Introduction

Welcome to the Frontier

Resonant: Spark and Stone is a tabletop roleplaying game set in Arroghe, a world shaped by the Earth Totems. One of you runs the game as the Game Master. The rest play Resonants: people whose Spark burns brighter than most, who leave the walled towns of Gartoren behind and walk out into the Frontier.

It is a frontier of rail lines and powder, of Church law and the places it cannot reach. The beasts are the great animals of a lost age, the bear-dogs and terror birds and woolly giants, kept alive by the Totems' breath. The people are not all human. Six other peoples share the land, older than any kingdom and wary of the one that claims them.

This book is for players. It covers making a character, the three paths of the Spark, Totemic Powers and Gambits, how checks and combat work, and what happens to a body pushed past its limits. The GM's Guide holds the rest.

What you need

• This book, a character sheet, and the dice: a d20 above all, plus d4, d6, d8, d10 and d12.
• In Fantasy Grounds, the TotemicWorld ruleset with the Core module loaded. The character wizard walks you through creation, and every power, gambit, feat and item named in these pages is a record you can open.

The World in Brief

Arroghe and Gartoren

Arroghe is the world. Gartoren is the mainland, settled, governed, and dense with old Totems. Across the sea lies Korrtoven, a continent most have forgotten, which the Church calls Gartelinia on its maps. The Artelin Isles are the Church's offshore holdings.

Everything beyond Gartoren is the Frontier. The north is the Breachlands, cold and close to uninhabitable. The south is the Reachlands, warm and green and dangerous. Settlers go there for land, for coin, for distance from the Church, or because they have nowhere else left.

The Totems

The Earth Totems rose from the ground at the dawn of mankind, in an age of earthquakes and fire. Each one radiates an aura, and that aura feeds the Spark in every living thing near it. The closer you stand, the stronger it runs.

• The Core Zone lies within three to five miles of a Totem. There the Spark recovers almost as fast as it is spent.
• The Extended Zone runs out to the aura's edge, often twenty miles, sometimes fifty or more for a great Totem. Recovery is slower.
• Outside the aura, nothing restores the Spark but what you carry with you.

Towns are built inside auras. Wars are fought over them. A region that loses its Totem does not recover. The nation of Argath lost its own, and its people now set crystal into their skin to stay alive.

The Totemic Church

The Church holds that the Totems are sacred, that their power is a gift to be stewarded, and that only the Church may interpret their will. Its Grand Luminary rules from Gartoren. Its Archpriests govern regions, its Totem Wardens guard the Totems themselves, and its Inquisitors hunt heresy where the Watch cannot follow.

Elementalists are the Church's public face. Survivalists are its labor. Aberrants are watched, registered, and sometimes taken.

The Totem breathes, and we breathe with it. The faithful keep its breadth unbroken.

The mark of the Totemic Church, as it stands on the Inquisitor Fieldbook.

The peoples

Humans are the dominant people of Gartoren, but not the only one. The Orok, Vennik, Farrin, Embarri, Zonii and Nimrin are older lineages of mankind, each shaped by the land it held. They share the Common Hand, a sign language built to bridge every tongue. The Church forbids marriage between peoples.

Currency

Coin across the Frontier is the Hexbit, six-sided like a Totem. The Starmark Hexbit is the people's coin, and prices are given in Stars. The Rudim, the Grand and the Astral are worth more. See Equipment and Coin.

The Spark

Every life carries one

The Spark is a living thing's capacity to draw on a Totem's aura and spend it. Nearly everyone can do a little: warm a cup, raise a breeze, pull a bead of water from the air. The Church calls these the Fundamentals, fire, water and air, and teaches that they are the Totem's gifts.

A Resonant is someone whose Spark is undeniable. Most are ordinary folk who happen to carry more than their neighbors. Some take the Church's oath and some refuse it. Your character is one of them.

Three paths

Every Resonant follows one of three paths, and that path is your class.

• Elementalists master one of the Fundamentals, fire, water or air, and wear it as a mantle when they fight.
• Survivalists turn the Spark inward, into the body. They hit harder, last longer, and find a rhythm in a fight that carries them past their limits.
• Aberrants carry a Spark that does not follow the known rules: light and shadow, weight, time, or the flow of mana itself. Their power builds pressure they must spend or lose control of.

Mana and the cost of drawing deep

Your Spark is measured in mana. Totemic Powers cost it. Rest near a Totem restores it. When it runs dry you can still reach for your Core, but every time you do, you risk Overchanneling: nosebleeds and seizures first, then wounds that do not close, and at the end of that road, Hollowing.

The Hollowed drink from the Totems and are never quenched. Their Spark has fractured, and nothing of the person they were remains.

How to Play

The d20

When the outcome of something you attempt is uncertain, the GM calls for a roll. Roll a d20, add a modifier, and compare the total to a target number.

• An ability check tests a skill or raw ability against a Difficulty Class (DC) the GM sets. Add the ability modifier, and your proficiency bonus if you are trained in the skill. If you are not trained, add half your proficiency bonus, rounded down.
• An attack roll is compared to the target's Armor Class (AC).
• A saving throw resists something done to you. You are proficient in two saving throws, chosen when you make your character.

Easy tasks are DC 10, hard ones DC 15, and very hard ones DC 20.

Advantage and disadvantage

Advantage means roll two d20 and keep the higher. Disadvantage means roll two and keep the lower. If you have both, they cancel and you roll one.

Ability scores

Six abilities describe every creature: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma. A score of 10 is average. Each score has a modifier, the score minus 10, divided by 2, rounded down.

Proficiency

Your proficiency bonus is +2 from levels 1 to 4, +3 from 5 to 8, and +4 from 9 to 12. Level 12 is the highest a Resonant can reach.

Your three pools

• Hit points are how much punishment you can take. At 0, you stand at Death's Door.
• Mana fuels your Totemic Powers. You have 2 at level 1 and gain 2 each level, to 24 at level 12.
• Gambit Points fuel Gambits, a fighter's trained tricks. You have as many as your proficiency bonus.

Your casting ability

At creation you choose Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma as your casting ability: whether you understand the Spark, feel it, or impose your will on it. It cannot be changed.

• Save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your casting modifier
• Attack bonus = your proficiency bonus + your casting modifier

Words of the World