1kFA Player Guide

Like board games? Get a kick out of those online Dungeons & Dragons videos? Want to try improv? Welcome to A Thousand Faces of Adventure!

Welcome to Roleplaying

A Thousand Faces of Adventure is a framework for telling a story. The authors of the story are you and your friends, sitting around a table.

The rewards for playing are laughter and excitement while you play, followed up with years of warm conversations that start with "Remember that time we were playing A Thousand Faces of Adventure and..."

Skip me to character creation!

If you are an experienced RPG player you might want to jump ahead past this indroductory hulabaloo and rules reference, and start playing with the first activity available to you. Typically in RPGs, this means "character creation", which is often done as a solo, "homework" activity before the whole table comes together to play.

A Thousand Faces of Adventure is designed to be played by a group of friends the moment everyone's together at the table. Character creation will be an interactive activity that requires your friends. Open the GM Guide and look under the Begin a Campaign section for more details.

This Player's Guide is a manual of all the procedures a non-GM player might need during play.

This game is a in the category of games called conversation. It may seem weird to think of conversation as a "game", but it's also convenient. Accepting that this game is a conversation lets you rely on your existing knowledge and expertise at conversation "games". You've already learned about things like taking turns, interruption protocols, and listening, so you're already an expert at the foundational rules of this game.

How to make a great story

Imagine the audience for this story is the inner children of all the players. What evokes the feelings we had when we were children playing pretend? Can you remember being 11 years old and watching a spectacular Steven Spielberg movie? Or maybe a cheap-but-awesome Sam Raimi movie?

You are going to collaborate with all the other players to make this story, so when it's your turn to narrate, think of what will give your friends around the table a thrill, put them in suspense, ratchet up their feelings of tension, or make their jaws drop with awe.

Sometimes inner children get a big kick out of blood and guts. Your inner child might giggle at the "adult" scenes in an HBO series. If you don't know what topics your friends consider "off-limits", it is a good idea to ask and tell before you start playing.

The story that emerges is not a precisely crafted thing. That's ok. It doesn't have to be high art or even a cartoon on Adult Swim. It gets shaped by each player, and when your turn comes, you adapt, do your best improvisational "Yes, and" , and see where it goes from there. It might sound like chaos, but with some faith in your friends, you will delight at how the plot solidifies, and how real the characters become.

Specifically, What to do

To play the game, one person will take on the role of the Game Master, or "GM". The other people will be called simply "Players".

The GM

The GM's job is to help everyone follow the rules of the game, and say stuff. Occasionally they will write notes and scribble some quick numerical facts.

The Players

Most of your time will be spent saying stuff. You are part of a conversation. Ask questions, use your imagination, chime in when someone inspires you. Think about your character like a hero of a movie, and try playing as the writer of the movie, or the director, or immerse yourself like a method actor standing in the character's boots and seeing with their eyes.

As the conversation unfolds, the rules will chime in as well. When that happens you will be called do things beyond just "saying stuff":

Your Character: A Scrappy Adventurer

A Thousand Faces of Adventure is a game about your character growing from humble beginnings as a scrappy adventurer into someone who will have an epic impact on their world.

During character creation, you will get to determine all aspects of your character's history, social and economic circumstances, and personality. These are fictional aspects of the character. You will use the game's rules to determine all the mechanical aspects of the character.

The terms mechanical and mechanism describe aspects of the game that concern rules, numbers, and procedures.

Mechanically, characters start out just a little bit more powerful than a common villager. Your character will have 10 Stamina points versus a townsperson's 2-5, and will start with three special moves, but that's all that separates them from Michel the stable-hand and Constance the librarian.

You can invent any backstory you like, but you may need to answer questions about how the backstory fits the character's game limitations. Nothing stops you from creating a hulking, 7 foot tall barbarian, with a rich history of warring and slaughtering enemies, but at the very beginning of the game, with a couple unlucky flips, that barbarian may suffer a sound drubbing at the hands of a farmer and his overprotective goat.

This doesn't mean you shouldn't create the barbarian character. You should. That sounds awesome! But if you do, be prepared to find some narrative justification (drunkard? battle-worn? magically cursed?) that the character begins at a "scrappy adventurer" level.

As your character adventures in the world, they will gain experience and equipment making them worthy of the title "hero". See Character advancement for more details.

The Deckahedron

The main activity in the game is "saying stuff", mostly stuff about your character. Often, you'll say something that triggers a move, and that move will be resolved using your Deckahedron.

(If you do not have a physical copy of this game, you can find a digital Deckahedron at 1kFA.com/table )

Every player except the GM gets a Deckahedron. Inspect your Deckahedron. You should have 20 cards. There are 4 symbols, or "suits", on the fronts and backs of the cards:

Whenever your character attempts something risky, where the outcome is not certain, the GM will call for you to take your Deckahedron and "flip".

In conversation with GM and the rest of the table, you'll decide what move your character is triggering and which of your character's attributes -- Str, Dex, or Int -- will be used to resolve the flip. There is a move card or a page in your base moves booklet for every move, so have that move card or page in your booklet ready.

Name	odds	color	rank
Anvil	the weakest odds	red	rank 1
Blade	below average odds	blue	rank 2
Crown	above average odds	yellow	rank 3
Dragon	the best odds	green	rank 4

GM Note: The attributes used to resolve a move
are listed at the top of each move card. A card may
give the option of several attributes, so you may
need to ask the player for more detail about their
action before calling for a flip.

Take the top card of your Deckahedron and flip it face up. Next, find the suit (Anvil, Blades, Crown, or Dragon) of the chosen attribute on your character sheet.

On the face side of the Deckahedron card, find that suit symbol. The result of the move is the X symbol

symbols next to that suit. When you flip, keep in mind that the GM may need to read the result. Being consistent with how you orient the card will help simplify the GM's bookkeeping and keep up the pace of the game.

Finally, read the instructions on your move card. It tells you and the GM how to interpret the X symbol

s and

For example,

Ready the Defy Danger page in your booklet (it's the first page). Next, on the character sheet, see that Kresk has rank 3 (Crown) Str. Flip over the top card of your Deckahedron and look for that Crown suit.

Let's say the Deckahedron card shows double check

next to the Crown. The Defy Danger move reads "You do it, but there's a new complication". When you look to the GM to interpret this outcome, they begin to improvise:

Reshuffling

After every flip, any face-up Deckahedron card is placed, face-up, in a discard pile. (Later, you will start another pile of cards called an Exhaustion pile. Keep them separate.)

At any time other than during a flip, you may take your discard pile and shuffle it back into your Deckahedron.

Whenever your Deckahedron has 5 or fewer cards, you must take your discard pile and shuffle it back into your Deckahedron.

Interpreting the result of a flip

When a player's character performs a move, the player executes a flip, and the GM leads the table interpreting the narrative result, based on the text of the move card.

When the result is a single single check

, it sometimes means the same as a double check

, but often it is slightly worse.

GM Note: Any time a flip results in a single
the GM gains a Shadow point -- even when the
move card says it has the same narrative effect
as a .

Note: some move cards give choices between several options. If one of the options is impossible (fictionally or mechanically), it may not be chosen. Choose one of the other options instead.

When the result is X symbol

, it is the GM's turn to make a move. The GM narrates the consequences of the move the player just attempted and has license to take the narrative where they like.

See the GM Guide for explanations of Shadow points and for a list of moves the GM is allowed to make.

Exceptions on single check

and

flips

Sometimes a card does not say how a single check

should be interpreted. In that case, the GM gets to make a move, just like X symbol

Rarely, a card will have instructions for how to interpret a X symbol

result. These instructions should be executed, but might only be part of the GM's move -- the GM gets to decide if they have more to add.

When the card is a FAST

move, the GM does not get to make a move on a X symbol

. Instead, the GM just gains 2 Shadow points.

Cards tagged FAST

Some move cards have the FAST

symbol. This indicates they can be used in conjunction with another move during your character's moment in the spotlight.

As the conversation moves around the table, players will have informal "turns" where they talk about what actions their character is taking. The game works best when this "spotlight" is moved around fairly so each player can contribute. The spotlight typically follows a single character's actions until they trigger, then resolve a move.

moves are like "bonus" moves that augment, or quickly follow the initially triggered move.

Characters will trigger at most one FAST

move during their moment in the spotlight. Otherwise the pace of the game can slow down, and other players may feel like they aren't getting a fair share.

Examples of cards tagged FAST

include Unknown Benefactor, Where It Hurts, and Shield.

A moment in the spotlight might see your swordsman character triggering the move Mix It Up, causing damage to a foe, and then also triggering Where It Hurts as you describe the sword delivering a stunning blow, clanging loud and hard against the foe's helmet.

Or, your professor of alchemy character might trigger Defy Danger as they jump out of the way of a toppling bookcase. After you flip an X symbol

, the GM may start enumerating the attack power your character must suffer, to which you could respond by invoking Unknown Benefactor to cancel the attack's effects.

Other ways to flip: Advantage / Disadvantage

Some flips are a little more complicated. There are moves that instruct you to "take +1 advantage" or "flip with advantage". Sometimes you are given the opposite instruction "flip with disadvantage" or "your foe gets advantage".

Advantage

With an advantage, flip over your top card as usual, and then flip over the next card as well. Compare the results (the number of X symbol

s or

s next to the relevant suit) and resolve the flip with the card that has the best result.

If it's a tie, you may choose whichever card to be the card that resolves the flip.

Complete Flip Rule

You must flip over all the cards you were instructed to, even if the first card shows triple check

Disadvantage

Acting against a foe that has advantage is mechanically identical to your character having disadvantage.

Multiple Advantages / Disadvantages

Advantage or disadvantage can stack. Flips can accumulate up to 2 advantage or 2 disadvantage, meaning that you flip 3 cards in total and take the best or worst, respectively.

No flip may use more than 3 cards in total, so stacking advantage beyond 2 is just ignored.

It is possible a situation might arise where you are instructed to both "flip with advantage" and "flip with disadvantage". If this happens, simply add up all the advantages, and then subtract all the disadvantages to arrive at a "net advantage" or "net disadvantage". The maximum number of cards per flip is still 3, so even if the "net disadvantage" is -3, you only flip 3 cards and take the worst.

XP cards

Resolving flips is how players acquire experience points (XP). XP are a player's most important mechanical currency in the game.

Some Deckahedron cards show an experience point symbol in the middle. These are XP cards. After a flip is resolved by an XP card, take one XP from the supply.

You may only do this when the card resolves a flip. (ie, when flipping multiple cards, only if the XP card was the one from which the X symbol

symbols were used to interpret the result of the move)

XP are a currency you spend to activate "meta" parts of the game. See below for moves that let you "break" or "bend" rules, or partially take control of the narrative.

Blessing cards

Some move cards will instruct you to take Blessing cards. When instructed to do so, draw one Blessing card at random from the supply, and place it in your discard pile.

Blessing cards improve your Deckahedron by giving you better chances to succeed at moves.

Whenever a move is resolved by a Blessing card, return the Blessing card to the supply rather than keeping it in your discard pile.

Wound cards

Sometimes you flip over a wound card and must lose a Stamina point. See the Combat chapter.

Teamwork Flips

Before a flip is executed, if other players have characters in the same scene as the character taking action, and there is nothing in the fiction preventing it, those other players may choose to have their characters aid the spotlighted character. They just chime in before the flip and say how their character helps out.

Another time the Teamwork Flip is triggered is when the characters are all bound together in success or failure. (eg, Defying Danger in a canoe traveling over whitewater) In that case, the GM asks the players "who is taking the lead?". That player is the spotlighted player, and the other players are supporting.

The spotlighted player flips as they normally would, the supporting players say how they are helping and flip one Anvil.

Only the card that resolved the flip can generate XP, and only for the player who played it.

If there are any negative consequences (damage, danger, etc) from the result, all the participating characters must suffer them.

Flips only happen when the situation is uncertain or risky

A GM only calls for a flip when the situation is uncertain or risky for the character. If the outcome is certain, the GM may just narrate what happens. Or they may ask clarifying questions.

This game is a conversation between people, so there is variability in how it plays out. Different GMs will draw their line of certainty at different places.

Consider a situation where the GM has described your character, Kresk, waking up after making camp in a forest. Beside Kresk is a squirrel, nibbling an acorn.

It would be bizarre, but completely within the rules for the GM to write up some stats for the squirrel (1 Stamina, 1 attack power), and begin a melee combat between Kresk and the squirrel, and ask you to flip Str to resolve the Mix It Up move.

But the GM will more likely interpret your action, as described, as having a certain outcome. Perhaps the GM will respond:

Pushing buttons or staying in character

The GM doesn't always have to invoke a move and call for a flip. But in this example, the player literally names a move ("I Mix It Up..."). That's a strong signal to the GM, and the GM is likely to follow strong signals.

If you enjoy playing in a style where things flow like a narrated story, from question to answer, from description to dialogue and naturally back around again, rather than pushing a limited set of buttons laid out in front of you, try playing without naming the moves. Just describe what your character does in a natural way.

Moves Depend On the Fiction

Because uncertainty is a key requirement before a flip is called for, the fiction that you and your friends establish matters.

If a character threatens a towering Mountain Giant with a punch (that would only reach the Giant's lower shin), the GM will not call for a Parley flip. A wound to the arm or hand might be described in such a way that would clearly make using a bow for Volley or Called Shot impossible. Or successful application of an Amulet of Amiability might mean that Pick Pockets can be skipped - the affected NPC might just offer to share their precious items.

Combat - Stamina and Wounds

Your character will confront violent foes and dangerous obstacles. Will they endure exertion and injury to keep venturing forward, or will they be disfavoured by fate and end up completely spent and collapsed in a heap?

Your time in this game will mostly be spent saying stuff and flipping cards from your Deckahedron. When combat begins, however, it's time to reach for your dice and remember to keep a close eye on your tokens.

In a fight, a character is running, dodging, striking, and being struck by their foe. All of this action is scary and exhausting. A character gets weaker as this exchange goes on, even if they dodge every blow.

This weakening is represented by cards from your Deckahedron being lost into your Exhaustion pile.

Have you ever watched a boxing or martial arts match? During the later rounds, the athletes are worn down, their footwork is less animated, and they drop their guard more frequently. The contest is not always decided with a knockout punch, it often comes down to who can better endure the exertion.

Every PC has 10 Stamina points. When a PC loses all 10, they are incapacitated. After that, their fate is up to the game rules and the GM.

The Four Ds

When your character gets attacked or falls victim to some other danger, you have choices about exactly how they are affected. They may dodge, and just lose Stamina, they may stand stubbornly against a blow, perhaps absorbing it with their armour, or they may be wounded by it.

Dice

When your character suffers the consequences of violence, you roll dice or read instructions from a move card to get a number. This number is called the attack power.

Decide

After the attack power is known, you have a choice: either take that many Exhaustion tokens or take a Wound token.

You can always choose to absorb the entire amount of attack power by taking a single Wound.

Let's say your character was attacked with a sword and the dice were rolled and summed up to 7. You can either take 7 Exhaustion tokens (thus losing 7 Stamina points), or choose to take one Wound token (see below) instead.

Let's further say your character had lost 3 Stamina points earlier in the battle. With only 7 Stamina points left, it's a wise time to take a Wound.

Distribute

In the third step you take Exhaustion or Wound tokens from the supply and either:

To absorb Exhaustion and Wounds, you can use item cards like your character's armour and shield, or move cards like Good Cardio, Mystic Breathwork, Like A Second Skin, and Sangfroid.

PCs start with 10 Stamina points. To win at combat, a character's foes must be subdued or pacified before 10 cards are lost from the Deckahedron.

Losing or Expending Stamina

(So, if you were instructed to lose 3 Stamina points, you add 3 cards from the top of your Deckahedron onto your Exhaustion pile, then you put 3 Exhaustion tokens on top of it as well.)

If your Deckahedron does not contain enough cards, you must reshuffle your discard pile into the Deckahedron and continue.

Note: you may choose to reshuffle their discard pile back into the Deckahedron before moving cards onto their Exhaustion pile.

Once the Exhaustion pile grows to 10 cards, the character is incapacitated and can take no further actions. It is up to the GM to decide what this incapacitation means - whether the character is dead, unconscious, or just unable to stand or move.

Taking Wounds

Wounds are a long-term source of trouble for your charcter. When wounded, all intelligent creatures seek to cure their condition as a high priority.

A Wound Card

Wound cards can be used to represent different fictional aspects. They usually represent literal wounds, but may also be used for the effects of disease, poison, or other effects inflicted by monsters or the environment.

Describe

The act of taking a risk, deciding how
to get hurt, and then later, deciding when and
how to heal, with each stage having its
sacrifices and benefits, is a miniature echo of
the overall structure of the Hero's Journey
campaign. Starting in comfort, choosing to
cross a threshold, deciding which fork to take
in a road of trials, then returning.

Equipment

During character creation, you receive two Pack cards and take some Item cards. These cards represent equipment carried by your character that interacts with mechanisms of the game.

Daily-use amounts of money and food are not tracked. It is assumed your character will always be able to scrounge a meal somehow. Unless it is relevant to the drama of the fictional situation or inspired by the Touchstone List (see the GM Guide), small monetary transactions may be abridged or assumed.

It is also not necessary to exactly measure movement speed or the sizes of all the gear carried or to track the body part to which the gear is strapped.

Your character has a movement speed, a certain lightness-of-foot, they carry a certain amount of equipment and items, and perhaps even a certain amount of wealth or treasure.

There are some moves that are affected by how much stuff a character carries. These moves have a "Encumbrance Penalty" section, and describe how carried equipment affects their outcomes.

At any time that makes sense in the fiction, a character can drop items and equipment.

Pack - Precious and regular

Throughout the game, your character will gain, lose, and trade equipment and supplies that are worth tracking. These items don't need to be specified until they actually get used. Instead they are tracked with anonymous Pack cards.

White-side green cards represent "regular" Pack and black-side green cards represent "precious" Pack. Precious Pack is something that is found precious by someone. It may be something made of a rare metal like gold, or it may be simply a full waterskin offered to a parched NPC in the desert.

If the specifics of a Pack card get concretely established in the fiction, and the card is not immediately spent, the Pack card should be returned to the supply and a blank Item card should be taken to replace it, with the name or details of the item written on it.

Your character starts off with 2 Pack cards, enabling the move Good Thing I Brought...

Good Thing I Brought...

Adventurers are always finding themselves in tricky situations. Luckily, they come prepared with adventuring gear. They have been known to carry 50 feet of rope, smelling salts, books of racy poems, sometimes even a 3-day-old pork chop to distract hounds or hungry goblins.

It's a fact. You know this and A Thousand Faces of Adventure knows this, so you won't be asked to keep fine-grained notes of every candle and spare button in your character's inventory.

Reasonable daily-use items are presumed to be in your character's pack. If you're unsure, remember this game is a conversation, so just ask the table.

But sometimes you will be in a situation where having that 50 feet of rope or an old pork chop would really solve a problem for your character.

When your character reaches into their pack and produces the item that solves their current problem or helps them overcome a challenge, just say what it is and execute the "Good Thing I Brought..." move.

The Pack cards represent the adventuring gear a character has brought along. But you do not need to declare exactly what that gear is until you're in a situation where you need something specific.

If the "Good Thing I Brought..." move is executed and the newly "declared" equipment is something that can be returned to the backpack after use, write its name down on a blank card and exchange that card for the "anonymous" Pack card(s) that were the cost of "Good Thing I Brought...".

If 2 Pack cards are spent, and the character ends up with one card returning to their backpack, future Encumberance Penalty calculations will change. Use the fiction to justify that. Maybe they didn't have exactly what they needed, so one piece of equipment had to be consumed to create the necessary tool, in a MacGuyver-esque fashion.

If the equipment is something that gets consumed immediately when used, the 1 or 2 Pack cards just get returned back to the supply.

Item Damage

The first two times an item is damaged, place a red card on the Item card, black-side-up.

If an item already has 2 red cards on it, and it is damaged again, it is destroyed. Return it and the red cards to the supply.

All mundane (non-magical) items can be damaged. Usually this happens as the result of a GM move.

Magic

Magic is an element that pervades stories of fantasy. It can be obscure and stemming from nature like in Lord of the Rings, it can be elemental and allegorical like in The Wheel of Time, and it can be linguistic and self-aware like in The Invisibles.

To avoid presuming too much about the narrative, the rules do not dictate the nature of magic or the "how" of magic. That's for you to decide during play. The rules provide a mechanical foundation and some optional narrative paths. You are invited to take this well-tested framework, play with it, and expand into it.

Is magic woven from subtle threads that pervade the universe? Is it based on words of power? Is it high technology hidden in the planet's crust by alien benefactors? Is it copied exactly from a concept in your Touchstone List? You decide.

The rules give you a way to have scrappy adventurers begin with magic items. These artifacts have 3 charges, and are rechargeable during Rest. Your character can eventually build themselves up in power to a point where they can cast magic spells without needing the items.

The rules also give names for two sources of magical power, "The Living Light" and "The Blood-Bound". It's up to you to give these names narrative meaning, if you want.

One thing to keep in mind is that characters may attempt any move that resolves with Str / Dex / Int. (See Move Levels So even if moves like Use a Magic Item or Fundamental Magic were not chosen at character creation or gained via Study Under a Master, any character may attempt them.

That said, using magic invokes some of the more complicated rules. Players are challenged with managing and balancing charges, capacity, stamina, requirements, and narrative effect. This kind of play is ideal for players excited by complexity and the potential of explorable branches.

The ONGOING tag

Upon triggering the Use a Magic Item move, a character "flows magical energy" into the item. Then the magical effects happen.

Some magic effects persist even after the flow of magical energy into the item has ceased. (eg, _ of Sensation)

Some magic items have the ONGOING tag, and their effects persist only as long as magical energy flows into the item. It is up to the player to declare when their character ceases the flow of magical energy. If the flow of magical energy continues, they are not considered idle for the purposes of the Rest and Seek Help moves.

Charges and Capacity

By default, magic items have capacity for 3 charges. An item is considered "depleted" when all its charges are used. The term used for a card's maximum number of charges is "capacity" or "charge capacity".

The number of charges a magic item currently has is tracked by keeping green cards underneath it.

When a magic item loses a charge, take one of the green cards and place it back in the supply. When there are no more green cards underneath it, it is depleted and cannot be used.

Charge capacity can be gained and lost. Every time it changes, players should mark the new capacity on the Magic Item card

If the charge capacity decreases below 1, all the bonds that held the item together dissipate, including the bonds of matter. Return the card to the supply.

Use a Magic Item

When a character holds a magic item and flows energy into it, the player flips Int, and on any result other than X symbol

, the item activates and the effects described on the magic item card happen.

Using a magic item causes it to lose a charge. This loss can be avoided with moves like Entreat the Blood-Bound and Channel the Living Light.

Following that, results of single check

and

cause a further cost to be incurred, as chosen from the list by the GM or the player, respectively.

Note: if the magic item being used is a magical weapon, another choice is available: "the weapon is damaged".

The RECEIVE CARDS tag: when a player chooses this card during character creation or Study Under a Master, they also receive 1 magic item of their choice.

Entreat the Blood-Bound

GM Note: this is a great way to stretch your
improv muscles. Say "Yes, and..." no matter if
they identify the Blood-Bound as tiny, parasitic
insects or as monstrous, extra-dimensional dark gods.

When a player chooses this card during character creation or Study Under a Master, they also receive the item Blade of Echoes.

Channel the Living Light

If it has not yet been established, when a player first uses this move, it's a great time for the GM to ask them: "Who or what is the Living Light?"

When a player chooses this card during character creation or Study Under a Master, they also receive the item Sigil of the Living Light.

A Thousand Faces of Adventure: Player's Guide