to be piloted. Most of ally build self-sufficient city-scale stations, freeing
these fighters are not individually FTL-capable, them from the wombs of their originary rocks. This
but many are fitted to land, if necessary, on a rock. station could be city-sized or an ultrastructure (see
11 Frigate, alien – Class 2 (a moldfolk “hammerhead” “Ultrastructures”).
gatecrasher)–5 (a far xanjin splintership, 29 Station, shipworks – Class 2–5. Before
FTL-capable.). building larger vessels, civilizations must first
12 Frigate, Co. (broken) – Class 2. develop specialized manufactories in orbit of
rocks. Hulks of class 6 are capable of producing
13 Frigate, pyrate (mostly broken) – Class 2 their own child-ships.
(Honourable Co. bricolageship)–4 (void elf raveship,
FTL-capable). 30 Worldweapon (“pale rijder’s orb”) – Class 5.
Known worldweapons include those of the void
14 Frigate, Snakeman – Class 4. FTL-capable. elves. This could be ship-sized or an ultrastructure
(see “Ultrastructures”).
15 Frigate, Tephnian – Class 4. FTL-capable.

16 Generation ship – Class 3. A primitive ark that is

intended to carry multiple generations of humans Hulkside stiffworks type
from one solar system to another. d4
17 Heechee hiveship – Class 6. FTL-capable. 1 Anchor (teleporter pad, small) – Personal teleporta-
18 Intelligent and/or technologically alive – Class 5 tion is exceedingly dangerous but possible. While
(antebellum Cybertron)–6 (sentient VYGR) some warp-capable ships have teleporter pads of
some type which serve as two-way stiffworks, this
19 Junkeater (garbage ship) – Class 2–3. A ship that vessel only features a one-way “anchor” that al-
cleans up after other hulks, whether in a (once-) lowed needed staff to ‘port in, one by one, between
busy shipping lane or the wake of a battle. stops. Perhaps with a lot of clever jury-rigging and
finger-crossing, this anchor’s dimensional valence
20 Lifeboat – Class 1–2. A vessel meant only to keep can be flipped 180 degrees…
a few biological sapients alive until rescued by
something else. 2 Bay, purpose-built (small) – This teleport room
features a permanent A–B link between the ship or
21 Longhauler (space truck!) – Class 2. A typical station and some other location, typically rockside.
working ship. Not intended for combat, but Perhaps this can be altered, but depending on the
possessing hardpoints that can be retrofitted with ship or station’s stratum, complexity, and condition,
guns and missile arrays. it won’t be easy.
22 Mining vessel – Class 1–3 depending on size, 3 Bay, all-purpose (small) – Some ships have bays
mostly 1. A husk gnome worldeater is a class-4, that can teleport a small team anywhere. These are
FTL-capable. N.B., a “mine” in space may have rare and malfunction frequently…
nothing to do with metals; commonly mined/
sucked-up/collected substances include hydrogen, 4 Engine room (large) – A warpengine or foldgate is
helium, nitrogen, oxygen, and methane. meant to transport the entire vessel “through” a
hole in timespace from A to B. But even if the ship’s
23 Prisonship – Class 1–2. Prisonworlds, on the engine is long-dead, it may be jumpstarted in
other hand, are generally considered either arks such a way that it becomes a larger version of a
or enigmadromes, depending on their designs. teleporter pad.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH09 ☉ THE COSMOS 285

 24 The [UCB] Longma (Dragon Horse)
Random names for an Ancient hulk
d48
25 The [RPA (Red Power Alliance)] Manitou

26 The [NJSF (New Johannesburg Space Force)]

Either use the italicized vessel name alone and invent

1 The [KLM] Artemis Nemesis

an origin story, or use the bracketed provenance.

2 The [NASRDA (Nigerian National Space Research 27 The [Roscosmos secret weapons platform] Ovinnik
and Development Agency)] Asase Ya
28 The [USS (United States Ship)] Pandora
3 The [UNATO (United Neo-Atlantic Treaty
Organization)] Bellipotent 29 The [cruise ship] Panhu

4 The [People’s Liberation Army Special Operation 30 The [Space Ex luxury liner] Phantom
Forces] Black Tortoise
31 The [MRA (Martian Republican Army)] Anti-Pharaoh
5 The [mysterious billionaire’s cloaked vessel]
Carnatic 32 The [AEB (Agência Espacial Brasileira)] Prado

6 The [New Xiamen Defense Force] Chiwen (Son of the 33 The [Chinese asteroid-eating city–ship] Qilin
Dragon) 34 The [JSAF (Japan Special Aerospace Force)] Ryū
7 The [WESS (Wakanda Exploratory Star Ship)] (Dragon)
Compass 35 The [NASA (Native American Space Administration)]
8 The [LDS (Latter-Day Saints)] Covenant Saturn

9 The [private ketch] Dazzler 36 The [Neon] Scorpion

10 The [NRA (Nederlandse Ruimteautoriteit)] Demeter 37 The [StrexxCorp reconnaissance vessel] Shark

11 The [New Singaporean flagship] Dolphin 38 The [prepper family compound-ship] Siren

12 The [Fuller Institute research-fortress] Dymaxion 39 The [UTF (United Terran Fleet)] Spitfire

13 The [CEF (Conseil espace français)] Erebus 40 The [JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency)]
Tengu
14 The [AUS (African Union Starline)] Fuwalda
41 The [AEM (Agencia Espacial Mexicana)] Tezcatlipoca
15 The [RCSO (Republic of California Special Opera-
tions)] Ghost 42 The [Virgin Dimenzion spaceliner] Titan

16 The [HPK (Kurdistani Defense Force)] 43 The [Welsh Air elite liner] Undaunted
Gilgamesh 44 The [Tezla racing vessel] Valiant
17 The [State Oil] Harald 45 The [Red] Wytch
18 The [TSC (Terran Space Command)] Hesperus 46 The [Chinese–North Korean “friendship frigate”]
19 The [Golden] Hind Xiezhi–Haetae

20 The [RSSA (Royal Scottish Space Army)] Indomitable 47 The [Alibaba–Samsung–Tata mega-carrier] Yinglong
(Rain Dragon)
21 The [NNF (Nicaraguan Naval Force)] Jeroboam
48 The [People’s Liberation Army flagship] Zhulong
22 The [UNSA (United Nations Space Army)] Jiang (Torch Dragon)
(Rainbow Worm)

23 The [China National Space Administration

science vessel] Kuiniu

286 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PATTERNS

 For an example of one such LT venatorium, see the first
official Stillfleet venture, The Sleeper in the Sky.

Rooms aboard a Tephnian dreadnought 8 Nanite manufactorium – The equipment here is

d10 way too complex to figure out, but you might be able
to salvage d2 aliquots of Blood from the one semi-
powered Mothercloud (meta-assembler): make a
1 Blood chapel – A small chamber for worshipping the difficult (7+) MOV check. If you succeed, you get the
Imperial Bloodline. Roll a d6: on a 1 or 2, the chapel Blood vials. If you fail, one of your limbs is crushed
is guarded by d4 androids: COM d10, MOV d10, REA by the atom-puncher array within the meta-assem-
d8, WIL d8, CHA d4, HEA 18, GRT 9, DR 5 (cerasteel bler (whatever that awful thing is): you suffer d20
body); attacks for d10 damage if unarmed but wields HEA damage, and your MOV die drops permanently
a phaser for d20 damage; speaks Late Tephnian. On by one type. This can be reversed via the pir power
a 5 or 6, there is one usable aliquot of good Blood bioengineer.
in the chapel. Roll 3d3+1 to determine its type (see
“Wires”). 9 Venatorium – Wait, didn’t the Late Tephnians mostly
manufacture world ships for the purposes of hunting
2 Blood librarium – A repository for aliquots of exotic (read: dangerous) exobeasts? Why, yes,
Imperial nanites. Only d4 +your level “non-dry” and there are several beasts left within the beautiful
(usable) aliquots remain today. Roll a d6: on a 6, no redsteel domes of the venatorium above this ship…
one’s here. Otherwise, 8d8 gray walkers haunt the Roll up a random encounter. On a 1, it’s a random
librarium: COM d8, MOV d4, REA 1, WIL NA [infinite], encounter and an Escheresque event.
CHA 0, HEA 12, GRT 0, DR 0; d6 damage per bite;
anyone bitten who dies comes back as a gray walker 10 Warmachine yard – Mecha arms and depleted
in d8 rounds. nanite tanks litter this vast bay. There are d4
useful archaetech items as well as parts to salvage
3 Dark energy collector – This room’s purpose is non- or hack into mysterious items you’ve found else-
obvious, and every piece of tech in it is very danger- where in the same ship. Roll a d6: unless you roll
ous unless you are an expert at nanofluidics. The a 6, a half-working, utterly deranged warmachine
room does, however, feature recharging stations for hover-limps quietly through the yard, stalking after
all Tephnian lasguns, masers, dark-energy weapons, you as you loot its nest…
“death rays,” etc.

4 Dormitorium – Roll a d6: on a 6, no one’s here.

Otherwise, there is a sleeping honor guard of 2d4

Outsiders
noble Blood Knyghts awaiting commands from the
Duke of the Gray Pyramid of Great Tephnii… COM
d12, MOV d12, REA d8 (but bloodthirsty and unrea-
sonable), WIL d10, CHA d6, HEA 24, GRT 20, DR 8
(cerasteel plate). Powers: chain attack, double tap,
explode, reposition, slay. Blood Knyghts attack with

Inhabitants of the void

force swords for 2d20+4 damage. One of them has
a nano-spray mancatcher gun that does no damage
but immobilizes anyone hit by it indefinitely. They
wear sleek space suits with liquid nanite “wings.” The following thirteen groups of sapients (and, in the
5 Fusing chamber – You can use this medical bay (is case of xenoglades, quasisapients) represent just a frac-
that what it’s for?) to fuse any two sapients into one tion of the intelligent life that probably exists, according
sapient with a combined pool—distributing HEA and to the Archivists. These species are almost never seen
GRT as you like—and the die types of all its scores
raised by one. The new character speaks with a on-Spin and are thus called “deepvoid.”
creepy echo and will live half as long as the median
“old age” of its longer-lived half.

6 Gnarcosan ark – The Snakemen have already visited

Interleaving weirdnesses
and repurposed this dreadnought. Roll a d6: on 2–5,
d20 vat gnomes are sleeping here in cryostasis. On
a 1, a Snakeman infolich is sleeping here instead. GMs—just to make your story even more exciting,
On a 6, it’s merely the aux husk of a Snakeman remember this: all ships and stations built by deepvoid
infolich—a fist-sized dark green jewel-like quantum species can become trapped in Escheresque pocket
computer called a phylactery that can display at will
a holographic Snakeman infolich (its memories of its dimensions or tangled within Narm-like ultrastructures
pre-upload self) and cannot be destroyed except by (see “Folds”). And all can become “haunted” by “gray
Weird means. walkers” (nanite-reanimated beings) and informatic
7 Luditorium – A casino made by and for cannibal- “ghosts.”
istic posthumans! What dangerous but potentially
rewarding entity isn’t still kicking around in here!?
Roll randomly on the list of dangerous encounters
in “Fangs” to determine a threat, or select one that
seems most humorous right now. Doppelgängers are
always fun.

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Aux Choose 2:
An aux is a neural net, software model, or other
Astrogate (standard/indefinite)
informatic being born of “pure data.” The few
aux known to the Co. were reconstructed by the You can, with effort, actually pilot spacefaring vessels.
Archivists. Their “bodies” are holographically projected Cost to command a vessel is based purely on its class
by small handheld devices carried by a banshee or (a combined 1–6 rating based on its size, complexity,
factor. An aux must thus rely on others to “get around” and condition), with each point of vessel class costing 6
when exploring. But when plugged into an advanced GRT. Burning this GRT grants you the ability to pilot or
vessel whose brain they become (!), other voidminers otherwise command the ship, within reason. (If the hy-
will likely instead rely on the aux. perdrive’s broke, it ain’t jumpin; mining vessels may not
sport armament, etc.) While piloting, you are essentially
stuck and unable to otherwise venture. You must pay
Aux the astrogation cost each time you chart a course into
or out of a system, or each time the ship is damaged or
(dataghost—AI, android, robot) upgraded. Doing anything with the ship other than
moving from point A to B (firing weapons, scanning
Class restrictions: a mysterious craft, remotely salvaging damaged life
support systems, etc.) requires relevant checks, typically
҂ You can’t play a stillrijder without special permission REA or, in a dogfight, COM and MOV.
from the GM and other players (you’d be a ghost in the
suit, and the suit is powered biokinetically).
Commissurize (standard)
҂ You can’t use the hell science or the Blood.
Burn 1 HEA or GRT to tap into any code-stratum
Species powers: system or communicate with any other informatic being.
This also allows you to effectively translate any language,
given access to a relatively small corpus of texts. You do
Immaterial (permanent)
not, however, truly understand all beings; the special
You can act in combat and deal damage, but only insofar powers of empathy are the domain of the witness. This
as you can command your ship-body to use its internal power can theoretically allow you to tack any stiffworks
defensive matrix or your robot-body to punch. When into which you can be plugged, although the GRT
you aren’t in command of a physical body, you can’t cost may be very high—and there might be intrusion
use your COM or MOV scores at all. You are a being of countermeasures…
pure mind.

Power up (free)
Immortal (permanent)
You use tools to recharge a technical object or being.
Choose your representation type. Your body cannot Burn X GRT; a technical entity gains X GRT. This GRT
be killed per se, only disrupted: if you are a hologram, can stack beyond the entity’s normal limit. You can also
someone can stop the ship’s comm from projecting use this power to add charges to energy weapons. The
you by smashing the projector; a simulacrum such as cost to do so depends on their type: burn 2X GRT to
an android can be destroyed; data can be lost simply add X charges to a personal weapon; 3X GRT to add X
by breaking a comm. Your HEA represents your resis- charges to an Ancient or High Tephnian naval weapon;
tance to this disruption. You have a backup of yourself or 5X GRT to add X charges to an alien or Late Tephnian
somewhere logical (a hard drive in the Archive, e.g.) and naval weapon.
can be restored. This restoration, however, must always
be obtained by the other PCs. Languages: You speak whatever language you were
coded in (Chinish, Kurdman, Solresol, Early Tephnian,
High Tephnian, or Late Tephnian, e.g.) as well as
Memorycore (free)
Spin. You can, with sufficient time, interface with any
You have lived for hundreds or perhaps millions of years, comm-stratum machine.
sometimes “on,” sometimes “off.” When any random
question comes up, roll a d20: if you roll an 18 or 19,
you remember a foggy clue; perhaps the relevant file is
corrupted. If you roll a 20, you know the answer.

288 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PATTERNS

 Faalaan Far xanjin
Some voidminers read the faalaan (the word is singular The utterly mysterious, vaguely spider-bot-like near
and plural) as a tragic symbol of technological hubris. xanjin (the word is singular and plural) inhabit an
These vaguely reptilian humanoids—of a dull orange- equally mysterious techno-utopian mega-city in the
brown color with electric blue-green, feathery gills and south of the supercontinent of Latura on Terra. When
complicated bright orange antler-like “crowns”—built up not on Terra, they travel throughout space, trading with
a technologically com- other deepvoid sapients. On Terra, they interact with
Like the Ancients, the faalaan were
plex civilization similar humans rarely and then only via their almost-human
not gravitationally sophisticated enough
to that of the Ancients “mask” automata. Whatever they are, the near xanjin
to fold themselves neatly through
and set out to explore are known to be voidfaring but relatively uninterested in
timespace but had to push themselves
the void with boxy, blue- harming other sapes. The far xanjin, on the other hand,
forward dangerously, ripping space.
white ships. Then one are widely feared as the most dangerous non-cthulhicate
day, for unknown reasons but possibly related to their beings whom you might encounter in the void.
invasion of the great ringworld now called Faalaanjaar, Based on scant Archival descriptions, a far xanjin is
they disappeared: some Archivists posit that they a jet-black, undulating mass of razory wires, roughly
succumbed to a devastating higher-dimensional plague. 3-M in diameter, that is almost never seen outside of
Not all of the faalaan died, however, because some its ship–body, a 5-M long brilliant silvery lozenge made
remained in cryostasis on their ships. of strong-force material that can move at relativistic
Today, fleeters tacking out to the ships orbiting speeds. Any given far xanjin is powerful enough to kill
Faalaanjaar find themselves with a dilemma: do they a group of voidminers with laser-fire and quantum-foam
awaken the few remaining ancient aliens in order to learn bombs but probably won’t do so if left alone. Problems
from them? What will happen when these faalaan learn tend to arise when a far xanjin decides to abduct a
the fate of the rest of their kind? What is down there on fleeter—who knows why—and the poor sod’s friends fire
Faalaanjaar, and how did it kill an entire species, seem- on the gleaming ship.
ingly in a single moment? For that matter, where is Does the grim auto-immune function
the faalaan homeworld? And why do their ships so of Faalaanjaar have anything to do
closely resemble Ancient human vessels? Many Ar- with the supposed “chronoplague”
chivists have spent the last twenty years whispering that almost killed off the harajoon?
these questions long into Spindle’s artificial night. A harajoon refactor will pay double,
off the books, to learn the answer.

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 Archivists who’ve actually spoken with near-xanjin homeworld.) In any event, the gulm and mi-go hate each
masks claim that both “species” of xanjin are actually other and clash often. Like their progenitors, the gulm
ultra-advanced Ancient humans who’ve uploaded their reproduce infrequently and asexually, live for centuries,
consciousnesses into machines. All that most fleeters have no real human concept of empathy, and are
know is that far xanjin travel far and wide across the relatively few in number compared to humans and
universe and in the Escheresque, and that they should wetans. Unlike the mi-go, their humanoid body plan
be avoided. makes them appear less intimidating to humans.
Mulg (“trasheaters,” pejoratively) are amorphously fat,

Geels deep green-yellow moldfolk—the distant offspring of

gulm who long ago settled in the technoruins of Terra’s
Occasionally, arkships have been found populated moons and other rocks in Inner Solspace. The mulg
not by the much-evolved descendants of sapients and later returned to the stars thanks to the beneficence of
their companion animals and plants, but by emaciated, the gulm. The two species today tolerate one another
ravenous, mechanical parodies of these travelers. These but rigidly separate their societies aboard radically
horrific beings are not nanite-reanimated “grays,” but different ships. Mulg vessels are repurposed ones of
a strange anti-civilization of travelers called the geels. Ancient, Tephnian, faalaan, or salt elf design—
They seek to remake all sapient life—entire ecosystems— imperfectly repaired, with many non-critical systems
into sharp-toothed, red-eyed automata. offline. Many mulg remained on Luna, Tsune, or the
Geelish pyrates travel seemingly at random across the moons of Uranus; others fled Solspace and settled on
void, sowing chaos and ambushing fleeters and other rocks elsewhere in the Milky Way. They are the hermit
deepvoid sapes alike. They wield advanced firearms, crabs of sapient voidfarers and, though few in number
though nothing like the horrific instruments of torture like their cousins, seem to crop up on most any
of the husk gnomes or void elves. Likewise, their own seemingly dead rock that sports a few buildings.
companions—catlike, wolflike, snakelike (etc.) autom-
ata sporting haunch-mounted bolt guns and grenade
launchers—will attack any non-geelish they encounter.
They can be reprogrammed, but only with immense
effort, and eventually they can wipe their drives and
reassert control. All geels are officially banned from
Spindle on pain of death.

Gulm, mulg, and mulgulm

Gulm, mulg, and mulgulm (the words are singular and
plural) are closely related species of sapient, humanoid-
shaped fungi. All three species speak in low, whispering
tones.
Native to Yuggoth (Pluto), the gulm are a species of
skeletally thin, pale-green lichenoids who took to the
stars using stolen, repurposed mi-go archaetech. Gulm
ships are thus ancient, valued living beings. Gulm are not
known to settle on rocks or in non-living stations, but
prefer to wander the void, though generally staying close
to Sol (in part because mi-go tech is not warp-capable).
According to one mi-go source, the gulm were
engineered millions of years ago from captured Terran
humans and fungi. At some point, they were emancipated
only to be abandoned on Yuggoth and her moon and
then more or less ignored until they became organized
enough to steal a third of the mi-go fleet. According
to the gulm, they inhabited Yuggoth before the mi-go
but ultimately abandoned it as a cold, worthless world.
(The mi-go don’t disagree with this judgment of their
Initially, Archivists assumed that the mi-go created the gulm as
servants. The current theory among xenoanthropologists, however, is
that the mi-go were simply—in their own way—lonely. They wanted pets…

290 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PATTERNS

 Meanwhile, the one cohort of gulm who have settled
rockside are a large group of puritans called the mulgulm
(“most gulm”). These puritans describe themselves as
the Nașūd, Those Who Wait—for some difficult to
describe divine event. Several thousands of years ago,
they found a Goldilocks world—already inhabited by
wetans, but ones oddly lacking their typical Standing
Stones stiffworks—and conquered it. Now known as
Nașudrūn, this world became an early Fleeter province
and was the site of many battles between the Co. and the
mulgulm before the Co. lost all contact with the planet,
two hundred years ago.
As of their last contact with the Co., the mulgulm were
still waiting for the right time to do whatever it is they
are planning to do. The Archivists do not believe that
the mulgulm could leave Nașudrūn today even if they
The husk gnomes are, to put
it bluntly, the “Borg derro.”

desired it.

Husk gnomes
The so-called husk gnomes are small, cyborgic posthu-
mans of unknown origin. At least one group of them
has claimed that they are a race of chrono-rebels who
escaped the dread rule of the Snakemen: they traveled
back not to prevent the rise of that hellish regime—but Husk gnomes do not always to construct stiffworks,
to use its technologies to instantiate it even earlier, un- other than grand jumpgates between their systems,
der their control. Today, they are universally feared by which are unstable and sometimes go nova, especially
fleeters, as they (purportedly) “mine” entire worlds to when improperly opened. Many husk-gnome ships rely
ruin. At least, unlike the void elves, they seem purely on impulse drives that convert any matter to energy.
venal and uninterested in torture as an art form…
The husk gnomes strip each of their planets down to
component ore, magma, heat energy, water, and so on,
Mi-go
surrounding each with a Dyson sphere and creating No dangerous aliens are quite as common in Solspace
in place of its core an artificial sun. Planets’ satellites and on the provinces as the crab-shaped fungi called
are also treated in this manner, and Lagrange points the mi-go (the word is singular and plural). Heartless,
between them are filled with stations made from the brilliant, and curious, the mi-go can be reasoned with—
products of the nearby planet-mining. Husk-gnome but they can also lie and hold grudges. Mi-go are tele-
“worlds” are thus linked complexes of hollow earths, pathic. They do not have names. Many seem to spend
arkships, space elevators, gates, stations, and debris fields. their time researching basic scientific questions and
Many husk gnomes see the universe as a single building (or, more accurately, growing) novel gadgets.
impossibly vast ultrastructure waiting to be engineered. They sometimes seem to prefer Goldilocks worlds to
Their aesthetics tend to the frozen hell that is their own homeworld, but they are
Husk gnomes (matter thieves),
run toward a bricolage- not political beings and have no interest in conquering
void elves (for whom emotions are
heavy rococo. Their tools planets—though they are not above capturing small
coin), and mi-go (hunters of facts)
include gravity weapons groups of experimental subjects.
have an intense, asymmetric
aboard specialized vam­ Mi-go are economic creatures, ultimately, and work
rivalry, with the husk gnomes being
pyre ketches (small war- in small corporate–familial teams to trade with other
the least common in Solspace.
ships), planet miners and sapients, including the dreadful husk gnomes, void
pickships (larger and smaller workships), and drillking- elves, and yaaj. Typically, the mi-go trade technology in
doms (arkships). Their music, dreadful change. For exchange for basic resources, since Yuggoth has few
the husk gnomes, gender, too, is an art and a matter of and many of Terra’s have been ruined. Never, however,
(genetic) salvage. Other species’ genomes, however, do they trade their ships—such as broodships (proto-
are considered gauche: if you want another body, the arks/data centers), brainships (small bio-AI command
husk-gnome logic goes, just wipe its mind and steal it. frigates), and orchidships (destroyers).

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 Though advanced by contemporary human standards, Their stiffwork-apparatuses, the noioids, are cat-
mi-go living technology is nothing compared to that of sized, snot-like balls of black stone that somehow
the xanjin, cryptocerids, Late Tephnians, Snakemen, warp timespace, granting “wishes” to those who
or heechee. The mi-go are particularly interested in choose to believe in them. (Supposedly.)
bug-stratum technology and are engineering how to use

Ordo Pallida time travelers

it to create small, temporary stiffworks, and to power

Maybe. There is great debate in the Archive

warpdrives on ships.

(“Time Knyghts”)

about whether such beings truly exist.

Nyleshonoids and noioids While many on-Spin know the stories about the Archive
Nylesh IV is a planet far from Terra that is home to being founded by time travelers from a future in which
aspecies of aliens who have created unbelievably power- humanity is dying out, few fleeters believe them until
ful reality-bending apparatuses. they encounter a grim, exosuited crusader, wearing a
The inhabitants of this planet rarely intervene in bloodied yellow tabard, out in the void…
Solspace affairs. When they do, the aliens take the Ordo Pallida is real, and the occasional Archivists or
form of large, beneficent, faceless automata called, by mongrels it sends to Spindle—at enormous cost—are
Or is it the apparatuses
who have created what seem

voidminers, nyleshonoids. They seem eager to talk to only part of its strategy for changing the future. That
to us to be the aliens?

humans and similar sapients, but they hold their own part concerns helping humanity lift itself up and popu-
motivations close. Nyleshonoids famously make little late space. The other part concerns secretly learning
verbal sense, despite exhibiting high intelligence. They about threats to humanity and destroying them without
can translate all languages and use personal stiffworks divulging their nature to those not initiated in the Ordo.
to travel space, but they can’t explain what it is they The following are a few of the strange futurehumans
want or what their homeworld is like. Nyleshonoid whom you may encounter on any given hulk or dead
dialogue can best be described as a puzzle, one that is province.
perhaps unsolvable.

292 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PATTERNS

his WIL/resist other (d12). If they fail, he challenges Crusaders of the “Rhyta Empire,” Solarians
If the voidminers make a CHA/control check against

psychological sci-fi novel Solaris, vividly

Infinite thanks to Stanisław Lem’s 1961 classic
them to a single-combat tourney—a fight to the death.
d4

imagined in film by Andrei Tarkovsky in 1972.

whatever that is
No one knows where the living, sapient ocean-planet is,
1 Enumerator – This census-taker must report back but from time to time, a single humanoid-sized being
to the Yellow Order with an exact count of some from it—or, rather, emanation of it?—somehow escapes
local cohort of a “dangerous” alien species, extant
or extinct. You must help her with this task. If you into the stars to wander, or, in its words, visit other in-
do not, you are obviously one of “their” spies and telligences and experience them. It does not experience
must be released from the traitorous bondage of them indirectly, merely by talking to, killing, or having
your life immediately… Enumerators wield strange,
sextant-like time-slowing weapons and carry sex with them. It experiences them by mirroring their
pedal-powered tach-comms capable of weakly thoughts, emotions, metabolisms, and behaviors, down
signaling forward in time. to the level of the cell and below. Its copies can of course
2 Paladyn dolorous – This weeping space-knyght has be altered enough so as not to be doppelgängers—it is
seen far too many of his fellow species-mates fall (usually) a tourist, not an identity thief. But it is still in
to the depredations of the indescribable alien hor-
ror nicknamed the Wasp: he has lately committed essence a mimic, a vicarious learner, a stranger in its own
himself to a desperate suicide-quest; perhaps find skin with no “true” form beneath. It desires first of all to
and kill the one person responsible for the Wasp’s be something always other than itself.
rise to power on Pays; perhaps to bring some salvific
(and unstable) ultra-weapon out of a lost archae-
vault and forward in time again. He will travel with
you if you help him on this quest; otherwise, he will Solarian
tell his tale, beg a meal, and disappear. A paladyn
dolorous typically wields a titanic force sword, axe, (“visitor,” alien mimic)
or mace, eats twice as much as the average human,
and makes a loud racket wherever he goes, both
by weeping and taletelling, but also by playing the
space-lute. Class restrictions:
3 Taphon – This fossil-knyght appears to be a mum-
mified warrior in a special yellow envirosuit. The ҂ You cannot play a hell scientist.
taphon (it is now without gender) is the last of some
human culture that will be destroyed by the Snake-
men, 150 million years from your characters’ (250 Species powers:
from your players’) now. The taphon is working to
prevent the Snakemen from coming to be. This is a
long-haul operation. It no longer feels (or perhaps Bemirror (special)
understands) time. It is definitely not sane, by Spin
standards. It wields a strange anti-nanite vacuum- At game start, choose a species to mirror. You appear
weapon that mummifies whatever it hits. to be one of these things and speak their languages.
4 Xmortal – This human mind in a robotic body has Choose species powers from the relevant list and adjust
traveled back to kill a specific human traitor, but it is your scores appropriately. You can mirror a specific
now unsure as to who the traitor really is… Its body individual or appear as a generic human, wetan, etc.
may be octopodal, snakelike, spiderlike, skeletal, or
some combination of these. It has advanced force You cannot, however, make up new species: you are
weapons and lacks empathy for the very humans it creatively mirroring, not inventing.
works to protect.

Remirror (standard)

At will, if you are not in combat, you can burn 3X GRT

and X HEA, where X is equal to your level, and shift your
molecular structure so that you are, for all intents and
purposes, a different species and/or sex and/or individ-
ual. Beginning as a standard action, this process takes
X total rounds to complete and leaves you feeling tired
but otherwise the same as before. (Mirroring gets harder
and harder as you age and begin to identify with a given
body.) After remirroring, no one will recognize you as
the same person or be able to prove that you once had a
radically different morphology.

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Choose 2: ҂ Decorporealize – For 2X rounds, you remain visible but
become insubstantial: HEA damage directed against
you is turned against your attacker instead; GRT
Mimic (varies)
damage is attenuated by −X.
You are not only mimicking a species but some social ҂ Overmirror – You spawn X copies of yourself. For the
role: at first level you gain any single power from another next X rounds, including this one, these copies may
class, other than one that lets you use nanofluidics or act on your initiative, including right now, in whatever
the hell science. manner you wish. At the end of the Xth round, they
blink out of existence, and you take X HEA damage.

Phase (free)
Read non-Solarian mind (free)
Burn d20 −dMOV +X GRT, where X is greater than
0, and choose one of the effects below. Whenever you Choose X intelligent targets, burn 2X GRT, where X is
phase, you suddenly appear very weird to everyone greater than 0, and roll CHA; each target rolls WIL/resist
around you. other −X. If you succeed, you can read the target’s mind
for a number of rounds equal to your level. Communi-
҂ Blink – You move 10X M in the direction of your cating with it costs you 12 −dCHA (your CHA) GRT per
choice. If you choose to move into a living being, message transmitted or received.
you destroy it but suffer 5X HEA physical and 2X
GRT mental damage in the process. You also end up Languages: You speak the languages of whatever species
covered in gross bits. you mimic.

294 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PATTERNS

 Void elves
Pale, elfin, ultra-advanced, and—at least according to
Canteen rumor—perfectly “evil,” the posthumans called
the void elves may well be the Sluagh Sídhe or malevo-
lent “Little Ones” of ancient Terran myth: they seem to
be able to travel through space and perhaps time as a
matter of course, and yet they use their powers mostly
to engage in wars against other cultures in the void, to
Senior Archivist Awerren-19 terrorize pacifistic sapients who
speculates that the current do not join them in great imperial
state of void elf aesthetics arose “games,” and to terraform Goldi-
slowly over millions of years locks worlds into uninhabitable
of cultural evolution, as other, “art installations.”
simpler forms of production and According to the twisted phi-
consumption no longer satisfied losophy of the void elves, the tor-
the Sídhe. Now their culture is ture of innocent sapient minds is
in a “murder spiral” (to use the the highest aesthetic and ethical
technical term). good: the victims are permanently
relieved of boredom—the most invidious form of evil.
Individually, void elves can be reasoned with. They have
their own joys and vices. But as a squadron, they are
to be fled from, with some rapidity, regardless of their
seeming demeanor.
Most void elves live within their sleek, writhing,
nanotech-powered frigates and corvettes (wytchships,
hellships, devilships, and hateships—all armed with
lightning cannons and tortureguns). But the “capital”
of the void-elf empire (if such a unitary thing can be
spoken of—Archival intelligence regarding the void
elves is spotty) seems to be the so-called Sunless World,
Tnín. Orbiting a dwarf star that is obscured by several
overlapping dark-fluid Dyson nets, Tnín teems with
billions of inhabitants and serves as a manufactory for
a wide range of instruments of war and pain.

Plot hook

Much Archival information regarding the void elves

comes from reports of a skirmish that took place just
before the Groot Tachquake between a large group
of veteran stillrijders, supported by banshees and
tremulants, and a fully crewed void elf wytchship. The
encounter took place on a barren moon called Sbarrian
V, once home to a thriving Tephnian colony, orbiting
the olive-green gas giant Sbarrian Prime. Only one Importantly, the void elves are never random nor
banshee escaped to tell the tale, and she arrived back strictly imperialistic in the manner of humans. They may
on-Spin quite mad, expiring soon after of a nanite-borne be able to assault Terra, Calayat, or Spindle at any time
malaise. The Senior Archivists would pay dearly for (assuming they can find these loci)—but they may have
more intelligence regarding Sbarrian V, what the no interest in doing so. Some Archivists believe that—
void elves wanted there, what really happened to even above and beyond the Snakemen—the centralized,
the veterans, and if the elves learned the location of rapidly culturally evolving void elves of Tnín are Ordo
Spindle during the banshee’s futile escape. Pallida’s ultimate enemy.

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Void elf Species powers:

(advanced humanoid of Tnín) “Enlightened” (permanent)

The small, ever-smiling posthumans who dwell in the Your brain is plugged into a quantum network that
deepest-explored reaches of space—called the “void significantly enhances your mentation—although
elves” in whispers on-Spin—are perhaps the greatest en- you are now cut off from the best bits, of course. Still,
emies of the Co., if not the greatest existential threats you know a lot that the other PCs will never “get” about
to humanity and wetanity. Theoretically, however, there “art.” You gain a permanent bonus of +2 REA.
may be a “good” (i.e., not mass-murdering-for-fun) void
elf out there, somewhere… If so, they would be an out-
Hunted (permanent)
cast, no longer able to access the dark-shining armories
of their murderous kin back on the Wytch-Planet, Tnín. Regardless of whatever else is going on, once per
Who knows. It’s a big universe. Many things are possible. venture, every venture, void elves attack your party:
In the way that Drizzt
they try to kill your friends in front of you before slowly
was a “good” drow. torturing you to death.

Miniature (permanent)

You are tiny (1 M tall), “pale” (as in, regardless of color,

low in saturation), and immortal (as in biologically
ageless). Your HEA is halved, rounded up. Your COM
die is not affected except when it comes to unarmed
combat damage, which you effectively cannot deal (and
would not choose to, having grown up surrounded by
incredibly powerful weapons).

Quickened genetically (permanent)

You gain a permanent bonus of +2 MOV.

Untrustable (permanent)

No sapient known to the Co. will ever think of you as

anything other than a killer: whenever you make a
CHA check, roll twice and take the lower result. GM’s
discretion, this problem goes away for your allies if you
sufficiently prove yourself to them or fall in love.

Voidborn (item)

Regardless of class, you begin play with an heirloom

void-elf wytchsuit: this provides DR 3 that costs 1 GRT
per hit. This skin-hugging oil absorbs light, is dizzying to
look at, and can’t be fully taken off. It also acts as a deluxe
envirosuit (36 hours, void-ready).

Voidmad (permanent)

Your maximum WIL die is d6, and you start play with
one random mental syndrome (make up something fun
to roleplay). Whenever you drop to 0 HEA or 0 GRT, you
gain a random phobia or philia.

296 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PATTERNS

 Choose 1: Xenoglades
The bane of the void are the creatures of pure hunger
“Artstar” (corsair background) (permanent)
called xenoglades or simply “xenos.” Chitinous, many-
You begin play with a second mental syndrome of eyed, three-mouthed, acid-blooded horrors, the arasitic
your choosing and either a working lightning pistol xenoglades spawn from clutches of several hundred eggs.
or high-frequency sword (see “Wires”). Their eggs can remain dormant for illennia until they’re
found by appropriate hosts—biological sapients of any
kind—and their bodies undergo several morphological
Picaro (outcast background) (permanent)
phase changes before reaching maturity. Xenoglades are
You begin play with a second mental syndrome of your highly adaptive, stealing useful genetic information from
choosing. If you are not a jackal, you gain the powers their hosts, but they never adapt culturally. They have no
murder and steal. If you are a jackal, you start play with a “language” per se, although they are cunning and hunt
working lighting rifle, stolen from a powerful boyar (see in packs.
“Wires”). No one knows where xenoglades come from, but
all other deepvoid species will go out of their way to
destroy them, especially the void elves (who find them
Singularity smith (Tnínsh Archivist
a nuisance—the very antithesis of “aesthetic” evil) and
background) (permanent)
the yaaj (who hail them as the ultimate sport—a species
If you are not a banshee, you gain the power tack. If you that exists only to do battle).
are a banshee, you gain either the power bioengineer or
augur (you choose).

Wytchborn (Tnínsh boyar background)

(permanent)

You begin play knowing two hell science powers of your

choosing. Your HEA drops permanently by 2d6 (to
a minimum of 2), reflecting the “advanced training”
you’ve received.

Languages: You speak Tnínsh and dREA other void-elf

languages, and you can figure out any sapient language
in 20 −dREA days.

The rows of meter-tall, vaguely flower-

bulb-like eggs are perfectly still in the
darkness of the hulk’s zócalo. You
leave to inspect signs of recent activity,
locating the sole survivor of the previous venture,
a pepper elf witness. What remains of her
dark-crystal body has been badly damaged by
a foul-smelling acid. When you bend down and open
your comm to all channels, she looks right past
you as she whispers, “Hail, colleague. Local threat
assessment update: if you are lucky, you will not see
the eyeless Matryoshka maws at all. The innermost
tongue will simply stab through the back of your
suit’s gorget and into the soft crook of your neck, and
you will suffocate amid a shower of futile cover-fire
from your fleeing comrades. Best of… [indistinct whirring].”
s
Although she doesn’t die for another half hour, she refuse
to say anything else as your crew begins to run tests on
those mysterious eggs.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH09 ☉ THE COSMOS 297

The yaaj In game terms, ultrastructures always have a hulk class
of 5 or 6. Ultrastructures may serve specific purpos-
Few fleeters have met the yaaj (the word is singular and es—such as planet-encapsulating solar collector arrays
plural), but their legend has captured the imagination (Dyson spheres) or jumpgates large enough to ac-
of the Co., as their presence is destabilizing but not commodate vast armadas—but many are proxies
necessarily disastrous. No one knows where the yaaj for entire worlds (arks larger than planets, machine-
homeworld is, what it’s like, or what the yaaj want, as a planets (ringworlds) or simply enigmas: pyramids
people, if they want anything at all besides to experience as large as suns, whole areas of the void “filled-in” by
the thrill of the hunt. infrastructure, etc.
Piloting living ships, the yaaj can appear suddenly Exploring a haunted, millions-of-years-old (seem-
on any random worlds—2.5-M tall nautiloid warriors ingly) dead frigate is a great plot for a grimdark RPG, in
in twisted, advanced chitin-armor and skull-helmets. part because of the possibility of the onset of cabin fever
They come in ones or twos, powerfully armed with and the PCs’ becoming trapped within a fragile milieu
force weapons, to track and slay other sapient or that they scarcely understand… Exploring a (seemingly)
sufficiently dangerous non-sapient beings. When dead Goldilocks ringworld whose total surface area
the hunt is over, the yaaj depart, seemingly oblivious of is many times that of Terra’s is both grimdark and
any damage they’ve caused to the world on which the inherently epic in scale.
hunt took place.
Yaaj culture is utterly alien, to humans. Their “victory
crypts” are dead ships that hang in the void, demarcat-
How to use ultrastructures
ing which regions have been hunted-out. They wear the Ultrastructures are so large that they offer more than
bones, torn flesh, and gear of defeated foes as brooches one mode of play: PCs can show up, accomplish one
and ribbons. They eat flesh out of some mannered task, and escape; or they can hang around for many
religious impulse and/or desire for conspicuous con- ventures. They might come and go several times, deep-
sumption, even though they’ve engineered themselves ening their understanding of the world–artifact as they
to no longer require food per se. do. Of course, the more that they come and go, the more
The voidminers may end up fighting the yaaj or the PCs invite the suspicions of the Co., its rivals such
fighting alongside them, depending on the nature of as H.Co. or the Federation of Unhuman Kingdoms, and
their hunt. You can also open up the mystery that aliens such as the mi-go or void elves. It may well be that
the yaaj currently presents to the Co. at any time: for the discovery of any ultrastructure, regardless of what
example, the Archive—tipped off as to the location of it is or does, is a monkey’s paw, a gift and a source of
an upcoming hunt—would pay well for knowledge endless conflict.
of yaaj customs, social organization, homeward, techno- Another possibility for an ultrastructure is to make it
logical capabilities, and so on. alive—whether biologically, in the sense of the gigantic
world–woman in Bruce Sterling’s Schismatrix, cosmo-
ecologically as in Marvel’s Ego or Asimov’s Gaia, or

Ultra­
informatically à la either the planet Cybertron or the
planet-eating ultra-being Unicron of Transformers fame.
This wrinkle raises new questions: does the structure

structures
know that the PCs exist? Are they mere germs to the vast
machine? Can they communicate meaningfully with
it? What does it want? Perhaps it is senile, pregnant, or
dying? In any event, the only thing more dangerous than
a dead ultrastructure—a magnet for pyrates and the

A different scale of narrative rapacious managers of empires—is one still “breathing”

the hellish anti-breeze of the void.
Ships as large as arks, stations as large as moons, life-
See the titular artifact–planet in Larry Niven’s
boats and pods, skyscrapers, Technodromes, and space
classic Ringworld (1970) for a great example of an
elevators are all hulks: large, ancient machines designed ancient ultrastructure that is already overcoded,
to fulfill specific functions. Rarer and stranger are those at the time of the protagonists’ discovery of it, by
various civilizations, producing various dangerous
titanic machines as large as planets—or even larger—
entities and fascinating technologies which interact
known as ultrastructures. in unexpected ways.

298 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PATTERNS

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH09 ☉ THE COSMOS 299
 Yes, dear reader, the people of the future don’t
really know about M. C. Escher, but they have some
equivalent term denoting distorted, recursive,
and impossible architectures. Just go with it.
Folds
For most non-physicists, at +0 million years in the
future (today), this doesn’t matter. And for the vast
majority of algae-farmers, ant-ranchers, and fungus-
timberers on Terra at 100 MY, higher dimensions
continue to not matter. They remain inaccessible and

The Escheresque thus “far away,” even if right at hand.

But for those of you pursuing the lost wonders of
What does it mean to “travel” “to” “higher-dimensional” the super-civilizations that wrecked and reconstructed
space? Or the “end of time?” Or “other universes?” On Terra and who knows how many other worlds, many
the one hand, these are fascinating sci-fi concepts in times over dozens of millions of years, it matters very
their own rights, and Stillfleet provides a way to explore much that higher dimensions exist and—with sufficient-
them through collaborative storytelling. On the other ly advanced technology—can be explored.
hand, higher or lower dimensions (e.g.) are classic The commonest higher-dimensional “space” (?)
MacGuffins that allow stories to enter zanier, more encountered by voidminers is a sort of integument
fantastic, more psychedelic, and otherwise “novel” or behind-the-scenes to threespace that is called,
conceptual terrain. in Co. cant (in translation), the Escheresque—AKA
We know that “the” “universe” may be one of many the Corridor Unending, the Outer Domain, the
such bubbles of chaos (that is, existence) amid the cold Thousand-and-One Plateaux, the Outmost Manifold…
order of sheer nihility. But we still take for granted the Voidminers describe the Escheresque as a shifting
dimensionality of our cosmos. We know a lot about its intestinal meta-cosmos of webways, tunnels, Cyclopean
three spatial and one temporal dimensions. But we also ellipsoidal spaces, patches of utterly inhuman phys-
have an inkling that more, perhaps many more, spatial ics, gravitic anomalies, and gates onto infinitudes
dimensions are “folded up” (we can’t possibly imagine of altogether other natures.
what this “looks like”) within the traditional three.

300
 Ventures in higher “Who” “lives” “there?”
dimensions Many sapient inhabitants of the Escheresque so far
defy the most rigorous of Archival researches. These
The Escheresque is much “larger” than our familiar beings are not simply aliens—different “players” of the
cosmos/threespace, because it already contains our same “game” of physics—but truly cosmic monsters.
cosmos. It has/is more space than our cosmos. And They possess many senses that we do not, and their
because its native physics are so different from and motivations nearly always remain inscrutable. The one
The umgebung, or ultimate physical reality, is the Escheresque.

more expansive than our own (version/corner of the) exception are the bands of robots called duul-duul that
Threespace is only our limited experience of it—our umwelt.

universe’s, the Escheresque is also a place of greater may have originated elsewhere.
possibility than threespace: it is home to more advanced
alien species (some of them being, perhaps, cohorts of
Random attributes of Escheresque fauna
posthumans who have escaped “up” in dimension), and d12
it is concomitantly more dangerous.
To humans, wetans, and similar meso-intelligent 1 Does not walk or crawl, but slides.
sapes, the Escheresque appears to be a dense web of 2 Constantly appears to be moving backward, even
neutral material somewhere in consistency between when technically standing still.
spidersilk and saltwater taffy. It is mostly gray and 3 Glows from its speech/feeding orifice(s) when it
somewhat soft to the touch, although “further” reaches speaks/eats.
of the Escheresque become hard or springy, sporting 4 Occasionally disgorges 7d6 headless tentacled
a wide range of colorful patterns. This is the mind’s jelly-crabs out of its sides.
attempt to deal with the sudden unveiling of new spatial 5 Writes smoky glyphs in the air instead of making
dimensions contained in the dark fluid that permeates sounds (and is generally silent).
and gives mass and shape to space. 6 Shivers constantly, making a faint glass-on-glass
The body, meanwhile, simultaneously struggles with jingling sound.
the novelty of these dimensions even as it continues to 7 Cracks, melts, and otherwise deforms the weblike
feel itself as a familiar, three-spatial apparatus. The same fabric of the Escheresque as it moves.
paradoxical rush of novelty and ordinariness applies, 8 Stinks unimaginably because it has many digestive
in fact, to every threespace entity entering the Escher- tracts coiled within a small body.
esque. Thus, the so-called Lunchbox Principle: entering 9 Brings its own, Jovian physics with it: 530° Celsius,
the Escheresque, sapients bring “their own physics” with causing burn 4 to anyone within 5 M.
them—because they haven’t gone somewhere “new” per 10 Absorbs electromagnetic radiation including light
se, but have instead traveled “up” (in a previously unseen, and walkie signals.
unseeable direction), right where they already were. 11 Constantly sloughs off red petal-like scales, creating
This means that the Escheresque is physically safe to a trail; the scales exponentially grow in size when
enter. But the further you go “into” it, the more likely touched.

you are to wander into the colorful halls of the XDs 12 Is a distant relative of one of the PCs’ kin: this
or other higher-dimensional beings, or even into regions person tacked out 22 years ago and was presumed
dead; they instead were trapped in the Escher-
of the Escheresque that are too “far” from your three- esque but somehow managed to survive, find other
space locus. sapients, and found a civilization; æons passed
That is, you can accidentally “exit” the Escheresque here; their descendants eventually evolved into an
almost unrecognizable form; back on-Spin, the Groot
and enter the void at any point (whenever you roll 1 on Tachquake subsided…
a quick d6 encounter check, for
If you are drowning: set your
example). In this case, you’ll
MOV die to its maximum
have to backtrack until you
value to visualize a count-
“find” a habitable physics. Until
down. Every round, move the
you do, you’ll be drowning and
die down one number. When
suffering from burn 1.
you get to 1, you pass out. The
next round, you die.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH09 ☉ THE COSMOS 301

 Vaartmuur Duul-duul
(lapine multibots)
Some Escheresque beings possess bodies that appear
in threespace to be similar in scale to those of Playing a duul-duul means playing Duul-Duul, who is
humans or wetans (or, you know, carnosaurs) but extend many duul-duul… The droves of vaguely hare-like, gray
far out into other dimensions. A subset of these robots called duul-duul by Late Tephnian scholars were

The word is thought to be, in Late Tephnian, a homonymic

beings are internally flexible, able to rapidly push and built long ago, and not by humans. Their memorycores
pull their alien organs and fluids, even everting their were later wiped, perhaps more than once. Thus their

pun meaning “Engine Licker [i.e., Engine Cleaner].”

insides (pushing them out), using their organs and first recollections are always of here, wherever here
fluids as tools or weapons... Stillfleeters call this is when they encounter other sapients. (N.B., “here”
behavior vaartmuur. is probably within the ultrastructure Narm or in the
Escheresque.) Duul-duul have a collectively cheery
Vaartmuur (standard)
disposition and love to make friends.
An Escheresque entity with this power may burn d6 GRT Playing “a” duul-duul means playing not one charac-
in order to rapidly reconfigure its mass in threespace, ter but a drove—a little army—of characters with linked
expelling a wall of internal fluids. This separates it from minds. Each of your duul-duul has the same scores as
any attackers for 1 round and grants it a bonus of +2 the next. You are technically named Duul-Duul—but
to DR for 2 minutes (12 rounds). In addition, during you may have a nickname (or 6d30 of them).
this time, all biological targets within 10 M who aren’t
wearing envirosuits suffer from disrupted olfactory and Class restrictions:
gustatory sensoria (senses of smell and taste).
҂ You cannot learn the hell science or use the Blood,
although you will doubtlessly overcommit to trying to
do so if you think that other sapients would find this
How to use the Escheresque useful.

You, the GM, can reserve the right to occasionally Species powers:
enforce a different, more colorful physics. In a strict,
“hard” sci-fi game, don’t use the Escheresque at all.
Environmental resistance (permanent)
Treat higher dimensions as confusing and deadly. Cixin
Liu offers a good description of “realistic” higher spatial You don’t have to breathe air, and you can withstand the
dimensions in those chapters of Death’s End that deal radiation and wild temperature and pressure swings of
with the Terran ship Blue Space and its exploration of a the vacuum. You cannot survive strong acid, lava, astral
pocket of four-dimensional space. hydrogen plasma, etc., any more than any other species.
In many Stillfleet games—so squishy with “the
science” that they often resemble grimdark science–
Multiple (permanent)
fantasy—we use the Escheresque to set up the
occasional truly weird, shocking moment. In games with You have 6d30 bodies, only one of which you control at
a stronger fantasy component, use the Escheresque in a time. Note this number on your character sheet. When
order to introduce new “planes” and Weird worlds with you die, mark this number down by one. You are now
true magick. another duul-duul. Your name is Duul-Duul. Your other
Another way to use the Escheresque is as a dream bodies do not have to travel with you, but if they do not,
realm—a realm called into being by unconscious then you may become “stranded” away from the other
mentation, à la the movies Paprika (2006), Inception PCs upon death. When you have 17 or fewer bodies
(2010), e.g. While some games focus entirely on dream remaining, you gain one random mental syndrome.
worlds—two excellent examples being Deep Morphean When you have 5 or fewer bodies remaining, you gain
Transmissions and Dreampunk—Stillfleet does not, as another random mental syndrome. When you have no
written. That said, you can use the ideas presented more bodies, you are dead.
here to explore the life-shaking, ‘pataphysical, self-sum-
moned antagonists of sleep by making them concrete,
Pacifistic (permanent)
and by setting their natural habitats within reach.
Your COM is d4.

302 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PATTERNS

Choose 3, or lose 2d6+2
bodies and choose 4:

Commissurize (standard)

Burn 1 HEA or GRT to tap into any code-

stratum system or communicate with any
other informatic being. This also allows
you to effectively translate any language,
given access to a relatively small cor-
pus of texts. You do not, however, truly
understand all beings; the special powers
of empathy are the domain of the witness.
This power can theoretically allow you
to tack any stiffworks into which you can
be plugged, although the GRT cost may be
very high—and there might be intrusion
countermeasures…

“Helpful” (free)

Burn dCHA GRT and name another PC:

that person gets +dCHA (separate roll) to
their next roll this round. Like boost, you
must use this power after the other person
has declared her action but before they’ve
rolled for its success.

Hyperactive motion (permanent)

You gain a permanent bonus of +1 MOV.

Sensitive (permanent)

You gain a permanent bonus of +5 GRT.

Archival conjectures about the
d4
Escheresque
Technical (permanent)

You sport a number of useful, Swiss-army-knife-style 1 Most of the Late Tephnians did not flame out in the
widgets and dongles: you gain advantage on all tech- Wars of Succession and ensuing climatic disasters,
related rolls. as commonly believed, but peacefully migrated into
the Escheresque.

Languages: You can decipher any one language upon 2 The Escheresque is threespace, but at a later point
in time when subatomic machines have “filled in”
making a REA check. You can attempt once per day the void with potential matter that responds to sapi-
to decipher a given language. If you fail, you will have ence and can change the laws of physics, caulking up
to communicate by expressive hopping and gesturing any given space with more fractal infra-space. XDs
and other higher-dimensional species are merely our
for now. descendants, many billions of years from now.

3 The Escheresque beings called the ylythnari (see

“Fangs”) created Spindle long ago and abandoned,
forgot about, or forsook it. Now they want it back…

4 The Escheresque is not “bigger” than threespace,

but is actually very tiny: the extra dimensions are
so small that they have no effect on the traditional
ones. When you “enter” the Escheresque, you shrink
down to below Planck length.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH09 ☉ THE COSMOS 303

Escheresque events Random Escheresque physics events
d30
Sometimes, when traveling in higher dimensions, the
“local” physics enjoyed by the traveler… fail. For what- 1 Antimanichean inversion, dire – All characters merge
to form one super-character, who can only act by the
ever reason. Perhaps a cthulhicate entity “invites” the unanimous opinion of the group. This super-character
traveler too close to the truth of the Manifold; perhaps has the highest scores of its constituent sub-characters
the traveler presses the glowing red button–knife on as well as a pool combining all of theirs, split into GRT
and HEA as the group wishes. This super-character
the door of the emergency console of the crashed Late is named something non-species and -gender specific,
Tephnian lifeboat. In any case, such an incursion into such as Tilda Bowie the Viaggitator of the Complex
the “local” normality of the traveler’s reality is called an Purple Hexagon or Jesse the Belovèd. This super-
character can use any powers available to their sub-
“Escheresque physics event” by the Archivists—which is characters but will only act if all players agree to the
glossed by voidminers as an Escheresque event. action. If any player disagrees, the super-character
Unless stated otherwise, one player will roll for the remains paralyzed and stupid, drooling and staring
into space as the void howls in their ears.
group, and whatever changes occur due to the table
below revert upon exiting the Escheresque. The GM 2 Biomorphic ejaculation, structural – The physical
properties underpinning your metabolism shift out
reserves the right to make players roll individually—for from underneath you, and you become a protoplas-
example, when each of them undertakes a separate X- mic ball of slime with an ex-facial region on top and
dimensional spirit quest with the aid of a wetan hyper- some flapping limblettes on the sides. You speak in
a hollow moan. While you are in this Escheresque
physicist’s sacred “down-throughing sherry,” distilled zone, you have a MOV of d4, and you cannot physically
from the “sap” of the Vooltelian brainmaggots of Kaku- attack. Neither can anyone else. The hell science and
dun. nanofluidics function normally, but using these powers
costs double the GRT, as your new body is difficult for
you to command. You can pick up small objects with
Phenomena that could trigger your limblettes or larger objects by rolling over them
d10 and sucking them into your core plasm. If you leave
an Escheresque event
this Escheresque locus while holding one or more large
objects in your core plasm, you revert to your normal
shape, and whatever is trapped inside you explodes
1 The discovery of the Le Guin Postulate (e.g.—some outward, killing you.
quantum of “forbidden” or mind-bending knowl-
edge). 3 Doppelgenetic timequake – You and all of your
companions in this Escheresque locus gain a new
2 A mistack. companion who has always been with you. None of
3 The (mis)use of a powerful archaetech item. you remembers not having traveled with this person.
You all love this person. This person is the funny goof,
4 The (mis)use of a hell science power—especially the caring partner, the clutch hitter. This person is an
a hell science power used in reaction/to modify extradimensional doppelgänger, propagated by the
another hell science power. Escheresque itself, but you only have one chance, once
per day, of making a difficult WIL/perceive check (7
5 The return of the Five Most Vile (see “Profits”). or better) to realize that this person is not one of you.
6 A Shining Sky Climber “curse” (unique hell science The doppelgänger has CHA d12 and d8s in all other
power) in response to a show of disrespect. scores, with 12 HEA and 20 GRT. As a free action, the
doppelgänger may burn 3 GRT to read the thoughts of
7 The discovery of a sleeping cthulhicate. a single sapient being for d3 rounds. The doppelgänger
will attempt to take control of the situation from the
8 The discovery of an ultrastructure reliant on an apparent leader and then kill each of you, one by one,
unknown physics. in order to feast on your juicy dying thoughts.
9 A journey into a black hole (e.g.). 4 Gravitic flux, idiosyncratic – Wherever you walk,
10 The death of a cthulhicate. in any direction, including straight up or down, that
surface is the direction in which gravity flows for you.
Other characters may walk in other directions, or on
other surfaces, and face very different experiences
of orientation, vertigo, missiles in flight, and rain. You
cannot effectively use missile weapons against some-
one else in idiosyncratic gravity, as they may simply
choose that gravity affects your missile differently
as it approaches them. Melee attacks, nanofluidics,
and the hell science operate normally, however (GM’s
discretion).

304 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / PATTERNS

 5 Gravitic flux, regional – If your Escheresque locus 12 Metapocalyptic quiddity spike, idiosyncratic – You
currently has gravity, it loses gravity; you are floating become paranoid and believe that you have the
in zero-gee. If your Escheresque locus currently lacks ability to think entities and events into existence. You
gravity, it gains gravity: a random surface becomes “the gain a new basic power:
ground” toward which all masses are violently thrown. • Think into existence (standard) – Burn 10 −dWIL GRT.
You suffer d6 HEA damage per 10 meters you must If this number is 0, you don’t lose any GRT. If this
cross to reach the new “ground,” maximum 10d6. number is negative, you gain that much GRT. Name
a thing you want to exist or an event you want to
6 Immertension loss, regional (tachtremor) – This happen: it exists or happens.
Escheresque locus becomes unmoored from time and • You do not realize you have this power immediately:
space: you cannot return the way you came. Whatever it takes you 10 −dREA rounds to be able to use this
stiffworks you last tacked is now untacked; it does not power. If this number is 0, you can use it as soon
“point” anywhere. as you enter this Escheresque locus. If this number
7 Immertension loss, universal (tachquake) – This is negative, you move backward in time that many
Escheresque locus becomes unmoored from time and rounds (each round representing 10 seconds), and
space: you cannot return the way you came. Whatever you may use this power or otherwise act without
stiffworks you last tacked is now untacked; it does not contradiction.
“point” anywhere. In addition, all stiffworks are now • When you exit this Escheresque locus, your current
fluctuating between nominally operable (a 10, 9, or (not permanent) GRT drops to 0, and you lose this
8 on a d10); befouled by tachyon static (a 7 or 6 on a power.
d10; befouled stiffworks are +3 difficulty to tack, cost 13 Metaquake, aesthetic – Your character concept in-
twice the GRT or HEA to tack, and deal the would-be verts: if you are an angry Fleeter chandler, for example,
tacker 2d12 damage per failed attempt); and jammed you are now a zen or clown-like alien warrior or healer;
(5 or lower on a d10). This condition lasts for d4 weeks, if you are a bookish shoodtha pir, you are now a bro-ish
Spindle-standard time (or however long the GM de- human warrior or greedy merchant, etc. You may invent
termines to roughly correspond to d4 Terrasol weeks, a concept that does not align with this rulebook, as
based on when and where you are). long as you apply some extant set of rules as a tem-
8 Manichean genesis, coupled by eros – There are now plate. E.g., you may declare that your aux character is
two of your characters, permanently. Each of them now a “rhino-headed berserker,” so long as, mechani-
is equally real and controlled by you. They get along cally, you treat this new character as, say, a conscript
fabulously, obviously. They are probably in love. One of stillrijder or a mongrel razi.
the pair is the “real” you (“you” think). The other play- 14 Metaquake, formal – Each player passes their char-
ers do not know which character is which. When you acter to the player to their left. You are now playing
exit the Escheresque and no longer experience duality someone else’s character until you exit this Escher-
(both characters cannot return to threespace), you per- esque locus. Changes to your new character, such as
manently lose d10 GRT; this reduces your temporary death or marriage, do not revert when you exit the
GRT as well. If you drop to 0 temporary GRT, you lose Escheresque. All of your characters deny that anything
any excess in HEA. You decide how sad it is to lose your has changed and believe that they are simply lucky;
higher-dimensional twin. they have found a “dead” patch of Escheresque.
9 Manichean genesis, linked in druj – There are now 15 Neuroquantum quiddity vortex (NQV), biochemi-
two of your characters, permanently. Each of them is cal – Switch your HEA and GRT, both permanent and
equally real and controlled by you. They detest each temporary. The permanent maximums switch back
other, obviously. There can be only one… If one of your when you exit the Escheresque, but the temporary
dual characters kills the other, they gain the other’s values do not.
GRT and HEA as permanent extra pool that can be
divided up however the victor likes. 16 Neuroquantum quiddity vortex (NQV), haecceitic,
major – Switch your physical and mental scores: your
10 Manichean genesis, schizoid – There are now two of COM die becomes your REA die; your MOV die be-
your characters, permanently. Each of them is equally comes your WIL die. Your CHA die does not change.
real, but only one of them is controlled by you. The
other is controlled by the player to your right. 17 Neuroquantum quiddity vortex (NQV), haecceitic,
minor – Only when rolling MOV/dodge checks, you now
11 Manichean genesis, theodicean – There are now two roll REA instead of MOV, and it costs you 2 GRT each
of your characters, permanently. One of them is real time you choose to dodge. Other modifiers to dodge af-
and controlled by you. The other is a doppelgänger fect the roll as they would in a non-Escheresque reality.
controlled by the GM. It may or may not be malicious.
It may simply be naïve, afraid, amoral, or dumb: a living 18 Neuroquantum vortex, perceptual – You believe that
error in timespace generated by your own unconscious. you can see others’ thoughts merely by opening up to
them (you cannot, but you believe that you can). Add
your max CHA to your GRT. The new value can exceed
your non-Escheresque max GRT. Your permanent
maximum GRT reverts when you exit the Escheresque,
but your temporary GRT does not.

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306
 19 Optical quiddity failure (OQF), equivalent – Shad- 25 Telegnostic opacity depletion, total – You can read
ows break away from their casters and attack them. the thoughts of every sapient being in this Escheresque
Shadows have the statistics of their casters, including locus as they think them, and they can read yours.
the same GRT and HEA, and they may use the same There is no hiding.
powers. Shadows are “physical” and may be harmed
by ordinary weapons. 26 Timeslip, paradoxical – Everyone in this Escheresque
locus, including you, relives the last 1 round/10 sec-
20 Optical quiddity failure (OQF), extreme – Shadows onds (or whatever amount of time the GM prefers), but
break away from their casters and attack them. Shad- causation and intention are reversed: if you attacked
ows have the statistics of their casters, including the character A, inflicting 8 HEA damage after burning 3
same GRT and HEA, and they may use the same pow- GRT, then instead character A in fact dealt 8 HEA dam-
ers. Shadows are shadows and may only be harmed by age to you after burning 3 GRT. If you finally realized
weapons that harm Escheresque entities (i.e., some that you’ve fallen in love with the provincial governor’s
force-, nano-, or bug-stratum weapons, plus all Escher- Minister of Olfaction, then the Minister actually fell in
esque-stratum weapons), other weapons that inflict love with you. These changes are permanent.
GRT damage, nanofluidics, or the hell science.
27 Void flux – Space and time fly away from you so
21 Psyonic conflagration – Pain consumes you, and your that all distances are an order of magnitude greater
head feels as though it will split open… Burn d6 +X than they appear at first. In order to achieve any
GRT; X must be greater or equal to 1. For the next Y meaningful result, in game terms, you must complete
rounds, where Y is equal to the total result of your roll a WIL/resist world check and burn d6 GRT. Upon

GMs: note, these conditions

(i.e., for 2 or more rounds), you may use a new power: leaving this locus, you are badly shaken: roll a
• Onslaught of worms (standard): burn 3 GRT or 9 HEA WIL/resist world check or permanently lose d4 GRT.
to deal 6d6 +your level HEA or GRT damage to any

affect NPCs as well!

opponent or opponents of whom you are aware. (You 28 Wonderlandism vortex, negative polarity – You
don’t have to be able to see or otherwise specifically shrink by half along a random dimension. Choose:
sense the location of these opponents, only know you become very short or two-dimensional; you are a
that they exist in this dimension; entities in three- floating head; or you are just some limbs with no torso
space cannot be targeted from the Escheresque and or head. Choose either COM or MOV: you can no longer
vice versa.) When targeting multiple opponents, you attempt checks involving this score. This condition re-
must divide the damage that you inflict among them. verses when you “exit” this region of the Escheresque.
• There is no maximum to the amount of GRT you 29 Wonderlandism vortex, positive polarity – You
can burn when activating this power. You cannot double in size along a random dimension. Choose:
choose not to burn GRT, however. If you do not have you become “taller” or “wider” or now have a huge
sufficient GRT, the difference is subtracted from your head, etc. Choose COM or MOV: this score goes up by
HEA. If you have neither 1 HEA or GRT remaining at two die types. If your score is a d10, it becomes a
the time of this Escheresque event, you die. d20; if a d12, it becomes a d30. This condition reverses
• You do not lose this power when exiting the when you “exit” this region of the Escheresque.
Escheresque, only when time runs out. If you gain
this power and then return to threespace, you may 30 Z-locus temporal de-grounding – Dead things rise
continue the onslaught. from the dead and attack the living. There are a
number of dead things near you of a type determined
22 Quantum-erotic tremor – You fall in love with a by your pre-event locus. In the Escheresque, d20
random character in the same locus. To determine extradimensionals (XDs) per PC rise from the ropy,
whom, roll for it, spin a bottle, or ask the GM to decide. blotchy, chameleon-colored “ground” every ten min-
Your profound new feelings ebb away—albeit not im- utes. In the void, d10 hulkrobbers per PC stumble out
mediately—when you exit this Escheresque locus. If of plastic lockers and supposedly empty airlocks every
you are the only character in this locus, you become an hour. In alien environments, d8 zomboid starspawn-
irredeemable narcissist and remain so upon exiting the lings writhingly rise from their slime-quilted graves per
locus. Years of therapy may help, or may not. day to stalk you. Undead XDs have d10 in all scores,
23 Reparative quantum-biological micro-flux – When- 12 HEA, and 6 GRT; they inflict d10 damage with their
ever you or anyone else in this Escheresque locus blade-like hands. Hulkrobbers have d8s in all scores,
physically attacks an opponent, you inflict negative 20 HEA, and 10 GRT; they inflict 2d8 damage with
damage, adding HEA to their pool. You do not realize their retrofitted bolt guns; instead of attacking, they
this at first. Aggressive hell science powers function in may parlay and strike a deal with spacelubbers dumb
this same backwards manner. enough to make deals with the greedy dead. Zomboid
starspawnlings have d12s in all scores, 40 HEA, and 30
24 Softening of the Planck metrons, animistic – All of GRT; they inflict d20 damage with their acid-beslimed
the objects and surfaces and liquids in this Escher- tentacle attacks; instead of attacking, they may burn 6
esque zone—all non-gasses, all things dense with GRT to scan for living things or read the minds of living
molecules—seem to soften, take on parodically things within a 5-km radius.
familiar features (animal or human), as if reading your
thoughts, and then “come to life” and begin pushing
towards you… These soft quasi-beings can read and
ingest your thoughts, and they will kill you if given the À la the creepy attack of the
chance. Soft quasi-beings have d6s in all scores, 6 toys in Ōtomo Katsuhiro’s Akira.
HEA, and 6 GRT; they inflict 6 HEA and 6 GRT damage
per soft-bite attack. On any given round, if you stand
still, 6 of them will bite you. If you are moving, only
d6−1 will be able to reach you.

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 CH10 ☉ GMING STILLFLEET

References and monsters

TTRPG games are collaborative stories. In these stories,
the players have agency not only over their characters
but over the game world. But a world in which you
always win, you always get what you want—the sulfurous
clouds turn out to be cotton candy; the smoking
engine panel, easily fixed—is boring. The role of the
grimventure manager (GM) is not to harass players,
bully characters, steamroll the plot, or determine every
single aspect of the game world, but to fight ardently
against boredom at the table (along with its skulking
allies, awkwardness and cringe).
This chapter comprises thoughts on what a GM does
and why, types of actions that a GM may take, specific
elements of a game that a GM may prepare before a
session, and—last but certainly not least—20 dangerous
encounters to throw at the voidminers when a rousing
fight is just what the leech ordered.

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 MANAGING THE GAME

I believe that what we do today depends on our image of the future,

rather than the future depending on what we do today. … Therefore,
since no deterministic prediction is likely to be valid, visions of
the future—utopian visions—play a very important role in present
conduct. I am more afraid of the lack of utopias.
—Ilya Prigogine, “Beyond Being and Becoming,” New Perspectives Quarterly, 2014.

The functions
where to eat in the Canteen tonight), and sheer nonsense
(starts off with giggles all around but soon devolves into
a distracted, fractured table).

of the
The section “What to prepare,” below, focuses on
how to prepare—and not overly prepare—a venture in
Stillfleet. But three easy guidelines to remember will

grimventure
help keep your plots tending toward the epic. Keep the
stakes high by adhering to these principles:

manager
҂ All sapient groups (companies, queendoms, starships,
worlds) are inherently political – Any time a few people
get together (whether they are human, wetan, and/
or members of other species), power dynamics come
into play, and micro-cultures evolve. You don’t have to

Catalyze a fun plot run Stillfleet as the Cold War in deep space, e.g., but
you should periodically remind players of who is in

Or Severance or Atlanta in deep space. Or Broad City,

Working Moms, or High Maintenance in deep space. Or Black
power, what they want, and why this matters to their
Core game rule 1 characters. The default version of these answers is
something like, venal early modern investor–warlords

Adder or Midnight Diner in deep space. Etc., etc.

The first and most important rule of GMing any game are in charge; they want you to help them amass even
is, help the plot move along. Now. You often read this greater technological superiority over the scattered
articulated as “play to find out what happens,” meaning, post-Tephnian humans, wetans, and other sapes;
don’t have any plot in mind from the start; improvise and this matters because they have trained and now
everything; allow the players to build up a plot organi- employ the voidminers, who may be sent on ethically
cally. This can happen, especially if your players are murky/morally heinous assignments…
longtime TTRPG gamers and/or improv actors. But it
can also fail to happen, happen too slowly, and result in ҂ All settings are inherently (at least a little) dangerous –
stories that don’t make any narrative sense—which can Nowhere is ever entirely safe! Ergo, you can always
be fun or frustrating. throw some kind of challenge at the voidminers.
Instead of strictly playing to find out what will hap- This doesn’t have to be combat to the death; it can
pen, we recommend planning at least a couple of major be an environmental change (weather), legal issue,
plot points—events, twists, challenges, revelations— bout of intense haggling, contested act of seduction,
that you think would be fun to throw at your players. dance contest, etc. But all settings should allow you
You don’t need to hit every single plot point to have fun. to nudge the players along, challenge their characters,
But by thinking through at least some ways of raising and keep everyone paying attention. (But do see “Start
narrative tensions in advance (that is, making the story fights.”)
matter, in some way), you’ll militate against boredom
in all of its forms: overly obvious plots (endlessly ҂ All actions, whether minor or major, have interesting
murdering space orqs for the supposed good of the consequences – Not every single offhand comment
peaceful space queendom), domestic plots without needs to work like a narrative hand grenade… That
stakes (space Seinfeld—endless petty arguments over said, major choices by the voidminers as a group or

310 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WHISPERS

 individual player characters should have memo-
rable, plot-propelling consequences. Even when Upkeep challenge: periodically
they try something important and fail, they should, remind the players of just
“fail forward” (in the idiom of game designer Vex):
for example, perhaps one voidminer calls for a how excited/motivated their
REA/use tech check to activate the strong bug-tech AI
characters are to get to the
running a mi-go installation on a rock in the Kuiper
Belt, and they get a 2. A failure, but not the catas- bottom of/get through/get out
trophe of a 1 (the mi-go have been alerted; the self- of this story
destruct sequence has been activated, etc.). Perhaps—
while nothing happens immediately—the AI has been
awakened from its “slumber” and is now watching the The job of catalyzing a fun, high stakes, interesting,
PCs, taunting them by locking the orifice-doors at coherent plot is not a one-off. During each session,
random, turning the ammonia-based “food printer” offer brief recaps of scenes throughout play, at least
on and off, etc. once or twice, or whenever asked. This means, when-
ever attentions have wandered and/or bathroom breaks
have been had, etc., quickly re-set the scene: who
is here, now, in our collective minds’ eye? What is hap-
pening? Why does it matter?
One way to re-engage players quickly is to go around
the group and suggest everyone add one detail via
prompt such as: “What’s each voidminer thinking right
now?” “What’s each of you thinking about the path that
brought you to this moment—your past mistakes, your
desires regarding what happens next?” “Where is each
of you hiding…?” (And so on.)
In addition, if your game is part of a longer multi-
session story or many-IRL-month campaign, then offer
a recap of the previous sessions before each session.
These can be relatively quick if everyone attended the
last game, it happened recently, and/or the plot was
particularly memorable. But it’s always best practice to
check in, offer a recap, and summarize any key points
that you want the players to keep in mind.
And how do you remember what happened, game
to game? By taking shorthand venture notes or even
writing up a brief prose recap of the game. We suggest
starting a Google Doc for each campaign and taking
running notes. This is not only for the players’ benefit!
It will also help you remember the plot and thus inform
your decisions about how best to keep it high-stakes.

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Live and breathe Reliable narrator challenge:
a fascinating setting you definitely don’t have to know
Core game rule 2 everything about the game world,
Sci-fi and cosmic fantasy environments are weird as hell,
but you should try to have fun
and the voidminers are never truly, totally alone. (And making stuff up when asked
if they are, that should be extra terrifying!) GM duty
number two, after catalyzing an interesting plot
(meaning neither railroading one nor taking one for That means, answer questions about the game world
granted) is to make the game world 1) real and 2) worthy immediately and in depth, unless there is a specific
of exploration. reason to hold back information (a powerful NPC is
Making the world real does not mean preparing hiding or lying or whatever). Of course, it’s also perfectly
thousands of arcane details, writing a travel guide, or fair to say, “I don’t know,” or, “Let’s talk about this as a
literally memorizing this book. Those activities may be group: how long should the clouds on Vesper-9 take to
fun for you, but they aren’t necessary to tell a good story. produce rain after you seed them with water-collecting
Instead, you simply need to make the setting of every nanites?” There is no reason not to turn a question
scene memorable, in some way, in the moment. (Memo- out to the group whenever a) you don’t have a strong
rable for the game session, at least.) Luckily, you have feeling either way and/or b) the answer will not affect
tropes to rely on. some core, still-secret plot point.
Tropes can be background elements such as
stock characters (far-seeing little girls who become
prophets, canny bounty hunters, corporate gene hunters,
seemingly ordinary silt farmers), locations (floating
Collaborative world-building
sky-palaces, ruins of giga-factories, engineered utopian
garden-worlds), fauna (rapidly reproducing cute The overall Stillfleet game world was constructed
vermin, mega-worms, liquid-metal cyborgs), foods collaboratively over many campaigns with many
(super-nutrient mush, soy-anything, giant insects), players. That said, in any individual game, Wythe and
cultural facts (the people here worship/abhor ancient later Ethan and others did have specific ideas in their
technology, the music here sounds like rain/earth- minds regarding what the general setting was like.
quake rumbles/thunder/whalesong, the goods here You can use this book however you like—taking on
are well-made but more expensive—and produced by the general setting, hacking it, or discarding it. When
families of artisan-slaves), etc. it comes to specifics (worlds, hulks, plots, villains, etc.),
How much you rely on tropes from a given genre (e.g., you are very much encouraged to invent, remix, and
space opera, cosmic horror, cyberpunk, or cli-fi), a given ignore as you please.
source (e.g., Dune, The Wingspread of Severed Hands, If your group is interested in worldbuilding and wants
Binti, Deep Space Nine), this book and other “official” to invent a new general setting or focus on fleshing out
source materials (or other quality sci-fi TTRPG books), a specific one, then we encourage you to consider
or the real world (e.g., Wikipedia, Atlas Obscura, your worldbuilding and character-exploring games such
favorite travel guides, history and anthropology books) as Microscope, I’m Sorry Did You Say Street Magic, and
is totally up to you. Just remember that tropes can Signal, to name just a few.
be mixed and matched: your psychically powered
beam swords can live in a mega-city dominated by the N.B., this sentence was randomly generated
Mitsubashi–OmniKorp Combine™, ride light-bikes, eat by 1) writing an ad lib for the desired parts
fufu spiced with bioluminescent algae, drink beers out of the sentence and then 2) looking at a list
of sci-fi tropes and interpreting them very
of elephant-shaped mugs, and secretly be plotting to liberally to fill in the blanks.
replace the Chief Happiness Empress with the purity-
obsessed ecclesiarch of the Cult of Silence.

312 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WHISPERS

Stay interested in The corollary: try not to leave
the voidminers anyone out
Core game rule 3 Some folks are shy. Some are new to roleplaying. Some
are tired after a shift. Some are going through Real
While helping the group tell an interesting story in an Life Shit. That is totally 100% normal. Not everyone
interesting setting, the GM must also practice the art of needs to speak equally, if that’s their choice. But you as
paying attention to individual players, largely via their GM can at least check in, make the offer, and try to
characters. Two simple principles suffice: remember who has spoken a lot recently and who
has yet to speak. The goal is not to force anything, but

Written notes and session recaps, however short, will help

҂ Make the voidminers’ lives not-boring – These char- to make sure no one feels left out. This seems fairly
acters may not be heroes, but they’re also not mere obvious and is, in our experience, fairly easy to accom-

you manage the flow of specific-character shout-outs.

“worker bees”—because no one is a mere worker. plish. But it no doubt takes a bit of conscious practice,
Workers are people with rich inner lives. The PCs like all of these other GMing skills!
are no exception. (Well, most of them: the occasional
murder-hobo-in-space does make an appearance.)
What this means in practice is, occasionally ask the Create credible and
players about their characters’ home lives, their inner
thoughts, their politics. These questions don’t demand motivated antagonists
long or complex answers, or answers at all. They may
be rhetorical. But they may get the players thinking. Core game rule 4
Also, occasionally introduce NPCs, however minor,
who already know and care about the PCs. What do It’s easy to throw space orqs, time-traveling cyber-
others think of the voidminers? Have they, e.g., helped liches, and mindless living weapons at the voidminers.
a community of captive Ancient scientists escape the It’s slightly more work, perhaps, but much more fun to
mi-go, thus earning an endless series of (humorously introduce into the plot lichenoids who are xenophobic
translated) thank-you poems and honey-cakes? but not “evil,” refactors with hidden agendas, and sad
warmachines with very specific “requests.” It’s epic-
҂ Throw each individual player a bone, as time allows – level fun to embroil the players in a noir plot—one in
This may seem like a lot of work but will become easier which they’ve already chosen the wrong side, missed the
and easier as you play with a group: e.g., Damy Gamels, critical clue, righteously angered the deep structures of
an asshole teenage thief (Fleeter mouse), paradoxically power, forever lost the missing golden child, etc.
loves playing the banjo for people because his player, This all said, you can certainly start simple—a
Scott, is a brilliant musician. Thus it’s easy to intro- dangerous random encounter (see below)—and work
duce some sort of musical event every other game or up to epic/noir. The way to do this is relatively straight-
so. Scott enjoys getting five minutes to narrate how forward: throw some challenges at the players. See
Damy interacts with old pub-crooners and bemused what they care about. Think more about the obstacle to
aliens. The other players get a laugh because, well, that desideratum (desired outcome), or make up a new
Damy is a jerk, and something is bound to go wrong— obstacle, if none of the randomly thrown darts makes
most often, via Damy’s music-inspired absence from a sense or seems suitably epic.
critical sneaking-related scene elsewhere. The key is to consider what the obstacle-entity wants:
e.g., does the ylythnari really want to destroy your
For a brief timeline of murder hoboes and the
universe purely out of “evil?” (Did it pick your universe
TTRPG world’s gradual turn against/beyond them,
see the books and articles on this syllabus. out of a random list of possible universes?) Or does it
specifically want to be born, in your universe’s future,
in the AI-driven ultra-sapience-mill that will be created
by posthumans in order to birth a being capable of
defeating an Old One…
This motivation is weird, to say the least, but it also
provides the players with more choices to play off of
than combat alone: perhaps they can convince the ylyth-
nari that it doesn’t need to murder millions of sapients

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just to attract to your threespace the attentions of the
Old One that will precipitate the crisis that necessitates GMless games
its eventual birth. Perhaps the ylythnari’s motivation
simply provides for a more satisfyingly gut-wrenching Beyond two GMs (see “Multi-GM games” below), it is
story, when the voidminers do or do not succeed in possible to break up and distribute all aspects of GMing,
preventing it from bootstrapping its own birth loop. resulting in a game with either no GM or “oops—all GMs,”
The point is, “evil” without further motivation is depending on your perspective. We have played this
boring and frankly rare, beyond individual serial killers. way, and it works—although we do prefer one or two
Most antagonists in satisfying stories believe they are GMs for most games.
doing something good, in fact. It is exactly the tension There are probably a large number of ways to divide
between their definition of good and the players’ (and GMing duties. We break them up into five functions,
yours) that makes the story gripping, more than hack- which can be held by one to five different people:
and-slash.
• Plot – One GM function is to catalyze an interest-
ing story. The plot GM takes point in sketching key
scenes and introducing antagonists—but they don’t
direct what happens between the voidminers and
the antagonists. The plot GM also sets scenes but
then turns over the work of thick description and
question-answering to the setting GM.
• Setting – One GM function is to bring the game’s
physical and social setting to vivid life. The
setting GM picks up the setting of scenes from the plot
GM and adds detail. The environment GM also takes
point in running environmental challenges (obstacles
that aren’t antagonists).
• Antagonist – One GM function is to introduce
credible and complex (or at least not cartoonish)
villains, from pyrates to Directorate officials. The
antagonist GM takes over when an antagonist enters
the scene. They control each antagonist, but the plot
GM directs the overall story.
• Referee – One GM function is to adjudicate the rules.
The referee GM interprets all rules and does the
bulk of the dice-rolling for the GMs (along with the
antagonist GM).
• Time and safety – One GM function is to keep track of
critical meta-game issues: when does the game stop
and start? And, is everyone comfortable? The time
and safety GM starts the game, checks in regarding
any issues that require consent, suggests breaks, calls
play to a close, and schedules future games.

The Stillfleet Studio explores an oops-all-GM structure

in the game Yuggothi Confidential. Another TTRPG that
successfully uses such a structure is the environmental
mystery game Ashfall.

314 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WHISPERS

Referee the rules ҂ At the start of each game session, give the group a
little room to joke around, reconnect, ask questions,
Maintenance rule 1 and bring up possible issues. In addition, ask how
everyone is doing. These human moments build
This one is easy: you don’t have to memorize the respect and allow for shy players to understand that
rulebook. You should, however, become comfortable it’s okay to bring up whatever they want.
with some version of the rules, a version you can use ҂ At the end of each game session, check in: did anything
to make relatively quick but fair judgment calls, most of come up during the game that felt uncomfortable?
the time. This isn’t the end of the world—life is often uncom-
Even that said, feel free to tell the players that you fortable!—but TTRPGs are games, which are meant
want to look up something or think about it for a to be fun. If something can be improved, talk about
minute. Feel free to ask the group what they think. We, it! And remind everyone that, if someone doesn’t feel
the creators of the game, still do this! We CMD-F the comfortable talking about an issue in a group, they can
names of powers; we rethink interpretations on the fly directly message you. You care. You’ll make time.
in response to bright ideas and fervent demands from ҂ Finally, over the course of a long-term campaign,
players, etc. There is no shame in pausing to make sure check in with yourself now and again, on an ad hoc
everyone feels the rules are being applied in a consistent basis: how’s it going? Are you trying to cram in too
and therefore fun way. many games? Are you leaning on any tired or even
That said, it helps speed up the actual storytelling if problematic tropes? Can you think of something
you can eventually figure out your own take on the more fresh? Is the game hitting the sort of moral
rules: are you using any optional ones? Hacking the points you’d hoped? Or is everyone cool murder-
core system? More or less sticking to a minimal hoboing (but in space)? These questions don’t have
interpretation of the core rules? Any choice is fine, as right or wrong answers, a priori. Just keep in mind
is changing your mind over time; just communicate that you have within you the ability to grow as a
your preferences clearly to your players. GM and storyteller, and some sort of change is
inevitable. Thus, take a moment from time to time

Prioritize safety at the table to acknowledge your shortcomings, improvements,

evolving philosophical commitments, and/or shifting
Maintenance rule 2 science-fictional tastes.

Respecting others is one critically important but

relatively easy task that the GM can lead the group in
Don’t give up: act in good faith,
performing—although everyone must play their part. and your group will put up with
Here are a few concrete suggestions:
an evolving safety discourse
҂ At the start of the one-off game or campaign, make
time for introductions. Ask every player to introduce To make all this positive talk more concrete, let me
themself, including their preferred pronouns, and offer an example: cannibalism. Stillfleet features a lot
then to introduce their character, including their char- of it, operating under the assumption that advanced
acter’s preferred pronouns. Also, if you’re using a vir- nanotechnologies will, of course, be used by at least
tual video service or virtual tabletop, prompt everyone a few gastronomes to metabolize human flesh (and
to change their name to their character’s name, and to other weird crap). One player, however, raised the very
include preferred pronouns. If you all know each oth- reasonable objection that cannibalism is gross. This put
er, these introductions can proceed relatively quickly. the onus on the GM/game developer to treat the topic
If you don’t know each other, take as much time as as veiled: we could still use blooder powers related to
you need, and repeat for as many sessions as you need. cannibalism, but we’d skip the graphic ultraviolence or
҂ In addition, at the start of a one-off or campaign, go turn such strange hunger toward plastic and steel (e.g.),
around and share lines and veils: what story mate- achieving a sufficiently powerful break with human
rial is off-limits? What material is okay to summarize, metabolic norms. Note, the GM was not always perfect
but not okay to delve into in depth? GMs, write this in remembering this veil! But the GM made an effort,
down! In a campaign, periodically check in and ask if and over time the topic more or less vanished from the
any topics have come up that should be lined away or story.
nudged behind a veil of summarization.

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Play timekeeper
Maintenance rule 3

Another relatively easy but ultra-important rule: when

setting up games, always be clear about temporal,
spatial, and/or virtual expectations. That means:

҂ Confirm game dates and times

҂ Confirm time zones, if some players are joining by
Discord, Zoom, Slack, Foundry, or another virtual
meeting or virtual tabletop service
҂ Confirm what virtual meeting service or virtual table-
top you’re using, if any
҂ Confirm where you’re meeting, if any members of
your group are meeting in person
҂ Confirm whether or not you are going to play if one or
more players can’t make it

Etc. The point is, politely ask questions and get answers.
Note, good GMs whom we know practice an “all sins
forgiven” policy by which anyone can bail and even veto
a game session for any reason, no harm done.
With bigger and more temporally disparate groups,
we also recommend considering a “West Marches”
approach, as much as possible: the GM sets up the game
sessions around their schedule and only cancels if no
one can join. Otherwise, the plot moves forward. This
style of play puts the onus on the GM to try to run
sessions that have fairly discrete narrative beats, and
that end up with the characters back on Spindle or some
other relatively neutral location.

Multi-GM games

If more than one member of your gaming group likes

to GM, then consider running a dual-GM game wherein
one of you acts as “the world” and rules while the other
acts as the primary antagonist (the villain), or all of the
antagonists (including random encounters).
In the simplest version of a multi-GM game, the
second GM basically plays a character who is anti-
aligned with the PCs. This GM has control over their
character but nothing else. In more complex versions
of multi-GM games, the second GM can take over
other GMing duties, perhaps running events in certain
locations, or acting as creator and arbiter of all
archaetech and/or hell science, etc.
The two GMs can coordinate, but it may be more fun
for both to lean into the tension of not knowing what the
other is thinking.
For an excellent example of a dual-GM game, see
Float City.

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 Cut scenes
GM moves The corollary of setting a scene is cutting one, meaning
ending it. Most scenes will end on their own. But
sometimes, a few players feel there is more to explore

What is a “move?” when there isn’t—or, rather, when more obviously

exciting plot points lay directly ahead. It’s perfectly okay
The section above may seem abstract, removed from the to simply cut the scene: “You dig around for a while
moment-to-moment work of managing a venture. This and find an old tuning fork. That’s about it. That noise
section and the ones that follow suggest specific ways is still coming from the next section of the factory,
that a GM can affect the game both while it’s happening however, beyond the machine room where the dunes
(this section) and beforehand (the next section). have pushed through the wall…”
Following an idiom used in other TTRPGs such as
Apocalypse World, we will call the actions that a GM
takes during the game “moves.”
Spam exposition
A move is not a power, because the GM does not act As you call scenes into being and cut them for pacing,
in the game in the same ways that a player does—or not keep throwing in those vivid details! Keep in mind all
only in these ways. The GM primarily acts on the meta of the senses. What does a given rock smell like, for ex-
level, affecting the plot by providing its key elements ample, if there is atmo and the voidminers’ helmets come
and its container, the game world. Moves are thus more off? If there is no atmo, remind the players that most bio-
abstract than powers, but perhaps also more intuitive: logical sapes will grow more and more uncomfortable in
moves don’t require rules; rather, they provide context their suits as the hours of nervous travel wear on.
for the players to call for rules by making use of their

Raise the stakes,

powers.

Set scenes heightening emotions

The most basic move that a GM makes is setting the Raising the stakes can take many forms. Sometimes,
scene for a game. After everyone has been introduced, it just means speeding up: don’t put off the big final
caught up regarding IRL news, and so on, the GM calls boss-confrontation; throw it in now; see what happens;
the game to order with a recap and then a moment of allow it to suggest an even bigger confrontation to come.
scene setting: where are the voidminers? What are they Sometimes, raising the stakes means allowing elements
doing? What does the world around them look like? to connect: when the random encounter is over, consider
Sometimes, scene-setting means asking questions who actually set it up, and why?
about what the voidminers think they’re doing. But at
the opening of a venture in Stillfleet, if you want to stick
to the core concept, then the intro scene should consist
Start fights
of the characters being offered some kind of job by Sometimes, you gotta throw at the voidminers pale
a refactor of another representative of the Co., or of floating jellies as large as hills, legionaries with muskets,
another faction. purple-pelted eyeless munkeys, gulm and/or mulg,
This templated intro scene was designed to quickly warmachines, different warmachines, Escheresque
give the players something to care about—whether they tornadoes of anti-being, or—you know—a rival team of
want to pull off the mission as assigned or go rogue. voidminers sent to “clean up…”
Feel free to suggest that every character already knows The point is not to try to physically harm the void-
each other, and that they are in fact already standing in a miners for no reason (although some groups like that
refactor’s office, pouring over a specific venture contract. dynamic), but to remind the players that the threat of
From there, follow the players’ leads and introduce physical violence underpins all systems of power.
your own plot elements. Just remember to always slow Now, when actually running fights, there are various
down at the start of a new scene to set up an “establishing useful guidelines to keep in mind:
shot” in the group minds’ eye.
҂ Describe powers without naming them—until you’re
Describing dark, cramped, alien,
asked for clarification. That is, be mysterious for
highly bureaucratic-looking, even
unsettling offices is half the fun effect, not to confuse players or seem to be playing by
of starting out a new game… a different set of rules.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH10 ☉ GMING STILLFLEET 317

 The The
Kloof Kraa
Then-Not-Now

Verry
Nullo’s Ax

Deadwalk Qallantope The Quartan

Sword

The
Slyde

The city of

LLAMAGINo
Largest city of Vennar, on the supercontinent
of Pala, on Terra. Comprising 10 boroughs,
7 of which are Late Tephnian “needles,” and
known stiffworks.
Memolo
☉ = stiffworks The Red Labyrinth The Incarnadine
Gate

Silk Town

҂ During combat, make each round unique: try to think they insisted on finding a local smuggler and paying him
of one thing, larger or small, that has changed due to to hide them within an ordinary caravan.
the previous round. The group’s slow planning and movement became
҂ Speed way up if a fight seems to be dragging: have somewhat of a joke, but it also lent a pall of vivid para-
the combatants pull grenades, run away, call for a noia to the whole plot: they did know about another
truce, etc. team of mysterious voidminers in the area, after all (even
҂ Actually try to kill voidminers—but allow them to get if the GM had been clear that they were headed to the
away if they want. We like the rules of Hollowpoint: same northern city). Two sessions were devoted to the
the GM can reduce a character to zero health, but only interplay between GM-suggested outs and player-led ac-
a player can choose for their character to die. tion (mostly logistical—many customs officers had to be
bribed). Fun was had!

Suggest outs
When the players seem confused, frustrated, lost, or
Reward the voidminers
bored, feel free to suggest an option. This is especially Get the players excited! Give their characters oddments,
useful if their collective hopelessness turns to boredom. occasional archaetech, pets, allies—what have you.
(Remember, even smart players who enjoy the plot This move can be used for a variety of plot purposes:
elements you throw at them can’t read your mind and for example, telling the voidminers that they discover
are likely busy, IRL: they will mostly forget your artfully a working hovertank sounds like a major reward—but
imagined subtleties of story.) when a rival warmachine comes looking for it, the
At the same time, keep in mind that suggestions are stakes are raised. And will they report each new techno-
just that. If the players reeeally seem to be having fun treasure to the Co., or lie by omission, creating fuel for
building a narrative house between a rock and hard later political conflicts?
place, let them. (But continue to suggest new directions.)
One real example from play: the players became fixated
on traveling from a provincial stiffworks north across
Check in with the players
several hundred km of hot savanna and hilly forest with And of course one useful GM move is to simply lead
the utmost care. They were absolutely convinced that the group out of the moment, out of the story, and ask
they’d be jumped by veteran assassins on the road, and how it’s going. Does anyone need a quick break? Does
they took great pains to hide. a recent moment of between-player tension need to be
In reality, the GM had not planned any events until talked through, or is everybody good?
they reached their destination, a large city to the north.
The GM dropped frequent hints that they could cut
scene, roll for random encounters, and move on, but

318 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WHISPERS

 BEHIND THE SCENES

Vital organs make poor house plans…

—David Greenwood, “Modern Architecture,” The Bubble Cannon, 2022.

Fall in love with CMD-C/-P

What does Create new files for notes liberally: copy and paste in ma-

preparing
terial from game books, other books, your older notes,
the internet, etc. You can fill a “junk” or “scrap” file full
of text, ignore what you like, take notes in it, build it into

mean?
a more presentable form, and/or never look at it again.
The same goes for “moodboard” folders full of images
that inspire you, that depict specific game elements, or
that are meant to be diegetic (existing in the world of the
game). We find a lot of images online and save them for

Jot down ideas—lightly reference. In other folders, we have our own sketches,
and in still others, maps.
wants it. Warden is suspicious of Co.’s involvement but needs help to stamp out
E.g.: “Brain leeches. Wingèd Anti-Mother Cult. The swamp has coal-like ore; Archive

Probably the most important prep move as a GM is to

have fun while doing so! When you have an idea for
Don’t over-prepare
slavers. Fruit, furry, that floats at night due to some thermal property?”

something you think would be fun in a game, write it

down, in however short a hand. A half-page of bulleted You can spend weeks writing a beautiful, complicated
ideas can go a long way toward structuring an entire plot. story that your players may or may not play through
At the same time, remember that you don’t have to use with anything like fidelity. They may skip the coolest
every idea, and certainly not in every game. parts, get mired down in side plots and minutiae (often
Things to jot down: haggling). There is nothing wrong with writing out a
whole sci-fi story, but you only need an outline and
҂ Outline – Basic plot points: what’s the job? What’s the some fun random ideas to run a game. All told, we don’t
twist? think you necessarily need to spend more than an hour
҂ Key NPCs – Refactor, antagonist/s prepping a game.
҂ Random encounters – Interesting things that can

Trust your take on the

happen; list 6
҂ Random ideas you want to use – Words, images, places,
etc.
҂ A map – Always great, if you can find, adapt, or sketch
system
one Stillfleet is both a “crunchy” system and a “rules-light”
one: it has few basic rules but lots and lots of options.

Look up facts Only a few classes, but many advanced powers to choose
from. Tons of gear and other tech to use as written or use
Many of the best ideas for strange sci-fi elements come as a template for your own ideas—or ignore.
from real-world facts: the common names of flowers, This is all to say: the game is easy to mechanicalize but
terms in theoretical physics, unbuilt super-weapons or allows for a lot of fine-tuning, if/when you need it. You
built but soon ruined giant buildings, historical figures, can lean on the crunch and make copious notes about
architectural terms, lists of odd words, and so on. When- statistics, or you can focus on the game as rules-light:
ever a fact strikes you as sufficiently strange, add it to there are only five scores to roll and one pool to burn
your brainstorm file!

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 (grit), so basically your notes will work mechanically if
you just add—as relevant—what checks you want rolled
NPCs
and how much GRT certain actions, items, or locations Key to prep is NPC design. NPCs generally fall into
(stiffworks, AI) cost. two categories: 1) ones whom the PCs will fight, steal
from, or otherwise interact with via powers, and 2) ones

Ask the group whom the PCs will only interact with by talking. In the
first case, you will need at least some statistics—scores,
Before running a game, ask around: what kinds of pool, attacks (at least one), and powers (if any). You can
stories do the players like? What plot elements, weird use the encounters in the last section of this chapter
vistas, and futuristic technologies are they interested as guides. In the second case, you will only need some
in? You are not obliged to prepare for everything they details to make each NPC memorable.
mention, but at least you’ll know.

What to
prepare?
Lists
To the game designers, the primary unit of GMing
Stillfleet is the list: lists of beats in a venture (the job,
the twist, front one, front two, random encounters,
possible endings—each can be a short list!), encounters
(see the example table below), names (for NPCs and
locations), NPCs, levels and rooms in a hulk, buildings in
a city (useful, notable, key to the plot), xenofauna, pyrate
cartels, specific provincial legions, technologies, foods,
healing herbs, whatever! Usefully, combining multiple
linked lists together produces a generator, or way of
using random dice rolls to flesh out a topic.
Note, this book, like all Stillfleet products, features
The app STRINGS comprises several generators
that we use in running our games. Check it out!

numerous lists and generators that are useful both as

written and as templates. Many other fine games rely
primarily on lists. Perhaps first among them jumps to
mind the deliciously weird Electric Bastionland.

Maps
The secondary unit of GMing Stillfleet is the map:
whether rapidly hand-drawn or painstakingly imagined
using digital brushes, maps of hulks, buildings, cities,
regions, worlds, and even organizations can serve as
central framing elements. You can, for example, paste a
map into a virtual whiteboard program such as Miro or
Jamboard and then surround it with notations—such as
lists! In this way, lists and maps together sketch out a sort
of story space for your group to explore.

320 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WHISPERS

The three golden rules of NPC Sample quick NPCs d20
creation
1 Corlimane Phykusk, Fleeter pharmacyst and
1. Fast is better than perfect. street-drug dealer.

2. Try strange things (tics, names, goals) up front; 2 Rarlando the Obstinate, provincial pediatric leech—
backpedal to the useful, plot-wise (drop tic, switch the only physician on this backwater planet.

to nickname, subsume the NPC’s goal into the PC’s 3 Completely Meat Weaver, wetan refactor and
goal), as the session wears on. spyhunter.

3. Don’t be afraid to kill your darlings and/or mothball 4 Choramunc of Anch-Petit, stoned provincial poet
boring allies as needed. and expert on something relevant to the PCs.

5 Ulsaal-ul Vadraah, shoodtha swordsaint and blood-

monk. Robo-sneezes constantly.

6 Bildall the Orange, Fleeter, the judge presiding over

your case.

7 Many Oakroot Duster, wetan pack-reptile taxidriver

and loudmouth.

8 Solemn Pumm, conscript professional griever,

homeless schizophrenic, and spy for the Archive.

9 Karemet the Honest, provincial chandler of note

in your region (but is he really honest?), also a
professional strongman.

10 Qinhayyzle-9, pepper elf machinist and

repairperson.

11 Eealan Darick, Fleeter generic thug-with-a-small-

gang; dual-wields horse pistols and uses explosive
shot—watch out!

12 Yondarz Startoucher, ha’quan riflist for hire,

obsessed with finding the perfect cupcake.

13 Duke Vavaryyd ob Phernesti, rich provincial with a

shady job that might interest you…

14 Bithneema, enjan void-nun in charge of tax

collection in your sector; somehow just found the
fabled Negative-Tachyon Phaser of Draa’īm.

15 Qhant of Varanckesh, provincial farmer and

craftsperson who saw that thing you’re looking for
not long ago… (Invites you in, offers a home-cooked
meal—is Qhant hiding something?)

16 Jhanahash of the Old Kingdom Fens, unhuman

scientist working with the Archive.

17 Variant Kerchief Sighter, wetan, veteran

hulkwalker, fearless in the void.

18 Valet Secundus to the Count of the Floating

Eidolon, restored Late Tephnian aux, currently
working for the Wasters on optimizing trash
pickup routes, deathly bored, knows secrets.

19 Pereemaum Fraan, sly provincial courtier tasked

with following you around the Governor’s palazzo.
Maybe speaks in rhymes?

20 aray Bassidous the 4th, alien noble (? you think)

with a grudge against your refactor.

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 Items Quick stat blocks
Another core type of game element to prep is the
memorable item—a venture-defining MacGuffin (which Full encounters include the following statistics: the
can be utterly ordinary, even a commodity or raw number of individual entities encountered, COM (dX),
material), oddment, and archaetech. As with NPCs, MOV (dX), REA (dX), WIL (dX), CHA (dX), HEA (XX—usu-
items fall into two categories: 1) ones with which the PCs ally maxCOM +maxMOV), GRT (XX—usually maxREA
will interact mechanically, typically by burning GRT or +maxWIL), DR (X, note origin), 3 habits (examples of
making REA/use tech checks, and 2) ones with which the activities that the entities might be engaged in when
PCs will interact narratively, as discursive props (cues voidminers encounter them), 1 dogma (their core set
that change the plot). of beliefs), powers (including common combat-related
ones from the tactics list as well as hell science powers),

Encounters attacks, gear, and any quick facts that will matter (e.g.,
they know the PCs; they are moral but are also starving
A game element that can take time to prep is the encoun- or fleeing a bigger threat).
ter. Again, we can think of them as having two levels of Quick stat blocks can include less information but
depth: 1) a quick, phrase-long summary of scores, and 2) will generally still include scores, pool, attacks, and
a full “pink box” encounter as presented in the later sec- powers. Just remember: all numbers ultimately serve
tion “Fangs.” But the most critical element to prepare is the collective story (the numbers only exist to make the
simply a rollable list of encounters. Here is one example. story more exciting), not the other way round!

Random encounters, quick d6

1 Disaster – Random hostile encounter! Roll on the

relevant table. Or just pick the worst thing (xaalii,
void elves, e.g.). Or, if you’re currently being pursued
by a specific enemy, they find you.

2 Bad news – Random hostile encounter! Roll on

the relevant table. Or just pick a normal-bad thing
(bandits, space bandits, e.g.).

3 Poor omen – Nothing much happens, but the

foreboding landscape/voidscape through which you
pass leaves you seriously spooked.

4 Good omen – Nothing much happens, but the

pleasant landscape/voidscape through which you
pass leaves you feeling confident.

5 Relief – You encounter some random helpful

strangers. These should fit the landscape/voidscape
in which you find yourself. They offer respite and
company, to the extent that you want these things.
They leave you alone if you’re on a secret mission, in
a hurry, etc.

6 Lucky break – You find just the thing you need (food
if starving, helpful strangers if lost, etc.) Or you find a
random useful archaetech item.

Statistics and new rules

Probably all of the statistics you need to prep are covered
above, and anything else can be searched via CMD-F.
But of course feel free to not only jot down more
statistics as applicable, but to invent whole new rules.

GMs, make your players roll for random encounters. You just
look at the results and interpret them. In general, on random
rolls, low is bad; high is good. A roll of 1 is unbelievably
bad; the maximum die value is pretty damn lucky.

322 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WHISPERS

The first
Many players will have only a few specific rules-relat-
ed questions, which you should help address. The more
substantial discussions should concern archetypes, party

session(s)
make-up, and the philosophical goals of the group: are
the players interested in subverting the Co. from the
jump? Becoming rich? Acting as heroes? Depending
on how the conversation among the players is going,
prompt them with these sorts of questions.

Bringing it all together for Offer a job and set the tone
a first game When you’re ready to begin, offer the voidminers a job.
Moving beyond an overview of what GMing is, this See “Screams” for more on how refactorial venture con-
section asks: how to prep games in general, and what tracts work. In terms of GMing this scene, feel free to
specific elements to consider prepping? This section take your time or move at a quick clip. Either way, this
focuses on initial games and is most useful to first-time initial interaction between the voidminers and the Co.
GMs. should set the tone for the game to come—mysterious,
political, silly, a bit of a mix?
Stages of a first game session, with Beyond the job offer—signing an electroplate scroll,
rough estimates of the minimum times keying a passcode into an authorized port, whatever—
the rest of Spindle can help set the tone and provide
(given a 2–3-hour block) frameworks for the characters to chat with each other.
Intro scenes:
1. Player introductions and safety
conversation – 10 minutes ҂ Eating/drinking a snack or meal in the Canteen before
2. Character design and introductions, if necessary tacking out
(i.e., if not using random or pre-generated ҂ Buying gear in the Canteen or Grindeesal Alley
characters) – 15–30 minutes ҂ Visiting the Archive to search for basic (or obscure)
3. The job – 30 minutes information about the target rock or hulk
4. Prep on-Spin, if any – 10 minutes ҂ Meeting up with kin: encourage each player to briefly
5. Tacking out – 5 minutes introduce one kin at this point, if they want
6. Vivid weirdness in at least one location – 30 minutes

Incentivize exploration and

7. Climax of some sort – 30 minutes
8. End on a cliffhanger, or when you have to – 5 minutes
9. Checking in after the game – 5 minutes
10. Scheduling the next game, if applicable – 5 minutes
encounter
As soon as the voidminers leave Spindle—arriving on

Guide character design some alien ship or earthlike world that is no longer
familiar—lay on the description thickly. Give them
During the first session, or during a special pre-game strange details to explore, clues about the plot, and/or
“session zero,” the players should create characters, activities to engage in—if they want. Any given
asking questions of you as well as each other. This player may want to jump ahead with the plot. But, in
process takes very little time if you generate a character our experience, many players of sci-fi TTRPGs want
randomly or modify a pre-generated character. to spend time exploring new worlds, technoruins,
Most players, however, will want to create a voidminer and so on. Make time for these explorations, and think
from scratch. This can take time if they are new to the about ways to bring them to life: rewards (random
game and/or don’t want to read dozens of pages. You oddments), threats (random encounters), and clues
should help direct them through the process, which is (tie-ins to the larger plot, which may seem random at
pretty simple: choose a class, choose a species, assign the time).
scores, buy gear, and note important personal facts such
as name, pronouns, presentation, relationship with other
characters, etc.

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Construct a climax
Regardless of how far the voidminers make it in the
outlined plot, try to build in some moment of decision
and/or action. One simple way to do this is to throw
an obstacle such as a random fight at them. Again, this
doesn’t have to mean combat (although it can). And this
climax doesn’t have to resolve whatever larger plot is
unfolding. But ideally, the players will feel some sense
of having made a choice, made a difference, clarified the
nature of an antagonist, etc.
To give an example, in one first game (the second
venture of a campaign), the voidminers spent a lot of
time exploring a large city on Terra. The climax
of the venture had nothing to do with the job
at hand, but instead focused on a random
encounter—the dinosaur circus. You see, the
dancing raptors had gone berserk, and one of the
PCs was a hell scientist with the power trade
eyes. The climax came when she chose to swap
her mind into the brain of a raptor—porting a
confused raptor’s mind into her own body—and
then calm down the pack.

End on a cliffhanger!—
or when you have to
A great way to end a game that will continue is a
classic cliffhanger: the voidminers find the home of the
provincial scientist they’re meant to escort to Spindle for
a conference… but everyone inside is missing—or dead.
The voidminers defeat, escape from, or placate the
mi-go, but the effort exerted in doing so
attracts the attention of a long-slumbering
warmachine…
Cliffhangers work well to help the players
remember the action. They should prompt
some after-game chat about what the group wants to do
next. We encourage this kind of “table talk,” since it helps
fill in logical gaps: the characters would take the plot very
seriously, even if the players spend a lot of time goofing
around or are partially distracted.
Of course, sometimes it’s just not feasible to end on a
cliffhanger: perhaps the players are enjoying a long side-
chat, and you run out of time; or someone remembers a
previous engagement and has to say goodbye early. This
is fine, too! No game is perfectly neat, narratively. As long
as everyone has fun, you’re “doing it right.”

324 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WHISPERS

 FANGS

I inquired of the inhabitants concerning the fiend, and gained accurate

information. A gigantic monster, they said, had arrived the night before,
armed with a gun and many pistols; putting to flight the inhabitants of
a solitary cottage, through fear of his terrific appearance.
—Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, 1818.

Dangerous Dangerous encounters d20

encounters
1 Far xanjin (ultra-advanced cyborg-like alien)

2 Geelish reavers (murder-bots)

3 Gulm pyrates (lichenoids)

4 Husk gnome matter thieves (planet-mining

extractivists)

Not all encounters involve 5 Mantid dimensionauts (Terran insectid-explorers)

combat—but… 6 Nyarlathon (puppetmaker)

7 Ordo Pallida crusaders (“Time Knyghts”)

For those moments when you do want to challenge
8 Provincial toughs (soldiers, pyrates, mercs, etc.)
the voidminers, here are 20 dangerous encounters,
including statistics and notes on how to use them in a 9 Snakeman infolich (time-traveling posthuman
psychopath, conducting mysterious badness)
Stillfleet venture.
10 Starspawn (blob-kaiju, doing something utterly
bizarre)
FELLOW TRAVELERS:
11 Technomummy, Late Tephnian (dreaming sleeper)
THE PRIME EGGERS
12 Unhumanaut spy (four-armed Terran “diplomat”)
West of Pala, west of Latura, Prime Egg—the largest of the major 13 Void elf “art handlers” (diminutive amoral
biological islands of the mantids—rises out of the ocean like a posthumans)
comet-sized watermelon adorned with prickly pears and spires
of asparagus, all held together with gleaming steel-hard snot. 14 Warmachine, Late Tephnian (perfectly preserved)
Ringing the central city-structure, dozens of fin-shaped artificial
breakers provide moorings for pellucid yellow-blue boats with 15 Xaalii (higher-dimensional “frog-dæmon”)
turbine-like orb-shaped sails. The kelp forests and fishing reefs 16 XDs (extradimensional posthumans)
below are managed by living machines connected to the ships by
thick, fat-sheathed tubes… 17 Xenoglade eggs… and mother (sapient
Cut off for centuries from other Terran sapients, the mantids have bioweapons)
developed a bio-industrial capacity in parallel to the unhumans
and humans of Pala, but they have not discovered the secrets of 18 Yaaj (supreme hunter)
the stiffworks… quite yet. Even so, a few mantids of Prime Egg 19 Ylythnari autark (squid-tyrant, creating something
have developed their own hell science, and using it, entered unbelievably advanced by human standards)
the Escheresque at random. Slowly but surely, news of the
Escheresque is spreading by boat and odonapter (moving-wing 20 Zhoggoth (cthulhicate servitor)
plane) to the other Eggs.
While their immediate goals in higher-dimensional spaces may
be to gather information, how long will the mantids explore before
they discover (or extract the location of) a stable back door through
timespace to a Co. held world? Or Spindle itself? How will the
mantids ultimately evaluate the Co. as they come to grips with
the existence of sapients beyond their relatively stable sisterhood
across the Eggs?

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH10 ☉ GMING STILLFLEET 325

Far xanjin ATTACKS

Far xanjin represent the apex of a technical

culture, before it joins the River (the late
Terran term for the so-called Singularity).
• Dark-fluid ray, 2d20 damage; a far xanjin can make as many
(ultra-advanced cyborg-like alien) attacks per round as there are PCs
HEADCOUNT POWERS
1 • Abstract, astrogate, bend space, cloak, glisten, hover, hurl
across, jack, look beyond, monitor, open more eyes, pause,
VITALS
peer in, rend space, tack, think with, warp space
COM d20 HEA 40 GEAR

MOV d30 GRT 60 Far xanjin are a type of gear (a heavily armed FTL corvette). They
can probably afford to outfit the PCs with any number of wildly
REA d30 DR 8 powerful artifacts—but why would they?
(speed-of-light-slowing STORY NOTES
WIL d20 blackout plate)
Far xanjin appear less as “uplifted Ancient humans in cybernetic
CHA d10 bodies” than as “dæmons” in the old sense. Supposedly, inside
its ship, a far xanjin resembles a web of dark, wire-like and
bone-like supports and pulsing bioelectric fibers. Mostly, it
HABITS
will be seen as a house-sized silvery disc that moves at the
• Hunting down a heechee foldengine (ignoring the PCs, focused speed of light. When it pauses, it is so beautiful, it brings tears
on this MacGuffin) to your eyes. But then it opens like a flower, revealing a hideous
• Practicing oral history (abducting locals in order to read their swirl of wires dancing within a vertiginous volume of space…
thoughts) A far xanjin will randomly attack or ignore the voidminers
• Showing you a hologram of a violet tornado-being (an alien depending on what they are doing and how technologically
called a malaqi—its rival) advanced they appear. Far xanjin are not Old Ones, but they
are almost as impossible to “defeat.” (Even meaningfully
DOGMA
engaging with them in combat, without your own FTL ship,
Cosmic hermeneutic explorationism should be nigh-impossible: they can simply tack themselves
(a mystery to you)
somewhere else.)

326 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WHISPERS

 Geelish reavers
(murder-bots)
HEADCOUNT
d4 (patrol) or 3d4 (squad)

VITALS

COM d12 HEA 24

MOV d12 GRT 18
REA d6 DR 4
(obsidian cerasteel bodies)
WIL d12
CHA d6
HABITS
• Standing in the dark, scanning ahead with multiform “eyes”
• Tinkering with a new warbeast (it’s not going well: the beast is
emitting a distorted thunder sound)
• Stomping out the last life from a village of unsuspecting
medievals

DOGMA

Anti-carnal necropolitics

ATTACKS
• Assault rifles, 2d8 damage, 3 attacks per round
• One reaver has a shoulder-mounted mini-railgun,
3d12 damage plus bleed 3

POWERS
• Disarm, explode, maximize, reposition, slay

GEAR
Only their guns, bands of ammo, and bodies. Each reaver is
worth d100 gl in parts on-Spin. Each functional gun is worth
three times as much.

STORY NOTES
Gleaming matte hardbodies scramble over the wreckage
GEELISH WARBEASTS
of the Palastra VII, their eerie sensor-pits lasering outward
to target your compressed atmo cartridges… The techno- VITALS
mummified geels exist only to kill biological sapients and COM d20 / MOV d10 / REA d4 / WIL d8 / CHA d4
“liberate” other technical devices. They cannot manufacture HEA 20 / GRT 12 / DR 2 (obsidian cerasteel bodies)
ships or ‘works, and no known geel can tack or create new
ATTACKS
cohorts. But these reavers can pilot the ships upon which
they find themselves awoken—still programmed to kill after Each round, a warbeast can attack with its bite and either its
millennia of decay and electronic nightmares. tailswipe or claws:
• Bite, d20 damage
VARIANTS • Claws, 2d4+2 damage plus bleed 1
Some war bands, and all frigate crews, keep packs of d8−1 • Tailswipe, d8 damage plus stun 2
trained geelish warbeasts. These neon-eyed robotic hellhounds
POWERS
leap into battle upon command, slavering sparks. Warbeasts
possess no gear, but their parts are worth 3d100 gl to an Archi- • Transcendental flashbang (standard) – Instead of attacking,
vist. They cannot be tamed by the razi power tame, but they can a warbeast can burn 4 GRT to release a strangely hypnotic
be reprogrammed using jack. (They are complexity 4 code ar- burst of smoke, noise, and radiation that automatically stuns
chaetech items and thus cost 12 GRT to temporarily reprogram.) d4 sapient targets within 5 M for 1 round

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH10 ☉ GMING STILLFLEET 327

 Gulm pyrates
(lichenoids)
HEADCOUNT
3d10

VITALS

COM d8 HEA 16
MOV d8 GRT 18
REA d10 DR 4
(biological cerasteel vest, greaves,
WIL d10 and gauntlets)

CHA d8
HABITS
• Holding an almost silent tall-tale-telling battle
• Swabbing the photoscissor registry truss (repairing the
comms)
• Divvying up “sunlight chits” after successfully taking
down a Co. installation

DOGMA

Pyrate articles (contractual tyranny)

ATTACKS
• Chromatophore rifles, d8 +d6 +d4 damage
• Living chainswords (one fourth of the pyrates wield these),
d20+d6 damage

POWERS
• Astrogate, backstab, disarm, explode, jack, slay, steal, tack

GEAR
Besides their ship and weapons (which require knowledge of
advanced bio- or bug-stratum archaetech to use), the pyrates
have a few random captives—probably duul-duul. Their gear is
worth 400 gl per gulm but smells powerfully off, like ammonia.
The living weapons are dangerous to use for non-fungi, requiring
REA and perhaps CHA checks at first. (You have to make friends
with the fungal dynamos and chasses, avoiding accidental self-
inoculation.)

STORY NOTES
These lichenoids live aboard a retrofitted mi-go exploration
vessel. Unlike their kin, the mulg, many gulm are unemotional
and calculating. Unlike the mi-go, many gulm are venal and
petty. They will not make a deal with you unless you prove
terrifying to them, in which case they will attempt to double-
cross you later. These gulm are probably not after you specifi-
cally, but some bigger proverbial fish.

328 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WHISPERS

THE AFTERMATH OF COMBAT
Aboard a husk gnome drill-ship, the voidminers recently ran into
a welcoming party—four expressionless, child-sized humanoids in
suits adorned with wires, lights, razors, servos, thruster-packs, and
other industrial bricolage… After a 115-second shootout, the PCs
are now alone—and injured. Each of them must roll a d6 and con-
sult the results below. In addition, one voidminer has recovered a
working husk gnome translator-collar. This lets them interact with
the comms on the ship and trade insults with its crew.

Injury results
• On a result of 6 – You find yourself unscathed. Resentment
blooms, and you suffer disadvantage on all CHA checks to
convince your colleagues to do anything.
• On a result of 4–5 – Your envirosuit loses d10 hours of
atmo from a puncture. Standard suits have 12 hours. This
puts a clock on your activities, as there is atmo in some
sub-sectors, but not all.
• On a result of 3 – You lose d6 HEA and d6 GRT.
• On a result of 2 – You lose 2d4 HEA and d8 hours
of atmo.
• On a result of 1 – You lose 2d8+1 HEA and
d10 hours of atmo. But you also pull 1 husk
gnome archaetech item off of a dead guard
(in addition to the translator-collar).

Husk gnome factions (d6)

1. COLLARMAKERS – Want to enslave all non-husk gnome
sapients, metabolizing their stupid worlds in the process.
2. FILLERS – Want to literally fill in all of threespace, in whatever
manner is most expedient.
3. GAME MANAGERS – Want to play a very complex sociopolitical
game, with ever-changing rules, forever; one typical “move” in
this game is metabolizing other sapients’ worlds.
4. MONUMENTALISTS – Want to build a limited series of specific,
austere, and extremely large edifices (ultrastructures)… and
then destroy all other matter in threespace.
5. SCRATCHERS – Want to destroy all non-husk gnome-related
matter in threespace, and then destroy the husk gnomes,
including themselves.
6. SEARCHERS – Want to find the (apocryphal?) ur-husk gnome
ark-ship, metabolizing anything encountered along the way.

Husk gnome matter thieves DOGMA

(planet-mining extractivists) Astro-brutalism

HEADCOUNT ATTACKS
6d3 Flip a coin:
• Heads – This cohort is armed with cryorifles, 4d4 damage
VITALS
plus hypometabolizing: when a target is reduced to 0 HEA with
COM d10 HEA 20 a blast from a cryorifle, they go into torpor indefinitely without
dying; no check to resist
MOV d10 GRT 24 • Tails – This cohort is armed with psychovoric rifles, 6d4 GRT
damage plus tranquilizing: targets reduced to 0 GRT stop
REA d12 DR 3 fighting and become open to any suggestion
(bend hauberk) POWERS
WIL d12+1
• Astrogate, backstab, disarm, explode, jack, slay, steal, tack
CHA d6 GEAR

HABITS Each cryorifle is worth 3000+([d4−1] × 200) gl; each

psychovoric rifle is worth 9500 gl.
• Building a planet-sized cube that eats other planets
• Supervising a fleet of drones that are dismantling a Late STORY NOTES
Tephnian carrier Jaundiced flesh, wires, and scraps cover these small human-
• “Relaxing” (swapping body parts with each other) oids, who hold large, fanged-looking rifles attached to whirring
backpacks. The husk gnomes will try to “negotiate” with you to
get you to give up all of your archaetech. If you comply, they’ll
try to enslave you anyway.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH10 ☉ GMING STILLFLEET 329

Mantid dimensionauts ATTACKS

(Terran insectid-explorers) • Bio-martinets (carbines), 2d10 damage

POWERS
HEADCOUNT
• Assess, bioengineer, disarm, double tap, explode, heal,
2d4
jack, maximize, reconnoiter, reposition
VITALS
GEAR
COM d12 HEA 22 Complicated scientific equipment worth 600 gl to an Archivist;
useful exploratory gear worth 300 gl; curio from a Terran hulk
MOV d10 GRT 20 worth 2d100 gl to a collector. Bio-martinets sell for 175 gl each.

REA d12 DR 2 STORY NOTES

(living armor) The Sister–Reapers of the Future Bright wear six-limbed, chitin-
WIL d8 ous envirosuits sporting a black-and-white triangular pattern.
Their comm-chatter, if you pick it up, sounds vaguely wetan to
CHA d6 the non-insectids on your team, but none of you can understand
it. These dimensionauts were trying to get to space via a primi-
HABITS tive T-drive and have somehow navigated safely to your locus.
The dimensionauts are paranoid but not definitionally hostile.
• Taking readings on a living biometer (looks like a headless,
If you help them tack back to Great Egg (you have no idea how
furry termite)
to do this, of course—the best you can hope for is to get them
• Praying to Hungrymother Earthcircle to keep them alive in
to the Heechee Tombs on Pala, on the other side of Terra from
the hell-void
the Eggs), the mantids reward you with valuable well-crafted
• Cleaning their weapons (again)
bio-rifles and potential trade deals. If you report this to the Co.,
DOGMA you are jailed for treason, as they maintain a policy of invisibility
vis-à-vis the Eggs.
Parthenogenetic socialism

330 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WHISPERS

 Nyarlathon
(puppetmaker)
HEADCOUNT
1

VITALS

COM d12 HEA 48

MOV d20 GRT 90
REA d30 DR 3
(antiphysics), extradimensional
WIL d30
CHA d30
HABITS
• Dispassionately waiting behind a provincial empress as she
announces war
• Enigmatically walking in circles in the woods, pretending to be
your elderly lost relative
• Sternly addressing every brain on a planet via the meta-net

DOGMA

Will to power

ATTACKS
• The Shadow of Vigor will never physically attack anyone.
Why would it need to? It will watch you eviscerate each other

POWERS
• Every Mask in Yellow hell science power (see “Echoes”)

GEAR
Gray robes, a simple shakuhachi (bamboo flute), a 1980s travel
board game, random coins from various dead worlds.

STORY NOTES
The Shadow of Vigor appears as a totally dark silhouette of a
hairless, sexless, ageless human, roughly 1.6-M tall, with a
deep, pleasant, unplaceable voice. It speaks every language and
is much more intelligent than you. The Shadow of Vigor wants
to reason with you, to help you out, to make a deal, to provide
you with some useful key or powerful archaetech in exchange
for a simple favor… that will lead to the destruction of a densely
inhabited world. The Shadow of Vigor can be disrupted by Weird
powers, bug-stratum weapons, and Escheresque entities, but it
cannot be truly destroyed, as it is one lesser aspect of Nyarloth,
whose avatars can only be banished to higher and higher dimen-
sions. #cthulhicate

VARIANTS
Each nyarlathon is a unique “major dæmon” that can (negative-
ly) dramatically affect entire planets. Here are two examples:
• The Saffron Anax – The only entity who is both well known
to the Co. and thought to be a nyarlathon is the ruler of the
binary planets named after him. Exactly what the Saffron
Anax “is,” is a matter of Archival debate. The Anax appears
to be an elegant human wearing indescribably ornate
robes, but he leaves a trail of Anaxes behind him, fading
into unseen physical dimensions.
• The Silk King – Another (probable) nyarlathon known to
the Archive is an entity from Terra… 200 million years after
the present of Stillfleet. The Silk King may be at war with
Ordo Pallida. Preventing the birth of the Silk King may be
the primary goal of the mongrels sent back in time by the
final Archivists, long after the death of the last human.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH10 ☉ GMING STILLFLEET 331

Ordo Pallida crusaders DOGMA

(“Time Knyghts”) The Solar Inquisition

(human-chauvinist religious zealotry)
HEADCOUNT
ATTACKS
d4
Each crusader’s weapon is unique, e.g.:
VITALS • Beam trident, 4d4+1 damage, explosive: when rolling
damage, reroll each 4; this can go on indefinitely
COM d12+1 HEA 44 • Force polearm with a circular sawhead, 6d4 damage plus
bleed 4
MOV d10 GRT 30 • Giant force pincher-fist, 2d20 damage plus stun 4
• Noödimensional force scythe, 2d20 damage plus 2d3 GRT
REA d8+1 DR 5 damage
(golden exosuits with wingèd golden POWERS
WIL d12 helmets)
• Assess, augur, disarm, double tap, explode, jack, maximize,
CHA d6 reconnoiter, reposition, slay, tack

GEAR
HABITS
A crusader’s weapon will sell for 500+6d100 gl; their armor,
• Chanting the Solar Inquisition’s hymn to necessary violence 500+2d100 gl.
(it translates to “LET’S GO!”)
• Playing a game involving metal miniatures (aliens vs. marines), STORY NOTES
dice, and a manual of confusing rules “The Guardians of the Solar Monument” (or something to that
• Drinking future-grog (the urine of a motile orchid that will effect) don’t seem too impressed by your tales of this so-called
evolve in 175 million years) “Spindle” place. They are rather serious chaps… Regardless of
where you encounter them, these crusaders are hunting some
particular alien, human “traitor,” or artifact. You can help them
or not, but not doing so will lead to a fight.

332 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WHISPERS

 Provincial toughs DOGMA

(soldiers, pyrates, mercs, etc.) The status quo

HEADCOUNT ATTACKS
2d4+1 • Gun (a wheellock “puffer”), 2d10 damage; can be fired every
other round
VITALS
• Sword or fist, d12 damage
COM d12 HEA 22 POWERS

MOV d10 GRT 14 • Explode, reconnoiter, steal

GEAR
REA d6 DR 1
2d20 gl.
(provincial livery)
WIL d8 STORY NOTES

CHA d6 Enforcers use call shot to double their damage and disarm
opponents. If presented with an overwhelming threat, a patrol
of enforcers will seek to make it back to their barracks and
HABITS
alert dozens or even hundreds of other toughs.
• Harassing some kids
• Arguing over an order of overcooked meat-loops
• Playing dice

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH10 ☉ GMING STILLFLEET 333

 Snakeman infolich
(time-traveling posthuman psychopath,
conducting mysterious badness)
HEADCOUNT
1 (prefigural auditor) or d4+1 (auditor–champion plus retinue of
executive assistants)
VITALS

COM d12+1 HEA 45

MOV d12+1 GRT 36
REA d20+1 DR 4
(Xarxhaqa’s nanocloud plus the
WIL d12 Treadmill’s nanocloud)

CHA d8
HABITS
• Giggling while gazing into a mirror that shows his future forms
• Struggling to escape the prison of his pha’al (harddrive, which
looks like a small, grotesque statue)
• Chasing after/lashing at 3d30 lemur-like organisms

DOGMA
Meme cult of Phaalzsas,
the Divine Parasite (d4+1)

ATTACKS
• Nanite lash, 6d4 damage plus drain: each hit drains 2d4 GRT
from you to Xarxhaqa

POWERS
• Assess, chain attack, detect, explode, slay
• d12 random nanofluidics powers, e.g.: bloodplate, bubble,
cackle, devour, hulk, limb, scout
• 2d4 random hell science powers, e.g.: become world, defy
entropy, extract, link thoughts, open more eyes

GEAR
The nanite lash can only be used by someone infused with
nanites (the Blood). The Treadmill can be used by anyone but
causes its user to develop one mental syndrome immediately
and slowly turn into a Snakeman (over roughly one Terrasol
standard year).

STORY NOTES
Xarxhaqa, Vanquisher of Hope and Builder of the Houses of
Marrow, appears to be a 2.5-M tall naked human with pale
yellow and deep crimson skin finely covered in scales and an
astoundingly large, upright, red sex organ. He is always smiling,
revealing a 30-cm long forked tongue. The atmo around him
flickers, as he is actually a nanite reassemblage of himself
based on his memories from the future; in your time, he has
not been born and devastated nations; 300 million years in the
future, he is dead; in front of you, he is a time-traveling ghost of
himself, sowing discord and literal, ontic confusion wherever he
treads. He rides a Qosmic Treadmill powered by human fear and
sadness (a mobile, easy-to-retack, one-person stiffworks), and
he wields a nanite lash. Xarxhaqa’s mission is inscrutable but
intersects yours in some way.

334 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WHISPERS

 Starspawn ATTACKS

(blob-kaiju, doing something utterly bizarre) • “Bite,” d30 damage plus burn 3; its bodily core can “bite” 1
target per round within 5 M
HEADCOUNT • Tentacles, d20 damage; it can make as many tentacle-attacks
per round as there are targets within 10 M
1
POWERS
VITALS
• 2d4 random hell science powers, e.g.: call swarm, incept,
COM d20 HEA 66 move mountains, pierce the veil, puppet
GEAR
MOV d20 GRT 66
None, at least in any sense that you understand.
REA d20 DR 6
STORY NOTES
(mirror-matter “antiphysics”)
WIL d20 A house-sized, nameless, unspeakable mass of tentacles and
mouths, appearing and disappearing in vivid colors that cannot
CHA NA be seen in threespace. starspawn typically appear alone in
(it cannot “associate” with you) technical ruins of interest. They are highly intelligent but cannot
be reasoned with (perhaps with the rarest of exceptions?). They
HABITS serve an inscrutable role in the cosmic order of the Old Ones.
Among lesser beings, they interact by consuming sapient minds.
• Dreaming of your demise
#cthulhicate
• Dreaming of your demise
• Dreaming of your demise VARIANTS
Embryonic starspawn look like asteroids. They have a mere
DOGMA
DR 3 (instead of 6) and only d2+1 hell science powers (instead
Unthinkable urge to expand of 2d4).
through stolen sapience

The only options you have upon encountering one are to run away,
fight to the death, or use one of the hell science powers from the
path called the Sky That Crawls, some of which specifically allow
you to communicate with or banish Old Ones and their servitors.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH10 ☉ GMING STILLFLEET 335

Technomummy, POWERS
• Charge, command, dance, detect, drain, flechette, scission,
Late Tephnian scout, slay, spew
• d4 random hell science powers including puppet, e.g.: project
(dreaming sleeper)
rage, puppet, slow the river
HEADCOUNT • Gorgonscarf (passive) – The sleeper’s nanite armor converts
all HEA damage it absorbs into GRT for the sleeper
1
GEAR
VITALS
The gorgonscarf is worth 6666 gl; the force katana, 9999 gl. The
COM d12 HEA 36 sleeper’s constantly changing foldfabric shimmerdress is worth
500 gl. In the sleeper’s kophinos (nanite-powered cryo-crypt),
MOV d12 GRT 32 there is either 1 aliquot of Blood (5 in 6 chance) or 2d4 aliquots
(1 in 6 chance).
REA d20 DR d4
(gorgonscarf, see below) STORY NOTES
WIL d4
At first you don’t see her, only her empty redsteel sleeping ko-
CHA d12 phinos. The brown-red, nanite-infused sludge inside is dripping
down its sides. Tracks lead deeper into this crypt, away from
HABITS the vertical-slit door… Once found, you can see that Maculōna
Lukulla Mušhuššun, Wytch-Duchess of the Pale Lozenge, is a
• Smiling beatifically as a blue cloud of nanites cleans and
3-M tall, blue-skinned, six-armed, five-eyed, long-fanged human
comforts them
wearing elegant gold fabric made of nanites that constantly
• If awoken: rambling about social meta-media analytics
shift, revealing different parts of her body or hardening into
(“[Give me the damn numbers!]”)
armor as needed. Due to nanite augmentation and cultural
• If awoken: calmly asking questions in Late Tephnian about the
programming regarding the Late Tephnians, she seems impos-
currently ruling Saturnine Cabal
sibly charming to most Terrans who behold her, regardless of
DOGMA species. The Duchess has slept some five millennia, having been
kept alive by her nanites. She thus seems distant and lonely
Hyper-libertarian plutocracy more than ravenous (although her nanites do very much hunger
for human blood), at least at first. While confused, amoral, and
ATTACKS hungry, Maculōna is not impossible to negotiate with. She is
merely living at once in the ancient past and the present. She
The sleeper can make d4 attacks or other standard actions per
has specific desires that make little sense to you. Any time the
round without penalty:
situation changes substantively, there is a 1 in 6 chance that she
• Biokinetic missile, 4d4 damage; costs 4 GRT
will suddenly turn on you out of a mix of Blood hunger, paranoia,
• Bite, d12 damage plus bleed 1
and trollishness.
• Elbow/knee, d12 damage
• Reliquary force katana, 2d20 +d12 damage plus vampyric: Late Tephnian titles (d6) – Six millennia ago, everyone had a
each hit absorbs d12 GRT from the target noble title…
• Maculōna may (1 in 2 chance) possess a dark-fluid ray that 1. Marquessa of the Projective Volcano
deals 2d20 damage and has a 1 in 6 chance of instantly 2. Landgrave of the Macular Orb
disintegrating a struck target 3. Graf of the Consanguine Thunder
4. Chancellor–Extraordinary of the Rotating Stylus
5. Chief Happiness Officer for the Empress’s Varlet–Augustus
6. Archbishop of the Infinite Eclipse (trainee)

336 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WHISPERS

 Unhumanaut spy
(four-armed Terran “diplomat”)
HEADCOUNT
1

VITALS

COM d10 HEA 20

MOV d10 GRT 20
REA d10 DR 2
(reinforced envirosuit)
WIL d10
CHA d10
HABITS
• Trying to use advanced hulk-tech to distill hooch
• Faking an injury in order to attract the attention of the
voidminers
• Singing quietly, sure that she will never again see sunrise
on Terra

DOGMA
Gazaar’ouism
(Marxism–Leninism–Maoism, sort of)

ATTACKS
• Pistol, 2d6 damage
• Well-made dagger, 2d4 damage

POWERS
• Assess, backstab, con, detect, disarm, double tap, murder,
read, smooth over, slay, steal, vanish

GEAR
The spy’s envirosuit is worth 90 gl; her pistol, 75 gl;
her dagger, 4 gl.

STORY NOTES
A steel-blue, four-armed, bald posthuman—larger than a human
and wearing the costume of a soldier—waves to you, smiling
warmly. This spy is tasked with learning about the Co. (and other
factions in the void) and reporting back to Heresiarchs of the
Federation. She will try to ally herself with your group, pump you
for facts—lying the whole time about her own background—and
then rob you and disappear. The one problem with her plan is
her reliance on a banshee to tack back to the (perhaps not even
properly anchored) fold-room at Division X headquarters outside
Banakarum… Likely, she will have to partner with you in order to
survive this venture and return to Terra at all.

VARIANTS
The Federation of Unhuman Kingdoms is vast and its reach
ever-expanding. Typical Federation soldiers have the statistics
of 1st-level Co. stillrijders, minus the exosuit powers. A very
small number of Federation scientists have the equivalent sta-
tistics of Co. banshees. High-level elite officers are correspond-
ingly more powerful, and some even possess the hell science.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH10 ☉ GMING STILLFLEET 337

Void elf “art handlers”
(diminutive amoral posthumans)
HEADCOUNT
1 (critic) or 4d4 (autonomous collective)

VITALS

COM d12 HEA 24

MOV d10 GRT 30
REA d20 DR 6
(exalted quicksuit dress of hyper-
WIL d8 diamond “mithril”)

CHA d8
HABITS
• Filming 4d4 human and wetan living qhess pieces as they
engage in a battle royale
• Appearing before a group of quasisapients in messianic garb,
pointing at a shining monolith
• Remote-controlling a saw-drone that is removing the head of
someone you know

DOGMA
Post-post-post-post-post-postmodernism
(selfish aesthetics-worship) (d4+1)

ATTACKS
• High-frequency sword, 2d6 damage plus nauseating: a struck
target must pass a WIL/resist world check or experience
severe disorientation and suffer a −1 to hit; this penalty is
cumulative
• Lightning pistol, 3d6 damage plus EMP: stun 2 against
informatic beings
• Lightning rifle, 6d6 damage plus EMP: stun 2 against
informatic beings
• Singularity rifle, instant death on hit

POWERS
• Astrogate, backstab, command, con, disarm, explode, jack,
murder, slay, steal, tack
• d12 random hell science powers (roll for the group and
distribute; not all void elves are wytches), e.g.: catch snake,
counter, link thoughts, reanimate, trade eyes, warp space

GEAR
Exalted quicksuits sell for 8000 gl. High-frequency swords sell
for 666 gl; lightning pistols, 1500+([d4−1] × 300) gl; lightning
rifles, 3000+([d3−1] × 666) gl; singularity rifles, 8000+([d4−1] ×
1000) gl. Singularity rifles are illegal to bring to Spindle; they
are meant to be reported to Acquisitions and then dealt with
according to specific Co. directives (deposited in the armory
of a provincial blacksite).

STORY NOTES
These delicate-looking, half-sized humans in light-absorbing
baroque armor are chain-smoking bidis and laughing in their
song-like tongue at their own “ironic” observations. Strange
ray-weapons are holstered at their hips. Void elves have exqui-
sitely evil plans and do not care about you. If they see you,
they will attempt to bring you back to their galleryship. They will
flee if sufficiently threatened or obviously outgunned—but they
will be back… Rarely, void elves’ motivations dovetail with those
of other sapients.

338 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WHISPERS

 Warmachine, Late Tephnian DOGMA

(perfectly preserved) Arcane political gamesmanship

HEADCOUNT ATTACKS
1 Choose 3 each round:
• Drones, stored in the chest: COM 2d8, MOV d20, HEA 12, DR
VITALS
0; once unleashed, drones independently attack, inflicting 4d8
COM 2d20 HEA 70 damage per hit
• Laser cannon, 2d100 damage
MOV d30 GRT 40 • Nanolash, 3d30 damage plus stun 3

POWERS
REA d20 DR 6
• Astrogate, detect, foam, interface, jack, peer in, tack
(redsteel)
WIL d20 • Flight (free)
• Telepathy (free)
CHA d8 GEAR
None, other than its own body, which would be beyond priceless
HABITS
on-Spin.
• Interrogating d6 terrified mulg about the location of the Duke
of the Red Pyramid STORY NOTES
• Sucking atmo from the nearest celestial body, metabolizing it RABISU—a house-sized tiger of living bloody-gray oil—digs into
into enerjawn your brain for clues to the strategies of enemies long dead. It
• Commanding your comms and walkies to betray you and come fearlessly speaks in all relevant languages, in ALL CAPS, and it
work for the Glaucous Lozenge tolerates no dissent.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH10 ☉ GMING STILLFLEET 339

 Optional mayhem

Upon encountering a xaalii, roll a d6. If you roll a 1, it is

mothering. In that case, roll another d6. If roll another 1,
void elf antipaladyns are presently hunting this mother
for her delicious oil-like antimilk. They immediately
attack you with lightning pistols and grav nets.

Xaalii
GEAR
None.
(higher-dimensional “frog-dæmon”)
STORY NOTES
HEADCOUNT This extradimensional terror has an anuran body, shadowy blue
1 (lone adult hunter) or 2d2 (brood assembly) glasslike skin, and hard black claws and fangs, with no face
otherwise. An adult xaalii will always attack you. It is not great at
VITALS conversation unless you can somehow establish a wacky version
of empathy. (Perhaps you, too, enjoy killing and eating literally
COM d20 HEA 20 everything you encounter?) It is basically a giant mouth in the
MOV d12 GRT 30 shape of a frog-shadow, and it wants to eat you. Note, while xaalii
are extradimensional, their quasi-skin seems to threespacers to
REA d4 DR 3 resemble the sticky webbing of the Escheresque itself and can
(sticky quasi-skin) be disrupted by ordinary physical attacks. (Perhaps “dead” xaalii
d6 (perceiving)/
WIL merely return to the “soil” of their higher-than-three physical
d12 (resisting) dimensions.)
CHA d4 VARIANTS
Xaalii eventually “mother” themselves into a number of
HABITS “elvers” (see below), each of which grows into a full adult
• Phasing through your campsite, limbs flashing in all directions and mothers itself someday. A xaalii adult that is currently
in a search for live prey mothering is exceptionally dangerous. It appears to be six
• Phasing into your meeting, blue-black tongue (?) spiraling xaalii stuck together, each of which can attack each round,
toward the smallest party member although it can only make one 5-M movement otherwise.
• Phasing on top of one of you, stubby tail wagging and Mothering xaalii share the same scores as non-mothering xaalii
unraveling into smoky infinity but have HEA 40 and DR 6 (skin that is higher-dimensionally
foaming due to pregnancy hormones). Mothering xaalii have
DOGMA the power to spawn elvers (free): the xaalii must burn 10 GRT
Insatiable hunger and make a WIL check (rolling d12); if successful, it spawns d6
elvers; these emerge and can enter combat in 1 round.
ATTACKS Before they grow into dæmon-frogs, xaalii appear to be almost
• Claws/bite, d20 damage plus Escheresque: harms higher- cute smoky fish-things with no arms but lots of hyper-sharp
dimensional beings teeth. Xaalii elvers automatically attempt to eat all threespace
biological entities whom they sense, and they have acute
POWERS (extradimensional) senses of olfaction.
• Create or alter Escheresque event (standard) – Burn 12 GRT
XAALII ELVERS
to cause such an event or cause the voidminers to reroll the
nature of one; the event persists for 4d12 minutes VITALS
• Dimension-walk (standard) – Burn 6 GRT to claw a gate COM d8 / MOV d12+1 / REA d2
between the Escheresque and threespace; the gate remains WIL d10 (perceiving)/d4 (resisting) / CHA 1
open for 2d3 rounds HEA 10 / GRT 10 / DR 1 (sticky quasi-skin)
• Share with shadows (free) – Burn 10 GRT and make a WIL
ATTACKS
check, rolling d12, to summon d6 xaalii from the Escheresque;
they arrive in d3 rounds; they are angry if the summoner is not • Bite, 3d4 damage plus bleed 1, natively extradimensional
in combat against an edible foe

340 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WHISPERS

 XDs
VARIANTS
There are as many varieties of XD as there are varieties of
(extradimensional posthumans) (post)human. The scores above represent a generic group of
low-ranking XD warriors. Here are four specific variants on
HEADCOUNT an XD encounter:
2d10 (squad) or hundreds, millions 1. Cannelated Echo, cosmological chaplain of the Balbis
nation, wields a great Escheresque falx (d12 damage plus
VITALS bleed 2). It is red-brown-purple and neutral toward you. It
COM d10 HEA 22 possesses the powers heal and track. It has been separated
from its troop and is looking for them, but it is also curious
as to who you are. Its troop was ambushed by a group of 4d4
MOV d12 GRT 20
void elf art-school students riding byakhee (void-crossing
seahorse-bats). Those dangerous tourists/hunters lurk
REA d6 DR 0
nearby.
2. Double Vector Rotation, general of the Annulus nation, is
WIL d10
a dark gray XD holding a wavy sword (2d4+4 damage plus
bleed 2) and a strange white ropy object that is in fact an XD
CHA d6
“gun” (2d8 HEA and d8 GRT damage). It has d12s for scores
and wears a grayfold auracloak (DR 3, cannot be removed).
HABITS It possesses the power double tap, which it will use every
• Running/leaping after another group of XDs round if possible. Its lieutenants are only d8 rope-rooms
• Enjoying ritual target practice on blob-like Escheresque (and that many rounds) away.
“fauna” 3. The field marshal of the Antiprism nation (no other name
• Dancing (?) in a great circle necessary) is a red boss-ninja commanding an entire nation
in its game of death. It has d20s for scores and wears a
DOGMA
redfold auracloak (DR 3, cannot be removed). It can attack
Dynamic code of honor with three times per round at no cost. It possesses the powers
many complex rules
disarm, explode, warp space (which it always uses to flee if
it has 6 GRT remaining and is losing a fight), and wrinkle. It
ATTACKS
wields a panic-inducing twinsword (d10 × 2 damage to both
• Escheresque blades, d10 damage plus Escheresque: harms HEA and GRT). It carries in its torso-cavity the plans for the
higher-dimensional beings next major XD war strategy and a higher-dimensional comm
POWERS (this looks like a combination Advent calendar/hard-boiled
ostrich egg) showing clearly where one NPC of interest to the
• Backstab, bend space, cloak, reposition, slay, steal fate PCs is located. The field marshal is accompanied at all times
GEAR by a geometran.
4. A geometran is a 5-M tall red biorobot with a slowly rotating
Their organic oddities are of no use to you, but their blades are pale cubic pseudo-head that can barely fit in the twisted
prized as means of opening doors between threespace and the passages of the Escheresque and yet somehow always does.
Escheresque. Geometrans have the following scores: COM d12, MOV d8,
REA d4, WIL d30, CHA 0, HEA 40, GRT 10, DR 4 (redsteel
STORY NOTES
skin). It can attack twice per round with its blocky fists at no
Rhombolith XDs (to pick a random nation) are dark blue with cost. Each attack inflicts d20 damage plus stun 1.
gray stripes. They are neutral toward you but highly suspicious. 5. Tangent Five of the Matroid nation—the lone striped white-
and-green ropy faceless ronin before you—makes some
gesture with its sword that is meant as a salutation. T5
doesn’t speak Spin, but you understand its thoughts anyway:
it has lost a battle and thus lost its place in its complicated
social world; it now seeks new adventure. What do you say
to a new friend?

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH10 ☉ GMING STILLFLEET 341

Xenoglade eggs…
ATTACKS

and mother
A xenoglade can attack with both its bite and claws every round:
• Bite, 2d12 damage
• Claws, d8 damage
(sapient bioweapons)
POWERS
HEADCOUNT • Backstab, slay, vanish
Countless/1 • Acidic blood (passive) – Every melee attack against a xeno
causes the attacker 2d4 damage plus burn 2
VITALS • Melting spit (standard) – A xeno can burn 6 GRT to destroy an
attacker’s weapon (not simply knock it away)
COM d12 HEA 32
GEAR
MOV d10 GRT 16 Xenoglades have no gear, and their corpses are both dangerous
and worthless. Theoretically, however, you could very carefully
REA d4 DR 3 drain the acidic blood from a skull, bleach it to preserve it (oth-
(exoskeleton plus acidic blood, erwise, the chitin degrades into a noxious purple-gray mold),
WIL d12 see below) and sell it to a curio collector on-Spin for at least 4d30 gl.

CHA d4 STORY NOTES

Xenos exist only to devour and reproduce. They cannot be rea-
HABITS soned with. A xeno will not kill an opponent reduced to 0 HEA
• Circling its eggs over and over, making only soft “clack” but use their body to incubate a single larva.
sounds VARIANTS
• Bashing its head into a metal door, trying to sink its fangs into
Xenos can parasitize all forms of sapient life, including infor-
a hiding cat-like beast
matic sapes. When they parasitize biological sapes, xenos also
• Uncurling from the pipes above the bulkhead, right behind
extract genetic material from their hosts’ bodies. The next
you…
generation of xenos features new powers based on these hosts.
DOGMA GMs, be ruthless! Who knows what powers a given cohort of
xenos possesses… Use this fact to modulate the danger level of
Reproduction a xeno-driven encounter for high-level voidminers.

342 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WHISPERS

 The powerfully muscled, heavily armed alien before you
bows and makes a vague gesture indicating that you
should move. One of your crew gets it and whispers on
the secure channel “run.” You freeze. Their voice crack-
les in your ear as the weapon on the alien’s shoulder
Yaaj glows pink-white and swivel-points at your head: “RUN!”
(supreme hunter)
HEADCOUNT
1

VITALS

COM d20 HEA 40

MOV d10 GRT 24
REA d12 DR 3
(necrotic fog armor)
WIL d12
CHA d8
HABITS
• Stalking prey, scanning it
• Praying through its comm, remembering the fallen in their
victory crypts
• Pausing as its nanites clean its armor (making it appear like a
tower of smoke)

DOGMA

Self-improvement

ATTACKS
• Battleclaw implant, d20+d10 damage plus bleed 2
• Shoulder-mounted paramagnetic de-flesher ray, 8d4 −dWIL
damage (target’s will); permanently scars biological targets:
on a hit, the target must make a WIL check, or their CHA
permanently lowers by one die type, to a minimum of d4
• Numerous large hook-shaped knives, 2d4 damage, can be
thrown

POWERS
• Assess, astrogate, backstab, disarm, double tap, explode,
jack, perfect shot, slay, steal, tack, track
• Necrotic fog armor (reaction) – In addition to providing DR, a
yaaj’s armor deals an automatic d10 damage per melee attack
made against its wearer until it has absorbed 15 HEA, at which
point it is depleted and ceases to provide DR or deal damage;
it recharges over the next d10 hours

GEAR
On the hunt, yaaj carry few objects besides weapons and a small
amount of foul alien jerky (though they don’t actually need to
eat). The strong-force scopes and utterly alien comms that they
carry count as oddments worth 4d100 gl in toto, sold as-is. With
laborious effort, it’s possible that a grindeesaler can restore
one of the comms to working condition (+3 to all tech rolls;
each use carries a 1 in 8 chance of pinging a yaaj mothership).
Necrotic fog armor cannot be resold and deals d10 damage plus
burn 2 if physically manipulated. A battleclaw implant is worth
1200+4d100 gl to an Archival specialist interested in alien
cybernetics. De-flesher rays are worth 5000+([d12] × 125) gl to
the right Spinside fence or provincial mafioso but are illegal to
possess wherever the Co. operates.

STORY NOTES
Yaaj only hunt “worthy” opponents: the unworthy they ignore
or, if any conflict arises, slay. All PCs of 6th level or higher are
considered worthy… GMs: be cruel! Use the power slay!

343
Ylythnari autark
(squid-tyrant, creating something
unbelievably advanced by human standards)
HEADCOUNT
1

VITALS

COM d12 HEA 48

MOV d20 GRT 50
REA d20+2 DR 3
(enhanced servo-movement),
WIL d20 extradimensional

CHA d10
HABITS
• Stitching distant regions of the Escheresque together (which
will create a black hole, in threespace)
• Lecturing an auditorium of unknown extradimensional sapes,
all rapt (dead!?)
• Putting more teeth into the face of a ship-sized eel-like “pet”

DOGMA
Pure evil (as far as any threespacer
can reckon)

ATTACKS
• d10 tentacular slaps per round, each hit drains 4d8 pool
from the target into the autark (the target chooses what mix
of HEA and GRT is drained)
• The autark can use one hell science power per round in
addition to attacking physically

POWERS
• 4d4 non-random hell science powers including peer in, e.g.:
barter, bend space, benumb, detune, glisten, hover, jinx,
peer in, trade eyes

GEAR
Mind-hurting, difficult to even perceive instruments of virtually
unlimited value to the Archive.

STORY NOTES
Yllthysshdr Ix Drlthsshd, one of the Thousand Consequences,
appears to you as a 2-M tall, roughly humanoid, squid-like alien
with many tentacular and arthro-cyborg limbs in addition to
three human-esque ones. It moves in impossible ways, since
it occupies a higher dimensionality than you. Yllthysshdr is in
the middle of some technical task that you can never fathom.
This task involves many dissected sapient bodies, brains in jars,
bizarre but vaguely bug-like equipment, and a full set of bivector
(and other, N-vector) scalpels. Brain-spoilers are extremely in-
telligent and can theoretically be reasoned with, but they will al-
most always get what they want. It is best to run away from this
being or use one of the Weird powers from the Sky That Crawls
path to banish it. If you simply run away and let this being finish
its task, millions will perish, somewhere. #cthulhicate

VARIANTS
A given ylythnari is likely to have in its employ at least one
starspawn or one zhoggoth—which, on its own, is very bad.
Some ylythnari have successfully corrupted local nations
of XDs to serve in their campaigns of terror and domination.

344 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / WHISPERS

 Zhoggoth
(cthulhicate servitor)
HEADCOUNT
1

VITALS

COM d30 HEA 100

MOV d30 GRT 30
REA d3 DR 4
(protean hypercolloidal foam)
WIL ∞
CHA NA
HABITS
• Squeezing itself into through a sewer grate
• Rapidly expanding to destroy a room
• Making no motion, so that it appears to be a pool of black jelly

DOGMA

Cthulhicate programming

ATTACKS
• Smash, d30 damage plus stun 3: when a target is hit, roll a
Drowning
d6; if the result is a 1, 2, or 3, then the target is stunned for 3
rounds (note, pir class powers can cure stun)
If a PC who respires or transpires (breathes) loses
POWERS
access to air, tell them this: set your MOV die to its
• Foam train – Opponents stunned by the zhoggoth are run over
and automatically suffocated: they begin drowning and are
maximum value to visualize a countdown: every round,
trapped; they must be pulled out by massive force or saved starting with the next round, move the die down one
by Weird means; drowning characters must be saved within a number. When you get to 1, you pass out. The next
number of rounds equal to their max MOV score, or they die
round, you die. While you are drowning, you can’t act
STORY NOTES except to try to remove this condition. (You are no longer
The zhoggoth is a train-sized plastic mass of oily dark blood- merely swimming.) When the countdown gets to 6, you
bubbles, moving with hateful speed and impossible momentum.
It is quasisapient but completely asocial, so it cannot be suffer a −1 penalty to all non-random rolls. When it gets
reasoned with. Unlike other cthulhicate entities—because they to 4, you must make a WIL/resist world check to take
are biological “constructs”—zhoggoths cannot be banished any action at all.
using the hell science, only battled or fled from.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook / CH10 ☉ GMING STILLFLEET 345

Acknowledgements
A puzzle touched by On that note—fifth, we reserve many, many thanks for the amaz-
ing playtesters and early readers who made this game possible. I’m
sure I’m forgetting someone, but our tireless Discord playtesters
many hands have included members of the Party Animals (Lady Applesauce,
Rachael, Ryan, Trinity, and Vex), the Friends of the Kadiri (AC, Ben,
Stillfleet’s journey from idea born in a half-slumbering hour to a Christian, Jeff, and Will), the Time-Traveling Friends (Abbi, Jesse,
professionally designed and illustrated hardback rulebook has been Kyle, and Taylor), the Wasp Hunters (Ian, Matt, Miryam, Phoenix,
a long one. We’ve been playing it for over a decade, in some form, and Robert), the first Stillfleet-but-fantasy trio (Ian, Matt, and
and working on a book version, for over three years. The rules keep Miryam), and the quasi-tactical crew who first discovered
evolving, and the network of Stillfleet players, GMs, writers, artists, GABAGESTUS and Zavazaga (Bryan, Dustin, Evan, Hannah, and
editors, and podcasters keeps deepening. So now that the hour has Kae). Special thanks to Jeff Beltran, Jedd Cole, Ian Derk, Ben
finally arrived when we must send the book off to the printer, there Ferber, Jesse King, Will Savino, and Vex for their generally smart
are too many people to thank, too many sections to double-check, perspectives on game design and their specific suggestions
too many design flourishes and art backgrounds to tweak! This is all regarding powers, archaetech, and vibes. Vex has been an
a way of saying, please forgive me if I forget anyone. inspiration: always make room in games for dance parties, heists,
First of all, for the record: any mistakes in this book, including and distributed GMing.
omissions of thanks, are the sole responsibility of Wythe Marschall. The game’s original playtesters, long before the Discord server,
We’re a team, but as Ahab of this ship, it’s my fault if we missed included: Stephen Aubrey, Colleen Lanier Christensen, Matthew
any opportunity to make the world a weirder place or properly share Clark, Hannah Conway, Patrick Davison, Phil Dituri, Andrew
the credit. Eppich, MC Forelle, Paul Gray, David Greenwood, Ethan Gould,
Second, I have to thank first and foremost the other members Shireen Hamza, CJ Hauser, Michael Houlding, Alex Jones, Jessica
of the Stillfleet Studio. Ethan Gould has been a constant source Jones, Kastoory Kazi (thanks for hosting!), Devin Kennedy, Micah
of professional creative foment and plot-hatching for even Lanier, Jeff Neagle, Scott Neagle, Elias Nelson, Sunaree Paiwong,
longer than this game has existed, and it’s much better for his Mike Rugnetta, Molly Templeton, and Luke Thomas. (Patrick and
guidance, both in terms of art direction, rules clarity, and vibes. Paul, way back at the beginning, really pushed me to explore
Erich Lazar has been an inspired graphic designer and a stalwart, different dice-rolling mechanics. Mike pushed me to publish. Thank
patient mentor in the dark world of book-arts. Sunaree Paiwong you, thank you, thank you!) Doc, Jack, Possum, and Wren (dogs)
(Kae), my partner in life, has been an amazing, quick-to-learn and Basil, Cha’Om, and Tybalt (cats) must also be thanked for their
addition to the team—and to TTRPGs in general. Aaron H. has tireless moral support.
brought with him an indefatigable positive energy and host of Last but certainly not least, we must thank all of our backers
technical talents. And Stephen Aubrey has graced us with both on Kickstarter; anyone who’s purchased any of our books on Itch,
his comedic and ever-precise writing and editing as well as his DTRPG, or BackerKit; and anyone who’s shared the game with
experience working with small companies of artists. friends.
Third, we must thank our co-conspirators and allies in the small
but explosively growing world of indie game design. Collaborating
with the Stillfleet Studio, our GM-mods—the talented Jedd Cole,
Ben Ferber, and Jesse King—have brought new energy and thought-
Kickstarter Backers
fulness to our nascent community. We’re currently working with or
soon hoping to work with all of them as writers, too. We’re thankful Voidminer
that our many-gifted press agent and Brazilian Portuguese transla-
tor, Leonardo Andrade, has also joined the writing/GMing crew. We Anne O’Nymous, Sgt. Kevin O’Shea, Giuseppe Zeuli, Freyja, Kass
must also thank the brilliant Richard Cross for his marketing strat- Gilbert, and Martin Wick.
egy support, especially with regard to streaming and international
distribution. And we appreciate the support of Cze and Peku, and
the teams at Hyperdrive Fleet and Borough Bound, for the early Banshee
encouragement and the willingness to jump together into bold,
new, tight-deadlined ventures. Nethery Engblom, Jedd Cole, kfan, Josh Pelton, Shannon O,
All of our freelance artists—Amanda Lee Franck, Anthony Grasso, Wawoozle, Michael Cmar, Leverett Jaques, Ripple Echo, Mariah
Hodag, Orange Arcana, Masami Kiyono, Gabriela Lopes Tores, Wilson, Bailey (Bailtech) Math, Ben Stubbs, Groovy Toovey,
and Aibrahim Zx—have been wonderful collaborators. We’d like to Gustave Lester, Ebest, JohnWest, Christopher Pickett, Stephen
particularly thank Amanda Lee Franck and Tony Grasso, who’ve Kane, Alastair Dagan, anonymous, Lyrae, Zizz, Gabriel Rodriguez,
worked with us right up until the end to help bring the Core Rulebook HumbleGoblin, Michele “MIX” Gelli, Hans Dewitte, Turtlerock,
to superfuturistic life. Payton Kerr, Michael Flattery, Bryn Goodman, Christian
On the game design as well as the musical side, Will Savino (of Oppenhagen, anonymous, Aaron, Brian C. Gillum, Calvin Johns,
Music d20 and Borough Bound) has been a pleasure to work with, Ryan Higgins, Thomas Z. Coan, Kyle Blondin, Nick Farncomb,
from that first Arkus supplement to Secret of the Porvenir to produc- Audrey Rivero, Zachary Knippel, Gabe Single-Schwall, Sean
ing the Stillfleet Original Soundtrack. Of course, we’re also indebted Hockin, Jules Twitchell, David Rheinstrom, Joshua Javier Rios,
to all of the inventive musical artists involved with that latter project: Lanndri, thatguy, Shawn Colacchio, Grace Arnup, Evie Sanford, Coty
James Brasswood, Joo-Young Kim, Sam Tyndall, and Xeropulse. Giannelli, Dan Paquin, Billy Allen, Dean Morris, Bijan Stephen,
Fourth, we owe special thanks to the cast and crew of Fun (and Master Necrosis, BISQ_T, Brian Haynes, and Koko Robles.
occasionally Float) City Ventures: Mike Rugnetta, Jenn De La Vega,
Nick Guercio, Shannon Odell, Bijan Stephen, and Taylor Moore. For Witness
one, we just love the show, whether in its cli-fi NYC or full-blown
blowing-up-Graafa mode. But we also love learning what other nar- Jonathan “Buddha” Davis, Charles Chapman, Eli Treuherz,
rative-obsessed, politically aware people do with the game. Thank Matthew Rolnick, Chris Giesy, Talien, Decima, Eóin Dooley, E.
you for taking a chance on a new system. Liaw, Jonathan Leib, Matt West, Louie J. Tremblay, Eric Zengerle,
Stacey Robinson, Michael Schwartz, Daniel Kubler, anonymous,

346 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook

Tom Vickers, Benedict R, Phil McGregor, Kyle Cassidy, Zeb Berryman, Derek Moreland, Brian Espinosa, Kristopher Olson, Awsda, John
Tyler Waugh, HexCode, “padfoot240,” Alexander Bönner, Tobias Littrel, NSG, Josiah Morgan, Ben Taels, RICHARD BARNHOUSE III,
Adam, Matt Gray, Matt McCabe, Thomas Zauner, Stanton Daries, Salem Weisbarth, anonymous, Stephen Maxwell, Adam Dane, Ryan
MultiMasky, Robert Kim, Chris Michael Jahn, Malquidis, Steven Russell, Allen Alberti, L. Russell, Matt “Chaser” Niccum, JoshKirby,
Rideout, Sympathy Plan, Jonathan Korman, ShakeSharp, Wayan Mjöll Schbevlin, Shane Laws, Paul Kemezis, Kevin Loney, 4est, Jakob
Ingudóttir Williams, Randy the Tree Wizard, Lala Hulse, Proiettivo, Nelson, Elliot Edwards, Alt 0177, Steven Mitchell, Opossum, Noah
Angelo Pileggi, Kristopher Volter, Nikolas Rabogliatti, MorgenGabe, Bemont, Rylen Dreskin, Arkon63, Griffin D. Morgan, Anonymous,
Derek Broughten, Sven Lucke, Eva Liisa Sepp, Riley Sampson, brazil808, Joe Flaherty, Stanley “Scott” Bread, Joseph T. Gandee,
Brandon Metcalf, Dirk Schlobinski, anonymous, Guillaume, krinsky, Ben Madden, kels, Tadpole, SneakyDingus, X, Scot Reed, Michael
Seth Hartley, Familien Madsen, Patrick Ley, Weston Aenchbacher, Owen Hill, Wes McNamee, Wendy C, Steven Moy, Colleen Lanier,
Lucas Cooperberg, Elijah Kulpinski, Tam, El Addams, Adam Rajski, DaPortlyJester, Isaiah S., Johnny Freedom!, Gadzooks Bonanza,
Adam Makey, adumbratus, Dani Jang 너불레기, Seth Halbeisen, Steve Jason Vogelpohl, Alex Leithead, Rain of Terra, Sean Gallagher,
Oates, Skylar Windham, Jack Duff, Dr. Cooper, tmm, Ephemerous, The Goodnights, Declan Shannon, Jason Land, Monte Cook,
Kim Shier, Patrick Mahoney, Arnaud GL, Eivind Nicolai Lauritsen, Matias Maria Wolf, Julian Christensen, Justin Porter, Sean G,
Zach Eastwood, Ronan Forman, Bhanu Sharma, Alex Warman, Dr Twigs, Kyle Smith, Harry Hausner, Mike Westley, Jonathan Snavely,
Jones, Kyle Shaw, Leo Andrade, Mark R. Lesniewski, Nathan Se- Richard Poffley, Geoff Oki, Zachary Loeb, uwtartarus, Quinn McCallum,
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Dane Mastantuono, Pat Feehan, Olivia Cassar Turner, Adam Howe, Mohney, Cassie O’Donnell, Malevolent Perry, Absalon43, Phil, Nick
Steve Davies, Patrice Mermoud, Kaden Leavitt, Joe Bulone & Co., Frederickson, Ian Scoble, Jason RB Morton, codex, Taylor Moore at
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Snozzberrys, Acolyte, Morgan McEvoy, Jonk, Alexander Nabíl Ahdieh Wagner, and Cole Stephan.
Kruszewski, Daniel Henderson, Carl Walter, John W. IV, Mike Fish,
David Korabell, Nicholas G, Steve Dahlskog, Bryan Wilson,
Mr. Galante, Matthieu Pierce, Chris Di Donna, Quantharian, Paul B, Shining Sky Climber
Mark Thorne, and Matthew McNamara.
Josh Thomson, Kodiak Sanders, MysticSybil, Cookieyedgamer,
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Factor Jason Aronson, Selena Robleto, Michael J. Cohen, Sam Sussman, Yes,
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Levy, Trip Space-Parasite, Guil, Sarah Bauer, A. Frank, David and Steward’s Rest RPG B&B, Mike Kantzer, Ben Smith, Max Paladino,
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Sarah Abowitz, Leo Frew, Drew Luchene, Yuu Gamon, Dennis Moran, A Space Cat, F. John Rickert, James Ballard, Robert T
Hwang, Birras, Stephen, Lesley A. Stange, David Newell, Laura South, Conrow, Terry Loincloth, Alex “uniponisis” Green, Shaun Padgett,
Luke “Grigxen” Holt, Eric Todd, Anomerica, Nepenthos Azoth aka elijahdprophet, Kyle Silberstein, Christopher J. Givler, Xevi, Neal
Frater P P, Anonymous, Dan Roper, and Kleptoplasty. Cox, James Mackenzie-Colon, Casey McGinley, Ian Winningham,
Jonny Casto-Ardern, Brian Aubrey, Rebecca Taylor, Tadhog, Ajani
W., KeekarTFTD, Neil Robinson, Derek Guder, Tymoteusz Alan
Refactor Chrzanowski, Sam Brewer, Christian V, Andrew Cotter, Gnandpa Gnine,
Aaron Boyce, Gregory Seidman, Jeff Johnson, Jesse Robinson, Kit
Jenn de la Vega, Cole Weirich, Jason Fass, Heather R. Lazar, Kenneth Pulliam, smalldrewsmall, Jared M. Silver, David Haan & Liz Thaler,
Prado – AKA Hizagueri, Dannel Jurado, Will Savino, Austin Barnes, Tim Hoffman, JAL, Idno, Logan Paton, Beth Crose, Euthrosyne,
Taylor Owen, Mike Cugini, Cory Vollmer, Joe Flood, Sarge2401, crw_scribbler, Paul “the” Gray, Bennyjammin, Russell Trafford, Will
Refactor Brightwell, Eric Andrews, Theodore Billups, Aaron O., Shankles and Patrick Monroe, Augusto Hoppe, Marcus Carline, J.P.,
Czepeku, Neil stait, Wilson Josephson, Martina Di Caro, Joseph Tyler Palma, Mike Early, Robert McCuaig, Stephen Reed, TJ Raynor,
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Silvarant, Jennifer Wong-Roushae, Hans Buetow, Rachael Stephen, James Bach, Micha Gorelick, Travis Southard, Frilke, Victor P. Haerinck
Sam Bhimji, Nick Jones, TawnTaun, Sylvia Shields, DanyD, Elvie Jr., David Moreau, Adam Marsh, Brennan “Bea” Dienel, Joshua “Jmac”
Mae Parian, padishahZ, Andrew Diaz, Jackson Durs, Jess Emsley, Macfarlane, Scott, Daniel Lyne, Justin Lomelino, Farmer Zanath,
Nick Morganella, David “kapowladin” Atwell, Will Tucker, Lykaios, Brian Ganninger, Juno Winter, Sleezy Peezy, Jeffery Schempp, Noah
Alex Hamel, Evan W. Stoner, Nick Anderson, The4LetterNerd, Jason Draheim, Damy Gamels, Kyle Burckhard, Matthew Whitrock, Sarah
Turner, and James Holbach. Rose, Dale Chenault, Carl Bindman, JLDougherty, Dakota Graves, Chad
Andrew Bale, John Harrison, Bryan Paul, Cameron Stampfel, Laura
Senior Archivist Greer & Caitlin Hoffman, Mike Carlson, Adam J Cohen, Pierre ‘Le Dude’
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Thomson, Nick “FrogHouse” Adams, Hessan Yongdi, Fred Herman, Ryan O’Connor, Chris Reid, Vortak Games, and Opal Grove Games.
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“The Filthy Casual” Haymes, Thomas and Talia, Endymion, 8bitOlin,
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Eliot Brian Chenowith, Dustin Niehoff, Kenneth Gurney, Tim Sunaree P.
Rudloff, Greg Kalar, Scott King, Ignatius Montenegro, Dramierofthe8,

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook 347

Index
Advanced power – 092 Drug – 158 Kakudun – 258
Advancement – 090 Duul-duul – 302 Kavaraat – 132, 270
Advantage – 028 Dying – 031 Kin – 084
Afdeling – 222 Earth (see Terra) Language – 010
Algae – 083, 223, 237 Echodrome techno-horror Late Tephnian (see Tephnian)

For more on the mi-go, see the Stillfleet Quickstart

Alien worlds – 279 (encounter) – 232 Leech – 116
Ambush – 034 Encounter – 204, 322 Luna – 281
Antiphysics (see Escheresque) Enjan – 075 Major province – 223, 248

Rules, available as a PDF or a softback book.

Archaetech – 170 Enshaga – 109, 280 Malkovich tunnel – 009
Archive – 227 Envirosuit – 198 Mantid – 325
Archivist (class) – 233 Equipment (see gear) Mantid dimensionauts
Armor – 155 Escheresque (general) – 300 (encounter) – 330
Aux – 288 Escheresque (technology) – 183 Marquee power – 040
Banshee – 043 Escheresque event – 304 Mask in Yellow – 134
Beating 6 – 026 Extradimensional (see XD) Maw – 137
Becoming prone – 031 Faalaan – 289 Medicine (see drug)
Bio (technology) – 179 Factions – 213 Mi-go – 283, 291
Biological (species) – 067 Factor – 046 Minor province – 224, 268
Black Gate – 125 Faneslary – 268 Mob rules – 036
Bleed – 035 Far Bays – 010, 239 Money – 149
Blood (nanotechnology) – 186 Far xanjin – 289 Mongrel – 078
Blooder – 058 Far xanjin (encounter) – 326 Monster (see encounter)
Boost, boosting – 032 Federation of Unhuman Moon (see Luna)
Bravo – 115 Kingdoms – 213, 276 Morghûl (see mournfolk)
Bug (technology) – 182 Fexellaj – 261 Mournfolk – 079, 255
Burn – 035 Flats – 238 Mouse – 060
Buying gear – 149 Fleeter – 068 Movement – 029
Calarash – 248 Force (technology) – 181 Mulg – 290
Calayat – 251 Gear – 149 Mulgulm – 263, 290
Canteen – 234 Geels – 290 Mulruk – 256
Capitalism – 195 Geelish reavers (encounter) – 327 Multiclassing – 042
Carlivago – 268 Gigou – 255 Multidimensional (see Escheresque)
Chandler – 115 GM (see grimventure manager) Names – 225
Character design – 040 GMless games – 314 Nanofluidics – 102
Charm – 029 Gnarcosa – 280 Nanotechnology – 181, 185
Check – 029 Grappling – 035 Nașudrūn – 262
Clank (technology) – 179 Gray plague – 188 Near Bays – 010, 239
Class – 041 Grimmle – 269 New Singapore Two – 281
Code (technology) – 180 Grimventure manager – 014, 310 Noioid – 292
Colonialism (see capitalism) Grit – 030 Non-player character (NPC) – 014, 320
Combat – 034 Guilder (see voidguilder) Normcore class – 112
Communications – 097 Gulm – 290 Nyarlathon (encounter) – 331
Company (see Worshipful Company of Gulm pyrates (encounter) – 328 Nyleshonoid – 292
Stillfleeters) Harajoon – 076 Oddment – 170
Company policies – 214 Healing (see recovering pool) Operations – 107
Complexity, technological – 147 Health – 030 Ordo Pallida – 292
Conscript – 073 Heechee – 009, 071, 183, 230 Ordo Pallida crusaders
Courtesan – 116 Hell science, hell scientist – 120 (encounter) – 332
Crown of Worms – 128 Hell science flaws – 123 Pala – 275
Cryptocerid – 147, 182 High Tephnian (see Tephnian) Paldanaar – 268
Darasan – 253 Honourable Company of Pays – 282
Demarach (see Paldanaar) Stillfleeters (H.Co.) – 213 Pazūzūn – 282
Designing advanced powers – 112 Howling Lamp – 131 Pepper Elf – 074, 228
Designing archaetech – 179 Hrijn – 272 Pir – 048
Designing classes – 112 Hulk – 284 Player character (PC, see voidminer)
Designing hell science classes – 124 Husk gnome – 291 Pluto (see Yuggoth)
Designing stiffworks – 184 Husk gnome matter thieves Pool – 030
Desmudu – 260 (encounter) – 329 Province – 019, 069, 248
Director – 087, 222 Hustle – 082 Provincial – 069
Directorate – 222 Immerphysics – 099 Provincial toughs (encounter) – 333
Disadvantage (see advantage) Imperialism (see capitalism) Psyon, psyonics (see hell science)
Djannaj – 280 Informatic (species) – 067 Qreyjal – 265
Dolphinoid – 250 Jackal – 060 Radanaar – 270
Dormant Bays – 010, 239 Jalasti – 077, 254 Radiation – 035
Drowning – 345 Jird (encounter) – 205 Rank – 092

348 Stillfleet // Core Rulebook

Razi – 051 Stun – 035 Void elf “art handlers” (encounter) – 338
Reason – 029 Subdirector – 087, 222 Voidguilder – 149
Recovering pool – 030 Tacking stiffworks – 043, 200 Voidminer – 014
Refactor – 018, 087, 194 Tactics – 110 Voidware – 157
Report (see venture report) Technology – 146, 148 Walkers (encounter) – 187
Rijder – 117 Technomummy, Late Tephnian Warmachine, Late Tephnian
Rolling a 1 – 028 (encounter) – 336 (encounter) – 339
Ruguņ – 267 Telos, teloi – 085 Weapon – 149
Ruoin – 114, 271 Tephnian, Tephnii – 009, 278 Weather – 203
Salt elf (see pepper elf) Terra – 275 Wetan – 072, 241
Score – 027 Toxin – 035 Wetan Mafia (general) – 213, 245
Shoodtha – 080 Transdimensional (see Escheresque) Wetan Mafia soldier (encounter) – 245
Sky That Crawls – 140 Tremulant – 065 Will – 029
Sleeper – 081 Tsawald – 273 Witness – 056
Snakehead – 063 Tsune (see Gnarcosa) Worshipful Company of
Snakeman infolich (encounter) – 334 Tyharin – 273 Stillfleeters – 008, 014
Solarian – 293 Ultrastructure – 298 Xaalii (encounter) – 342
Spaceship (see hulk) Unhuman – 275 XDs (encounter) – 340
Species – 067 Unhuman spy (encounter) – 337 Xenoglade – 297
Spin – 010 Upmost – 220 Xenoglade eggs… and mother
Spindle – 010, 218 Uricon – 274 (encounter) – 341
Spy – 117 Vennar – 277 Yaaj – 298
Starspawn (encounter) – 335 Venture (general) – 194 Yaaj (encounter) – 343
Stiffworks – 008, 044 Venture dossier – 196 Ylythnari autark (encounter) – 344
Stillrijder – 053 Venture report – 208 Yuggoth – 283
Strata, technological – 147 Void elf – 295 Zhoggoth (encounter) – 345
Zog (encounter) – 205

Colophon
The Stillfleet Core Rulebook was written in Boston, Atlanta, and New York City using Evernote,
Apple Notes, and (primarily) Google Docs. It was laid out in Los Angeles and New York City using the
Adobe Creative Cloud. The text appears in Warnock Pro; headers in IBM Plex Sans; and titles in Citizen
Bold. Special featured text is set in IBM Plex Mono and American Typewriter. The first edition of the
book was printed by Regent Publishing Services Ltd. in Hong Kong on 128 GSM Gold East matt art
paper.
We have strived for maximalist but highly legible art, graphic design, and writing styles, and for a style
of game design that simultaneously maximizes both intuitive, rules-light gameplay and the variety of
forms of fun that players and grimventure managers can enjoy.
To the workers, all they produce.

Stillfleet // Core Rulebook 349

FORM WCOSF-VMAPP-QSR2A-V0001
________ a-1. ID (name) i. scores (checks)

COM

C O M B AT
҆ attack
҆ grapple
a-2. rank (title)

҆ drive/pilot

MOVEMENT
b. class(es) level(s)

MOV
҆ dodge
҆ initiate
҆ run
҆ sneak

҆ heal
c. species ҆ know

REA

REASON
҆ make/repair
҆ use tech
҆ use Weird
power
d-1. life history (additional details on reverse)

WIL
҆ empathize

WILL
҆ perceive
҆ resist

d-2. hustle (Tachquake occupation; note advantage and disadvantage)

CHA
҆ control

CHARM
҆ negotiate
҆ seduce
advantage:

disadvantage:
j. pool
d-3. kin (family, mentors, patrons)
total current*

HEA
H E A LT H
d-4. teloi (motivations) [maxCOM +maxMOV]

total current*

GRT
GRIT

e. class powers (additional details on reverse)

[determined by class]
*When you rest for 5 hours, you recover dMOV + dWIL + [your level] pool, split
between HEA and GRT as you like.

k. damage reduction

armor

f. species powers (additional details on reverse) DR

l. conditions (radiation poisoning, voidmadness, etc.)

g. advanced powers (additional details on reverse)

m. weapons (note ranges, effects)

h. hell science powers (REQUIRES ADDITIONAL SIGNATURE of supervising Archivist‡)

For instructions on completing this form or other game questions or feedback,

head to: stillfleet.com or @stillfleet on social media, and then join us on Discord!
 OFFICIAL CO. USE ONLY q. power details (and/or other additional details)

FORM WCOSF-VMAPP-QSR2B-V0001

d-5. place of origin

d-6. languages

d-7. presentation (identifying marks)

n. gear

o. oddments and archaetech (note stratum and complexity)

Sign
Your signature

p. voidguilders (gl) (or other currency) here Refactor’s signature

If your body plan or

understanding of ‡
glyphs does not allow Supervising Archivist’s
you to sign this form, signature
report to the Afdeling
of the Fleet. Hire date
 E E A D
O R
L ID! ON-
UNI THE R HER
EXPE VO IZE LDS
R N O
A OOK
T !
TH WO
B

The Sleeper in the Sky

In the first official Stillfleet venture, the voidminers are hired to rescue a thieving banshee
(tech specialist) from a squid-shaped Late Tephnian pleasure ship named The Arbor
of Uqbar that is currently in orbit around Saturn’s moon, Titan. But all is not as it seems…
Explore 25 pages of mayhem-noir, including statblocks for xenofauna, lists of oddments
and archaetech, and a loaded sky-dungeon.

The Rain Thieves

The second official Stillfleet venture and setting sourcebook offers pulp-tastic, politically
charged danger and sand-blasted, eco-horrorific exploration on the minor province of
Radanaar. This desert planet—populated by domesticated, yoghurt-producing centipedes
and intelligent giant “spiders” (well, that word is close enough)—has been literally
forgotten by the Co. Players, will you do the Co.’s bidding and destabilize the fragile
ecosystems of Radanaar’s great cave complexes in search of new fungus technologies…?

Stillfleet on Patreon
If you enjoy Stillfleet, consider supporting its development on Patreon at
patreon.com/stillfleet. Patrons get access to draft and expanded content, including
regular mini-ventures that take the game into new genres, add encounters and
archaetech, and flesh out game lore. And we prioritize patrons for playtesting new scenarios!

Get your FREE X-ray Nano Spex™

And that’s not all! In addition to high-quality tabletop roleplaying game content from the
Stillfleet Studio, you can also pick up a totally monetarily FREE pair of nanotechnology- S O -
powered X-ray glasses from our partners over at the General Trading Emporium of Janoosh! AB ELY
LUT
These artisanally assembled devices—now almost entirely mind-virus-free (we’ve been
assured)—allow ordinary human peepers to perform extraordinary feats of visioneering. What
E E
an aid to gameplay at the table for the sneaky story saboteur: you can see the grimventure
manager’s notes right through their screen! To redeem your pair of Spex™, just clip out this
coupon and burn it while hissing. Loudly.*
F R
*Delivery expected in 2,500,000 centuries. Offer not redeemable in CA. For questions regarding
physiological changes, unheralded urges, and temporal perturbations, write to Hurshuunash-Krluun,
Librarian of Apocalypses and Diabolic Flautist, ℅ Lash-Centraal, Janoosh, Time-Empire, Cloud of the
Blood-Rain, Cradle of the Snake-Consuls, Throne Over the Minds of the Ancestors.