Edges

Edges are characteristics that don't have a score but have an effect on how your character operates. These are not rolled; they are passive. All edges must be justified in backstory, occupation, or species. Edges are a way to illustrate how people have different ways of being, different ways of operating, while still maintaining the same stats.

For example, presence (PRS) is intended to reflect the emotional ability of the character, but people can come to this in different ways. Some people may be very charismatic and charming while others are intimidating and commanding in their presence. Both might have a higher PRS score, but they operate differently. This can be reflected in an edge, such as Charismatic or Intimidating, which flavors their PRS score and gives them high die or low die in different situations depending on their style.

It could also reflect parts of the character's background that acknowledge how no one has a universal experience. Any character can have a high AWA, no matter what their education or experience is - awareness is not knowledge; it's the ability to notice or understand. But experience and education can inform what is noticed or understood. So someone might have an Uneducated, Educated, or even Biased edge that gives them bonuses or high die/low die on certain rolls.

Edges might also reflect characteristics or backstory beats such as Curses, Geases, Quests, etc., which gives bonuses or high die/low die in certain story-based situations.

Common Edges

Some common edges include the following:

• Dominant: prs, wil
• Durant: ath
• Educated: awa
• Clumsy: ath, sth
• Charismatic: prs
• Fawn: prs
• Geas
• Illiterate
• Impulsive
• Intimidating: prs
• Lucky
• Quest
• Quiet: sth
• Patient: wil
• Precise: pro, sth
• Resilient: str
• Streetwise: awa
• Uneducated: awa

Issues

Sometimes edges reflect problems a character is dealing with. These can be health issues, social issues, or magical in nature. Some common ones include the following:

• Anxious
• Cursed
• Indebted
• Insomniac
• Phobic
• Traumatized

Character Beats

As the campaign unfolds, the characters will develop along with the story. As the story unfolds, the GM will have the option of offering edges to characters based on how they have grown, changed, or developed with the story.

EXAMPLES?

Status

In most times and places, every character has a wealth level that affects their lives, as well as other social, political, or class statuses to consider. These are usually in reference to the fact that characters' wealth, privilege, oppression, and exploitation affects their lives. These vary by time, place, and culture, but they usually fall into the following broad categories (flavored to the setting as needed):

Sociostatus

The social status of a character is their relationship to the means of production, class, species (and sometimes race), oppression, exploitation, etc.:

• Ruling class: the most elite, the ones who own everything and control everything, the ones who exploit and oppress everyone. Capitalists, feudal lords, imperials, slaveowners, etc.
• Elites or Authorities: extremely rich people or higher level administrators, executives, etc. who are not fully in the ruling class, but so close they might as well be. Executive level workers, feudal administrators, imperial church officials, etc.
• Oppressor: the active agents of oppression, like cops, military, or paramilitary forces. The armed forces who serve the ruling class and terrorize the oppressed.
• Privileged oppressed: oppressed and/or exploited people who have privileges in society but are not ruling class, oppressors, or elites. Workers who are exploited but not oppressed for their species, race, gender, or sexuality, for example.
• Oppressed: people who are oppressed for their species, race, gender, sexuality, age, ability, or other quality that means the ruling class denies them rights, needs, or freedoms.
• Exploited: workers who are exploited.
• Unclassed: people who are forced outside of the normal structures of society, like outcasts and pariahs, criminalized workers, etc.
• Criminalized: people whose existence is made inherently criminalized by the ruling class. Oftentimes they are imprisoned, enslaved, or otherwise treated with violence just for exsting. An extreme form of the oppressed.

Econostatus

How much wealth someone has, often coupled with their relationship to the means of production.

• Comfortable: the character has enough money to get by without worry, though any loss of their job will change this rapidly.
• Impoverished: the character makes very little money and has to scrouge to survive.
• Low income: the character has little money, living just above the poverty line, and suffers difficulties in survival.
• Middle income: the character is just under comfortable, getting by but always on the edge of it.
• Rich: the character has wealth and privilege, either owning a business, land, or slaves, or being a high-ranking member of an elite, high-paid job.
• Super-rich: the character owns a major business, lots of land and/or slaves, and only works if it is in finance, banking, or some ceremonial job.
• Well off: the character is not quite rich, but they have a job that pays well and allows them a little luxury. Still exploited, but less so.

Disabilities

Disabilities sometimes manifest as edges. These can be emotional, mental, or physical. These are intended to accurately reflect what life is like with a disability in a world not designed to accommodate it. Most people with disabilites learn how to manage them in spite of a hostile world, so penalties for having a disability only exist early on - i.e., if someone loses their leg, they eventually adapt and use aids, but for some time, they must learn how to live with their new reality.