BASIC RULES

2
 Credits
DEVELOPED BY
Andreas Walters
DESIGN CONTRIBUTIONS ARTISTS
Kyle Carty *Nightmargin
Litza Bronwyn *Alex
Banana Chan *Farlander
Ilmutus Games
*Knightsundere
EDITING
*Rose
Scott Vandervalk
*Biovyx
Gareth Hodges
**will be updated
PUBLISHED BY
Metal Weave Games

SPECIAL THANKS
Alx Preston and the Heart Machine team
All of our Kickstarter backers to make this possible
The HLD Community especially in our discord
And our playtesters and contributors
Rules Version 7.5
Minor changes are still expected to come
LEGAL
HYPER LIGHT DRIFTER: TABLETOP ROLEPLAYING GAME and its content are ©2021 Metal Weave
Games. Artwork in this project is copyright by Metal Weave Games INC & Heart Machine LLC. ©2013 Heart
Machine LLC.
HYPER LIGHT DRIFTER and its logo are trademarks of Heart Machine LLC.
All this material is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or
unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permis-
sion of Metal Weave Games. This product is a work of fiction.
For more information, visit us at:
Metal Weave Games (www.metalweavegames.com)
Hyper Light Drifter: Tabletop Roleplaying Game (www.hldrpg-RPG.com)
Heart Machine (www.heartmachine.com)

3
 INTRODUCTION
Echoes of a dark and violent past
resonate across a torn and sundered landscape.

Venturing outside the sanctuary reveals a savage land,

steeped in ancient lore, blood of the unlucky,
and treasures of old.

Around every corner lurks danger,

from the vicious and warped creatures
to the hidden hazards that will crush the unwary.

You are a drifter, one who ventures into ancient ruins,

collecting forgotten knowledge,
lost technologies, and broken histories.
WAY OF THE DRIFTER
Welcome to the Basic Rules of the Hyper Light Drifter: Tabletop
Roleplaying Game (shortened to Drifter in this book). This game is
based on and inspired by the popular award-winning video game Hyper
Light Drifter published by Heart Machine and directed by Alx Preston.
You don’t need to have played the video game to play Drifter, and we’ll
do our best to describe the core themes that make Hyper Light Drifter
so beloved.
Drifter is a tabletop roleplaying game where you or a group of your
friends tell a story about drifters in a broken world, using resources
and occasionally the roll of the dice to see what happens next. Donning
the mantle of bold adventurers called drifters, you will delve into
overgrown ruins, protect sanctuaries, and discover secrets to build a
brighter future. Unlike a video game with pre-established characters
and stories, in Drifter you are the creators of the story, making you
free to go in any direction and tell the kinds of stories you want to tell.
Each player gets to create and control their own drifter character.
Their drifter serves as their window to interact with the game world.
As well as playing their drifter, everyone involved with the game is
responsible for contributing to and helping shape the locations, quests,
consequences, characters, and adversaries you’ll encounter.

AS A PLAYER
As a player, it’s your job to ensure that everyone
in the group is having a good time and sharing the
spotlight. In addition to this, you will:
• roleplay as your character, describing what
your character says, thinks, and does in the
stories you play out
• collaborate with everyone in the group to
create interesting places to explore or compel-
ling characters to interact with
• roll dice and spend resources to perform
actions in the game where there is uncertainty
to the outcome or where complications could
change the story in interesting ways.
6
 NARRATOR ROLES
As you play Drifter, you’ll transition between four game phases. In each
phase, one player will take on the role of narrator. It is the narrator’s
role to help facilitate each phase and bring everyone’s ideas together.
Each phase has its own unique responsibilities, but throughout this
book we’ll use the term narrator to describe the player in this role.
Some of the responsibilities include the following:
• Battlemaster: Controls the actions of adversaries in the
Combat Phase.
• Cartographer: Runs montages for the Travel Phase and manages
the world map, creating new places of interest to be discovered.
• Dungeonmaster: Builds out the delves for the Exploration Phase
and finalizes any challenges and discoveries found in the delve.
• Quartermaster: Determines the number of Downtime slots
available for the Downtime Phase and tracks the party’s
resources.
These roles can be distributed however the group sees fit, whether
you’re taking turns with the roles as they come up or assigning partic-
ular roles to each at the beginning of each session.

WAYS TO PLAY
There are three types of game modes for Drifter, each depending on
how many players you have, and how the narrator roles are distributed
amongst the group.
• Single Player: A game for one player telling the story of their
drifter. Here, you handle all narrator roles yourself. Your focus
should be on your character’s journey and how their actions and
consequences build an immersive adventure.
• Co-Op (preferred): Drifter is best experienced with a group of
players. You, and at least one other friend, will create your own
drifters and equally share narrator roles.
• Narrator Guided: In this game mode, one player forgoes having
a drifter character and takes on all narrator roles, spending
more effort to direct a story experience. If you use this option
don’t forget to change up who’s the narrator now and again,
either by session, adventure, or campaign.
7
THE WORLD OF DRIFTER
The world of Drifter is a broken place, ruined and reeling in the wake
of its violent past. Inhabited by folk of an anthropomorphic or techno-
logical nature, the peoples of Drifter build an uneasy life of subsistence.
The majority of dwellers reside in sanctuaries, small towns and safe
havens dotted across a torn landscape, often isolated from each other.
Most of the peoples live a relatively simple life, though there is a general
fear around technologies of the past and the warped creatures that
roam outside sanctuary walls.
The recorded and spoken history of the world is patchy, though it
is known that decades ago, the last civilization excelled in numerous
advanced technologies. Today, we’d recognize these technologies as
those we might see in a science-fiction or science fantasy setting. For
reasons unknown, a great conf lict took place that nearly destroyed the
entire planet. The remnants of this conf lict, its automatons, exper-
iments, and technologies, have left their mark upon the world, and
some still remain, many of these going unchecked for years. One of
these remnant threats is the Corruption, a sort of disease or radiation
that’s lingered across the land and especially prevalent in underground
ruins. Nearly every drifter who ventures out into the world becomes
aff licted with the Corruption and, like a poison, it slowly consumes
them. Corruption has also had unusual interactions with the f lora and
fauna of the world, sometimes reshaping and warping those around its
sources.
A small number of adventurers choose to leave
the safety of their sanctuaries in search of trea-
sure, knowledge, technologies, and answers to the
woes of the world are known as drifters. Some
drifters are feared because it is thought they
might bring back with them even greater terrors
than the ones they fight, while other drifters are
revered for the knowledge and technologies they
retrieve.
You are a drifter, and it’s up to you to deter-
mine what you discover beyond the safety of the
sanctuary walls.
8
SETTING FEATURES
REMNANT TECHNOLOGY
Old technology and the ruination it has brought are abundant in this
world. More often than not, you will find ways to salvage and repur-
pose these lost technologies into something useful.

TITANS OF A PAST AGE

Littered across the landscape are the remains of great titans and the
machines of war. Little is known about them, and many fear that they
will rise again and unleash their destructive power upon the world
once more.

THE HYPER LIGHT

The past civilization discovered a new resource that kickstarted the
research and development of many advanced technologies. Research
facilities and out-of-control experiments that draw upon the hyper light
are a common occurrence in this world.

A HAUNTING CORRUPTION
A disease that aff licts anyone who delves too deep into the ruined facil-
ities in the world, Corruption has no known cure. In time, it will lead
to your eventual demise, so it’s important to make the best of the time
you have. This Corruption can be sensed in others, and it can manifest
in people, objects, places, and creatures.

SCATTERED SANCTUARIES
There are pockets of society and civilization across the world, mostly
separated by large swathes of ruins and wilderness. These are small
towns and villages, each with their own traditions, values, and cultures.
QUIET VISTAS
Despite the scars on the world there is still beauty to behold. There
are places where nature has regrown in astonishing ways, and there
are places where the sheer scale of the world is breathtaking as it
spreads out beneath your feet, reaching into the horizon as far as the
eye can see.
9
GAME FEATURES
The world in a game of Drifter is vast, and it is a world to make your
own. Below are a few things that we think the game does best.

DISCOVER AND EXPLORE

The vast landscape is dotted with overgrown ruins and stunning vistas.
Technology has not only brought about mutually assured destruc-
tion, but it has also had unusual effects on the environment and the
ecosystem. Although it is a harsh world, through all the bloodshed and
death, there are still beautiful things to experience there.
• Unusual energy discharges f lash in the distance, lighting up the
horizon.
• A forest of crystals forms in the wake of an ancient war machine
as it rumbles across the landscape.
• A large object burns iridescent through the sky, before it crash-
lands nearby.
TRAVERSE AND SURVIVE
Sanctuaries are isolated from each other. Drifters are natural wayfin-
ders and can help connect these distant communities. Perhaps there is
hope, if the world can be made safe again.
• A band of drifters sets forth from Wildwort to scout out a safe
path to a neighboring sanctuary.
• The merchant cadre of Moooncrest makes a request of the
drifters to map and explore beyond the mountain range.
• An impending danger requires everyone in Fickle Burrow to
resettle, and the drifters must find a suitable place for a new
sanctuary.
DEFEND AND PROTECT
The world is a dangerous place, and many things lurk in the wilder-
ness and ruins. Your skill in battle will mean the difference between
life and death.
• Beast attacks have been on the rise on the banks of the Great
River. Seek out the source.
• A facility nearby was once a war-factory. Someone has rebooted

12
 it and the factory is now producing machines that are wandering
off and setting the countryside ablaze.
• Masked soldiers from a neighboring valley have invaded the dale
and enslaved those in their path. Defend the sanctuary and find
a resolution to the conf lict.
ENGAGE AND CONNECT
From sanctuary residents to sentient machines, beasts, bandits, traders,
and other drifters, there is a colorful array of characters for your
drifters to interact with. Some may be peaceful travelers, while others
hold malicious intent. It will be up to you to forge or break alliances –
possibly making enemies along the way – for better or worse.
• A unique benefactor seeks the drifters’ assistance to recover
specific pieces of tech from various facilities. What could they
possibly want them for?
• A drifter who has reached the late stages of Corruption asks the
players to help them partake in one last delve.
• A young apprentice inventor has the ambition to repair the old
teleporter network found across the land.
CREATE AND REBUILD
Amid the ruins of civilization are lost technologies that remain func-
tional, but most folk are afraid to touch them. Although their purpose
and function may be unknown, these engines and materials can be
utilized in creative and unique ways, either causing vast destruction or
helping to rebuild civilization. The choice is yours to make.
• Spores from the poisoned forest are spreading beyond its
borders. Can your drifters build something from the technolog-
ical scraps found in a nearby medical facility before the spores
reach the sanctuary?
• An engineer has transcribed schematics from a relic device that
can accelerate the growth of crops. If it can be built, the sanc-
tuary would never need to venture beyond its walls to hunt
for food.
• An exo-suit lies ruined in an impact crater at the heart of the
sanctuary. With the right parts, it just might be usable again.

13
WHAT YOU NEED
When setting up your first session of Drifter, be sure to gather the
following items since they’ll be helpful during play.
• Dice: Drifter only uses a twenty-sided die, also known as a d20.
We recommend that each player has at least one d20 available.
• Character Sheet: The character sheet tracks everything you
need to know about your character. You can use the character
sheet that comes with the Basic Rules or you can make your own
version of the character sheet. Alternatively, choose one of the
pre-made drifter character sheets available with these rules or
from our website.
• Tokens: There are a few resources in Drifter that you’ll need to
track as you play, so having some sort of physical token to repre-
sent these will help out a lot.
• Notepad: A notepad or blank pieces of paper, or anything else
to take notes with will be helpful to keep a record of play or to
track any locations and adversaries encountered.

14
STARTING THE GAME
Before getting into the story in a game of Drifter, it is recommended to
have a Session Zero. This is a game session that focuses on character
creation and working out the details of how your group might work
during play (see more on this in the Session Zero section on page 128).
You might perform some of the following in a Session Zero:
1. Create your drifters.
2. Decide how the narrator roles will be distributed.
3. Discuss any unique features to your world or starting area.
4. Talk about the different kinds of stories you want to explore.
5. Decide on which safety tools you’re going to use.
6. Understand everyone’s boundaries and limits.
7. Create an inciting incident to start your adventure.

PLAYING THE GAME

While playing Drifter, there are a few things to keep in mind:
• Roleplay: Your drifter’s thoughts, ideas, and actions – no matter
how large or small – only become known to everyone else in the
group when you share it with them.
• Share the Spotlight: Drifter is a collaborative experience, so
it’s important that everyone has their moment to contribute and
shine in the game.
• Contribute to the World: The world is an adventure, and the
next compelling adversary or plot twist might be your idea. Make
sure everyone gets the chance to contribute ideas to the world
and the story.
• It’s a Game: It’s important to remind everyone that, like all
games, you’re all there to gather round and have a good time.
If something’s not fun, take a moment to pause and assess the
situation.

15
FLOW OF THE GAME
Once you begin a game of Drifter, you might follow a rough pattern of
play for a particular scene in the story.
1. Set the Scene: Using their own ideas or by collecting ideas from
the group, the narrator sets the scene for the players, describing
the backdrop to what’s going on for the drifters. Think about the
senses: what do the characters see, smell, hear, or even feel?
You don’t need to describe a scene in exhaustive detail,, but even a little
detail helps to spark the imagination.

Not everything in the area needs to be clearly defined. Details can

always be added in or clarified as you go.
2. Invite Action: Each game phase has specific rules on how it
plays out, but these scenes are otherwise a chance for the drifters
to act, interact, and react with each other or the world.
Not every player has to contribute in a given scene, but everyone should
have the opportunity to do so.

Sometimes an action that a drifter makes may require effort or have

an unknown outcome. At this point, the group may agree that a roll or
resource may be necessary before proceeding.
3. Pose Outcomes: How does the world around the drifters react
when they interact with it? Any sort of outcome is possible,
and if a roll is made where the outcome is uncertain, use that
as a guideline to what follows. Everyone can contribute poten-
tial outcomes, and the narrator should try to patch the events
together to make a cohesive scene.
You might continue this pattern for a few scenes before transitioning
to a new game phase, and starting it all again.

16
GAME PHASES
To help guide events and facilitate the story, there are four game
phases to Drifter. You will naturally transition back and forth between
the phases as your drifter adventures. Each phase features its own
mechanics, as well as guidance for the respective narrator roles.
• Travel Phase: For when the drifters are traversing long distances
and journeying across the landscape.
• Combat Phase: For when swords cross against the drifters and
the fighting breaks out.
• Exploration Phase: For when the drifters are exploring ruins
and dungeons.
• Downtime Phase: For when the drifters have the chance to rest,
leaving time for shopping, crafting, and recovering from their
ordeals.

17
Character
Creation

18
If you want to get right into the game, there are some pre-generated
drifter characters available to use with the Basic Rules. Otherwise,
grab a blank character sheet to start making your own character. The
process of creating a character in Drifter is a straightforward process.
There are ten steps to follow, though they can happen in any order
you choose: • Pick an equipment set.
• Pick an affinity. • Pick a character feature.
• Select your class. • Choose a character trait.
• Set thresholds. • Name your drifter.
• Pick talents. • Create character drives.
• Create character bond.
Let's create a character together!

PICK AFFINITY
The world is full of anthropomorphic peoples of varying shapes, sizes,
and likenesses. The most commonly found affinities are avian, canine,
feline, lizard, otter, raccoon, frog, and robotic, but you’re not limited
to just these options.
Otters are my favorite marine mammal, so let's make our character
an otterfolk!

19
 CLASS
There are five classes to choose from in Drifter. Consider what kind of
drifter you might be and what your character might be focused around.
Each of the classes is specialized in one of five disciplines. You can pick
between the following classes:
• The Warrior is adept in fighting. They specialize in the Combat
discipline.
• The Versifier is a master communicator and someone who
collects local legends. They specialize in the Social discipline.
• The Wielder is a tinkerer and manipulator of remnant tech-
nology. They specialize in the Manipulate discipline.
• The Delver seeks to explore the depths. They specialize in the
Survival discipline.
• The Wayfinder is a wilderness expert. They specialize in the
Exploration discipline.
See page 26 for details about each class.
I'm super-interested in exploring the tech of this world so i'm probably
going to take a bunch of talents in the Manipulate discipline, so lets go
with the Wielder.

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 SET THRESHOLDS
Each drifter character has five disciplines: Combat, Exploration,
Social, Manipulate, and Survival. Each of these disciplines has two
values—Fortune and Temperance—that you roll against to see the
outcome of an action. If you fail to meet or beat these scores, you get
a Judgment result.
• All Fortune thresholds start at 18 and all Temperance thresh-
olds start at 10.
Your Fortune threshold is always larger than your Temperance
threshold.
• The specialized discipline from your class reduces both thresh-
olds by 2 (so you start with Fortune 16 and Temperance 8 for the
specialized discipline for your class).
• You then have 8 points to distribute amongst your thresholds.
Each point applied to a threshold reduces that value by 1. You
can not reduce a threshold by more than 4 points.
It's important to remember that when making a roll, you'll be comparing
your result against these thresholds, so the higher the value, the more
difficult (and less likely) it will be to hit that threshold.
After reducing Wielders class discipline specialization, I distributed
the points as:
Discipline Temperance Fortune
Combat 10 16 (-2)
Manipulate 8 (class -2) 15 (-1)(class -2)
Social 10 16 (-2)
Exploration 8 (-2) 18
Survival 9 (-1) 18

21
 PICK TALENTS
Special actions your drifter can perform, you have Talent List and an
Ability Bar. The talent list is a repository of all your acquired talents,
and your ability bar, is where you can equip these abilities and use them.
Talents are broken out by discipline and separated into three cate-
gories (General, Dash, and Passive), your ability bar will feature six
slots containing,
• 4 General Talents
• 1 Dash Talent
• 1 Passive Talent
Pick three Talents from the Talent section (page 36). Write them down
on your Talent List, and also slot them into your Ability Bar. You won’t
have a full Ability Bar to start with, but there will be an opportunity
to develop your character later on. It's important to note that you can
only slot up to two Talents from each discipline on your Ability Bar,
unless they’re from your specialized discipline.
To start out, I think I will go with the following:
[Hex Burst] (Manipulate | general),
[Pidgin] (Social | passive), and
[Analyscan] (Manipulate | dash)
Hex burst will give me a little more umph in combat, I will use Pidgin
as a new piece of tech I've been tinkering with, and Analyscan will be my
personal scanner, like the thing Aloy has from Horizon Zero Dawn tm .

22
 EQUIPMENT SET
Your drifter is assumed to have any basic gear they need to adventure
and explore, so that level of detail is not tracked in Drifter. The only
gear that’s important to track are those with special or unique effects
(often weapons, armor, and assets). Much like Talents, you have an
equipment list to pick from and equipment slots for readily available
gear. Some items will take more slots than others.
Starting characters pick from a pre-made set of equipment. You can
find these in the Equipment Section (on page 47).
I do want to be helpful to others, so I think having a stimpack on hand
would be nice. So lets take the Caretaker Set.

FEATURE
Each drifter character is particularly good with a specific skill. Perhaps
this comes from your background, training, or it’s a skill that you
have a knack with. Pick any skill from the Discipline/Skill List (on
page 32). When using this skill in a roll, reduce your Temperance
threshold by 2.
Because my drifter is super interested in technology, let’s improve Lift
because more often than not they’re working alone and had to carry all
of the remnant tech they discovered back with them to the lab to study.

TRAITS
Your drifter should have something that’s striking or memorable about
them. Give your drifter an interesting character trait. Do they have a
particular speech pattern? Do they have an affectation that they wear?
Do they have any rituals that they observe on a daily basis? A drifter’s
trait does not have any game mechanics associated with it—it’s there
to give more definition to your character and to help with roleplaying.
What about an artificial leg? Yeah, that sounds interesting. Perhaps
I got I sustained the injury and found the device while on one of my
excursions, serving as both a reminder of the blessings of the technology,
and that of the dangers below.

23
 NAME YOUR DRIFTER
Sometimes the hardest thing in creating a character for Drifter is
finding a suitable name for them. Drifters come from a wide variety of
places, backgrounds, cultures, and histories. Give your drifter a name
that’s fitting of their character. You might need to f lesh some of the
other parts of your character before your character idea starts to gel
together and you’re able to find the right name
Oh gosh, I suck at names! Lets do something like....Sera! Yeah, that
surprisingly sounds good, and they use they/them pronouns as well.

DRIVES
Each drifter has something that motivated them to become a drifter
in the first place. Consider your drifter’s character drive. This can be
a sentence that ref lects your drifter’s personal goals and motivations.
It’s best to start with just one or two drives since they can help ground
your character and drive the direction of any stories you want to tell
with them.
One method to create a drive is to pick one of your drifter’s skills and
form a goal around it.
Perhaps their interest with technology is a With [Cartography] I will
map the world! or just a bit shorter, "I want to Map the World"

24
 CREATE CHARACTER BONDS
This is often best done once you’ve finished with the other character
creation steps and have a f leshed out character. Present your drifter
to the group. Describe their appearance, their attitudes, or relate any
relevant backstory to them. Then create at least one personal bond
with another character in the party. What kind of shared history does
your drifter have with another? Are they family or friends? Were they
once enemies?
This bond can take a few different forms, but some example prompts
include:
• Someone I admire:
• Someone I owe:
• Someone whose respect I want to earn:
• Someone I disagree with:
John’s making a drifter who’s very distrustful of the technology, so
perhaps it's my goal to earn their respect and have them learn to better
understand the remnant tech.

25
CLASSES
There are five classes to choose from in Drifter. Consider what kind of
drifter you might be and what your character might be focused around.
Each of the classes is specialized in one of five disciplines. You can pick
between the following classes:
• The Warrior is adept in fighting. They specialize in the Combat
discipline.
• The Versifier is a master communicator and someone who
collects local legends. They specialize in the Social discipline.
• The Wielder is a tinkerer and jury-rigger of remnant technology.
They specialize in the Manipulate discipline.
• The Delver seeks to explore the depths. They specialize in the
Survival discipline.
• The Wayfinder is a wilderness expert. They specialize in the
Exploration discipline.
Each class will provide you with the following:
• Starting Health: The initial Health available to your drifter.
• Starting Energy: The initial Energy available to your drifter.
• Starting Boost Scores: This includes starting values for Grit
and Nerve.
• Specialized Discipline: This grants you a starting bonus when
setting your thresholds, as well as allowing you to slot more than
2 Talents from that discipline in your Ability Bar.
• Helpful Assist: This allows you to spend Energy to boost the
rolls of your allies when they use a skill from your specialized
discipline.
• Class Special: Each class has a special ability available only to
them that is activated through the use of an Intervention Point.

26
 THE WARRIOR
Health: 12 Grit: 2
Energy: 10 Nerve: 1
• Specialized Discipline (Combat): You can slot as many abilities
from the Combat Talent List as you see fit.
• Helpful Assist: When an ally uses a skill from the Combat
discipline, you can spend your Energy to boost their roll.
• Tactician (Class special): Spend an Intervention Point for.
two players to take a turn back-to-back without an adversary
turn. Any Consequences triggered add to the Consequence Pool
as normal.
27
 THE VERSIFIER
Health: 10 Grit: 1
Energy: 12 Nerve: 2
• Specialized Discipline (Social): You can slot as many abilities
from the Social Talent List as you see fit.
• Helpful Assist: When an ally uses a skill from the Social disci-
pline, you can spend your Energy and Boost Score to boost
their roll.
• Storyteller (Class special): Spend an Intervention Point to
ask the narrator one question that they must answer truthfully.
After the narrator answers, you and the group can decide how
your drifter obtained that information.
28
 THE WIELDER
Health: 10 Grit: 1
Energy: 10 Nerve: 2
• Specialized Discipline (Manipulate): You can slot as many
abilities from the Manipulate talent list as you see fit.
• Helpful Assist: When an ally is using a skill from the
Manipulate discipline, you can spend your energy and boost
score to boost their roll.
• Awaken the Ancients (Class special): Spend an Intervention
Point to awaken a dormant machine that will provide one service
for you and your party. Upon completion of the service, the
machine either runs out of energy, deactivates, or continues
moving about the world on its own, impartial to you and your
mission.
If the machine is used in combat, it has 10 Health, and can make the
[Strike] attack (costing 1 Energy) attack on your turn. The machine
has a base weapon damage [w] of 2.

29
 THE WAYFINDER
Health: 8* Grit: 2
Energy: 8* Nerve: 1
*Distribute 6 points between health and energy as you see fit.
• Specialized Discipline (Exploration): You can slot as many
abilities from the Exploration Talent List as you see fit.
• Helpful Assist: When an ally uses a skill from the Exploration
discipline, you can spend your Energy and Boost Score to boost
their roll.
• Safe Respite (Class special): Spend an Intervention Point
to find a safe place to hide and rest that provides the group
with 2 Downtime slots. This can be added to an existing
Downtime Phase.

30
 THE DELVER
Health: 11 Grit: 1*
Energy: 11 Nerve: 1*
*Distribute 1 point between Grit and Nerve as you see fit.
• Specialized Discipline (Survival): You can slot as many abili-
ties from the Survival Talent List as you see fit.
• Helpful Assist: When an ally uses a skill from the Survival
discipline, you can spend your Energy and Boost Score to boost
their roll.
• Delver's Luck (Class special): Spend an Intervention Point
to grant everyone at the table the ability to make one re-roll,
allowing them to keep the highest result. This available re-roll
lasts until the next Downtime Phase.

31
DISCIPLINES
& SKILLS

There are five disciplines in Drifter that each cover a broad range of
skills. All actions that you make a roll for in the game will fall under
one of these categories. Below, each discipline is split up into a list
of skills you can reference during play. These are soft lists of skills,
meaning they’re not exhaustive. If there’s another skill you think should
fall under a particular discipline, feel free to use it. These skill lists
can be helpful when you’re in need of inspiration on the sorts of things
your drifter can do.

SETTING CHARACTER THRESHOLDS

• All of your Fortune thresholds start at 18 and all your
Temperance Thresholds start at 10.
• The specialized discipline that you get from your class will
reduce both thresholds by 2.
• You have 8 points to distribute as you see fit. Each point you
apply will reduce the value. You can not reduce a value by more
than 4 points.

CHARACTER FEATURE
Your character is particularly good with a specific skill, perhaps it came
from your background, your training, or just a skill that you have a
knack with. Pick any skill from the list on the next page. When using
this skill in a roll or check reduce your Temperance threshold by 2.

32
 EXPLORATION
DISCIPLINE
Skills that encompass overland travel and navigating the environment.
• Awareness: Noticing unusual details around you or searching
for clues and odd behavior.
• Balance: Remaining upright, steady, and positioned, so that you
don’t fall or drop.
• Cartography: Drawing and reading maps.
• Climb: Scaling and traversing walls and surfaces.
• Jump: Propelling yourself over obstacles and chasms.
• Lift: Pushing and lifting heavy objects.
• Ref lex: Reacting to and dodging attacks and hazards.
• Swim: To move or maneuver through aquatic bodies of water
and or other liquids.

33
 SURVIVAL
DISCIPLINE
Skills that are used for camping and surviving in the wilderness.
• Cook: Preparing various ingredients to make a meal.
• Craft: Creating objects in a given art or trade.
• Forage: Finding food, water, and shelter.
• Fortitude: Capacity to resist physical punishment or poison or
disease.
• Heal: Treating injuries, poison, and disease.
• Nature: Understanding the natural world and predicting the
weather.
• Sneak: Moving silently and being unnoticed.
• Track: Following and identifying tracks.
SOCIAL
DISCIPLINE
Skills that used to interact with other creatures and characters.
• Empathy: Determining the emotional state of target character
or creature.
• Handle Animal: Familiarity with taming, rearing, and riding
various creatures.
• Inf luence: Changing someone’s behavior to get them to do what
you want them to.
• Intimidate: Getting others to do what you want them to
through use of fear and threats.
• Lead: Rallying or encouraging a group of individuals to take
certain actions.
• Negotiate: Getting the best agreement, price, or terms on an
arrangement or trade.
• Perform: Staging a memorable or distracting performance.
• Resolve: The willpower or ability to push through exhaustion or
pain, and to be able to resist fear and intimidation.

34
 COMBAT
DISCIPLINE
Skills that are used in combat or for fighting.
• Aim: Using ranged and projectile weapons and objects against a
target.
• Assess: Ascertaining and understanding a creature’s or weapon’s
threat or danger.
• Fight: Fighting in close quarters combat, using melee weapons,
fists, claws and the like.
• Maneuver: Moving effectively across the battlefield and being
able to engage and disengage with your opponents.
MANIPULATE
DISCIPLINE
Skills that are used to interact with remnant technology.
• Access: Activating or deactivating facility and technology
functions.
• Build: Taking remnant technology and making something useful
with it.
• Repurpose: Using remnant technology in an unintended way.
• Salvage: Harvesting Components from remnant technology that
can be useful for building or crafting.

35
TALENTS
COMBAT | GENERAL
Confidence
GENERAL COMBAT

+ 1 WOE

Effect: You can move one skill from the Social discipline to the Combat
discipline. This effect lasts until the next Downtime phase.

Cleave
GENERAL COMBAT

+ 2 ENERGY | CLOSE

Effect: Deal damage to each adversary in your tile.

Fortune: Deal 1[w]+1 damage [+ 1 ◈]
Temperance: Deal 1[w] damage [+ 2 ◈]
Judgment: Deal 1[w] damage [+ 3 ◈]
Full Defense
GENERAL COMBAT

+ 2 ENERGY | DENIAL | CLOSE

Effect: Gain a pool of points that can be spent as a reaction to block attacks
made against you and your allies. If this Talent is used to help an
ally, you must be in the same tile as your ally, and spend a number of
points equal to the attack's total CP cost.
Fortune: 3+[shield] points [+ 1 ◈
]
Temperance: 2+[shield] points [+ 2 ] ◈
Judgment: 2+[shield] points [+ 3 ] ◈
Impair
GENERAL COMBAT

+ 2 ENERGY | DENIAL | CLOSE

Effect: Deal damage to your target. Until the beginning of your next turn,
reduce the amount of CP the target can spend. This effect lasts until
after the target's turn.
Fortune : 1[w]+1 damage, -3 CP [ + 1 ] ◈
Temperance: 1[w] damage, -2 CP [+ 2 ] ◈
Judgment: 1[w] damage, -1 CP [+ 3 ] ◈

36
COMBAT | PASSIVE
Lone Wolf
PASSIVE COMBAT

PASSIVE

Passive: While you are in a tile with no allies present gain:

+1 bonus to any non-attack rolls you make, and
+3 temporary points to your armor pool (these points refresh after
the Combat phase).

COMBAT | DASH
Impale
DASH COMBAT

1 DASH | PUSH

Effect: Pick a target that’s in your tile. Force move yourself and your target
one tile towards the edge of the board and deal 2[w] damage to the
target. If there is another adversary in the destination tile, deal 1[w]
to that adversary as well. ◈
[+ 1 ]

37
SOCIAL | GENERAL
Coordinate Attack
GENERAL SOCIAL

+ 2 ENERGY | BUFF | RANGE 1

Effect: Target an adversary in range, before the start of your next turn each
ally gains a one time bonus to their attack rolls and damage when
attacking this target.
Fortune: +3 attack, +3 damage. [ + 1 ◈ ]
Temperance: +3 attack, +2 damage. [ + 2 ◈ ]
Judgment: ◈
+2 attack, +1 damage. [ + 3 ]

Relieve
GENERAL SOCIAL

+ 2 WOE

Passive: When using the [Empathy] skill, reduce your Fortune

threshold by 3.
Effect: If this ability can resolve a burden it does so. Otherwise, it will
negate the effects of that burden for this phase and the next
2 phases.

Friendly Face
GENERAL SOCIAL

+ 2 WOE

Effect: Upon activating this Talent, your drifter soon crosses paths with
someone they know. Work with the narrator to collaborate on a
helpful NPC that you can run into.

Inspire
GENERAL SOCIAL

+ 2 WOE | RANGE 1

Effect: Each ally in range regains 2 points of energy and for the rest of this
phase reduce all Temperance thresholds by 2.
Note: If used in the Combat phase [ + 1 ]◈

38
 Taunt
GENERAL SOCIAL

+2 ENERGY | DENIAL | RANGE 1

Effect: Gain a pool of points that you can use to force your adversaries into
making certain actions such as move, or even deny them actions. If
the target has a discipline modifier, add that cost for each action you
are manipulating.
Fortune: Manipulate 4 points of CP. [+ 1 ◈ ]
Temperance: Manipulate 3 points of CP ◈
[+ 2 ]
Judgment: Manipulate 2 points of CP ◈
[+ 3 ]

SOCIAL | PASSIVE
Pidgin
PASSIVE SOCIAL

PASSIVE

Passive: You can easily exchange basic ideas with someone who does not
speak the same tongue as you.

SOCIAL | DASH
Recall
DASH SOCIAL

1 DASH | REACTION

Effect: When making a Social discipline roll, you can spend a dash to reduce
both thresholds by 2.

39
MANIPULATE | GENERAL
Deflective Shield
GENERAL MANIPULATE

+ 2 ENERGY

Effect: Damage absorbed by your protection pool is dealt back to the

attacker. In addition, increase your protection pool by the
value below.
Fortune: 3+[shield] points. [+ 1 ] ◈
Temperance: 2+[shield] points [+ 2 ] ◈
Judgment: 2+[shield] points [+ 3 ] ◈
Hex Burst
GENERAL MANIPULATE

+ 2 ENERGY | RANGE 1

Effect: Deal damage to allies and adversaries in target tile.

Fortune: Deal 1[w]+2 damage. [+ 1 ◈]
Temperance: Deal 1[w]+1 damage. [+ 2 ◈]]
Judgment: Deal 1[w] damage. [+ 3 ◈
Intimidating Power
GENERAL MANIPULATE

+ 1 WOE

Passive: Move the intimidate skill to the Manipulate discipline.

Effect: Make a display of power that intimidates or strikes fear into your
audience. If the target has a Social modifier, pay additional woe
equal to that modifier.

Push
GENERAL MANIPULATE

+ 2 ENERGY | RANGE 1

Effect: Push all adversaries out of your tile. The narrator will decide which
tiles they end up in.
Fortune: [+ 1 ◈
]
Temperance: [ + 2 ◈
]
Judgment: [ + 3 ◈
]

40
MANIPULATE | PASSIVE
Teleport
PASSIVE MANIPULATE

PASSIVE

Passive: You are able to use a teleporter with ease and do not require a roll to
activate it. However, you cannot determine where the teleporter’s
destination may be until it is used.
Exploration Phase: During a delve, gain use of one of the teleporter cards. At
any point during the card placement process, you can place this card
down as part of the delve.
Travel Phase: During the Travel Phase, you can take on 4 Woe to place a tele-
porter on the map as a delve feature.

MANIPULATE | DASH
Analyscan
DASH MANIPULATE

1 DASH | RANGE 1

Effect: Pick any target in range. The narrator will tell you a piece of infor-
mation about the target’s codex entry. You can learn about the
target’s attacks and defenses, or learn about any gear and equipment
they would usually possess.

41
EXPLORATION | GENERAL
Light Bridge
GENERAL EXPLORATION

2 COMPONENTS

Passive: If you come across a gap, you can clear that distance by creating a
light bridge using components. It costs following:
- 3 Components for up to a short distance (~50 ft | 15 m).
- 6 Components for up to a medium distance (~100 ft | 30 m).
- 9 Components for up to a long distance (~200 ft | 60 m).
Effect: Connect 2 tiles that have an open edge. Anyone can use this bridge to
move between the connected tiles using movement actions.

Night Sight
GENERAL EXPLORATION

1 COMPONENT

Passive: As long as you have 4 Components, you and your allies are equipped
to see in the dark.
Effect: Grant yourself or an ally improved senses. Until the end of the
phase, target gains +1 to attack rolls and sensory-related skill rolls.

Scout Ahead
GENERAL EXPLORATION

2 DOWNTIME SLOTS

Passive: Gain +2 bonus to Awareness skill checks.

Effect: Look at the hex-map (for the Travel Phase) and pick three connected
hexes extending out from your position. For each hex, the narrator
reveals your choice of hex event, hex feature, or the adversity level of
that hex.

Warp Terrain
GENERAL EXPLORATION

2 COMPONENTS | RANGE 1

Effect: Pick 2 tiles in range. Any character who wants to move in or out of
those tiles must pay an additional Energy or CP cost to do so.
Fortune: + 0 energy | +2 CP [+ 1 ◈]
Temperance: + 1 energy | +2 CP [+ 2 ]◈
Judgment: + 1 energy | +1 CP [+ 3 ]◈

42
EXPLORATION | PASSIVE
The Safer Path
PASSIVE EXPLORATION

PASSIVE

Passive: For each hex you travel in the Travel Phase (or a montage round),
gain a re-roll token that you can use or give to your allies. This token
can be given and consumed as a reaction, allowing the player to roll
again and keep either result rolled. These tokens expire when you
enter the Downtime Phase.

EXPLORATION | DASH
Alternate Route
DASH EXPLORATION

1 DASH

Passive: Increase your resistance pool by 2.

Effect: During the Delve Phase, you can create a [Secret Passage] card and
place it in the delve.

43
SURVIVAL | GENERAL
Alarm
GENERAL SURVIVAL

1 COMPONENT

Passive: While camping and resting in the Downtime Phase, you cannot be
ambushed (though you can still be attacked/interrupted).
Effect: Set an area with an alarm trigger. When it’s triggered by an
intruder, you’ll be notified of the trigger.

Ambush
GENERAL SURVIVAL

2 WOE | BUFF | REACTION

Effect: When entering the Combat Phase, you can start on any tile.
Additionally, your first attack roll gains a +1 bonus to attack and
damage.
You can also extend this ability to your allies by taking on an addi-
tional 2 Woe for each ally you want to impart this bonus to.

Behind You!
GENERAL SURVIVAL

+1 WOE | REACTION | RANGE 1

Effect: Before an ally takes damage, you can spend points from your resis-
tance pool to absorb the damage.

Entanglement
GENERAL SURVIVAL

+ 2 ENERGY | RANGE 1

Effect: Pick an area (Exploration Phase or Travel Phase) or tile (Combat

Phase) to set a trap. The first adversary who enters this area/tile will
fall into the trap and become rooted for several minutes.
If you’re in the Combat Phase, the target is rooted until they spend
enough CP to unbind themselves.
Fortune: 4 CP [ + 1 ◈ ]
Temperance: 3 CP [ + 2 ◈ ]
Judgment: ◈
2 CP [ + 3 ]

44
SURVIVAL | PASSIVE
Hunter's Journal
PASSIVE SURVIVAL

PASSIVE

Passive: Pick any target in range. The narrator will tell you a piece of the
target’s codex entry. You can learn about the target’s attacks and
defenses, or their behavior and ecology.

SURVIVAL | DASH
Signal
DASH SURVIVAL

2 DASHES

Effect: Create a signal that can be seen and received by your intended recip-
ient. The recipient will understand the general message included in
your signal.

45
EQUIPMENT
Helpful pieces of gear and equipment that will aid you on your journey
and your adventures.

EQUIPMENT SLOTS
Much like your Talent List and Ability Bar, equipment use the same
idea of having a pool of equipment available, but only a certain number
of slots to place these in ready for use. This represents that in the heat
of battle or other tense situations that you may have some equipment
that you can’t easily get access to, but other items equipped in a way
that you can quickly take out and utilize.
Your drifter starts with 4 equipment slots, and you’ll be able to
unlock further slots as they grow and advance.
If you want to swap items around from your backpack to your equip-
ment slots, you can do so for free during the Downtime Phase.

GEARBITS
Gearbits are a form of currency used in the world of Drifter. As your
drifter adventures, you may collect gearbits (gb) that they can use to
purchase such things as equipment and character advancements.
It’s important to remember that all equipment purchased is more or
less a permanent improvement to your character. Similar to character
advancements, purchasing equipment is a a different kind investment
that improves your drifter.

46
EQUIPMENT LIST
BULWARK SET
• 1x Melee or ranged-weapon (1-slot weapon only)
• 1x Protective armor
• 1x Buckler
CARETAKER SET
• 1x Melee or ranged-weapon (1-slot weapon only)
• 2x Stimpack

CAUTION SET
• Pick one:
• 2x Melee or ranged-weapons (1-slot weapon only)
• 1x Melee or ranged-weapon (2-slot weapon only)
• 1x Buckler
HAVOC SET
• 1x Melee or ranged-weapon (1-slot weapon only)
• 1x Explosive
• 1x Buckler
SURVIVOR SET
• 2x Melee or ranged-weapons (1-slot weapon only)
• 1x Versatile armor

47
WEAPONS
Weapons can take many shapes and forms, and to allow you to create
the weapons you want your character to make,
1. ONE-HANDED OR TWO?
Weapons can come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and the first ques-
tion comes, how does one wield it?
• One-handed weapon:
• Starting Damage: 2
• Slot size: 1
• Two-handed weapon:
• Starting Damage: 3
• Slot size: 2
2. WEAPON RANGE
Weapons come in a variety of shapes, styles, and even types of outputs.
Each weapon in the game has a range trait, determining how many tiles
from your position you can strike an adversary: with Close being the
tile you’re in, Ranged 1 allowing you to strike an adversary who is in
a tile touching the one you’re in, and Ranged 2 allowing you to strike
adversaries from 2 tiles away from your position.
• Close: Damage modifier +1
• Range 1: Damage modifier +0
• Range 2: Damage modifier -1
3. PICK A WEAPON TRAIT
Every weapon has its own quirk, style, or advantage. These are captured
in a weapon trait. These are minor abilities that help accentuate your
weapon’s unique manufacture or fighting style.
No weapon traits for the Basic Rules.

48
ARMOR
With advanced materials and technologies scattered around the world,
many drifters have collected and fashioned various kinds of armor and
shields to protect themselves from the threats that lurk beyond the
sanctuary walls. Each of these armors has their own particular prop-
erties and help to protect their wearer from different dangers. When
you create or craft your own armor, they can offer two types of forti-
fication: Protection and Resistance.

PROTECTION
Protection Armor provides a pool of points that can absorb damage
taken in the Combat Phase.

RESISTANCE
Resistance Armor provides a pool of points that can absorb damage
taken during the Exploration Phase and Travel Phase.

SHIELD BONUS
Whereas Protection and Resistance absorbs damage, a Shield Bonus is
a bonus granted by a shield equipped by a drifter that’s added to any
save or reaction roll, or as a bonus in any other situation where the use
of the shield is reasonably applicable.
Some abilities use this bonus as part of their calculations. These are
marked as [Shield] to indicate where the bonus should be used.
Item Slots Cost Effect

Protective Armor 1 3 gb Protection 3

Resistant Armor 1 3 gb Resistance 3
Protection 1,
Versatile Armor 1 4 gb Resistance 2

Buckler 1 2 gb Shield Bonus +1

Protection +1,
Shield 1 5 gb Shield Bonus +2
49
ASSETS
Assets are equipment that provides with special advantage. Unlike
other equipment, all assets have a recharge condition that allows it to
be reused throughout your adventures. There are two types of recharge
conditions:
• x/Phase: This allows you to use the asset X many times per
phase and refreshes upon entering a new phase.
If a specific phase is listed, you can only use that asset during
that particular phase and for that many uses. When the phase
ends, the charges refresh.
• x/Rest: This allows you to use the asset X many times until you
enter the Downtime Phase, at which point the charges refresh.

Item Slots Cost Recharge Effect

Explosive 1 2 gb 1/Phase Throw Explosive

Stimpack 1 3 gb 1/Rest Stimpack Boost

50
EXPLOSIVE

Throw Explosive
+1 ENERGY | RANGE 1

Effect: Pick a tile in range and deal damage to all enemies in the tile.
Fortune: Deal 3 damage
Temperance: Deal 2 damage [+2 ◈ ]
Judgment: Deal 2 damage [+3 ]◈

STIMPACK

Stimpack Boost
+0 ENERGY | CLOSE

Effect: Restore 2 Health and Energy to either yourself or an ally within

◈
range [+1 ]

51
Narrating &
Roleplaying

52
As a player, it is your job to:
1. Roleplay as your drifter, describing what your character thinks,
says, and does in the world.
2. Collaborate with your friends and contribute to the game,
working with everyone in the game to build out the world and
the story you are telling together.
ROLEPLAY
When describing what your drifter is doing in a game of Drifter, this
is your opportunity to represent your drifter as you see fit. Be sure to:
• Share the spotlight
You don’t need to be an active participant in every scene or interaction,
and you may even notice that some players participate less than others.
That is okay, just be sure to still give them the opportunity to contribute
as they see fit, even if they kindly decline (which is totally fine).
• Describe what you do
When roleplaying your drifter, describe how they act, and narrate this
with as much detail as you would like (such as coming up with a good
story with how the drifter gets past the guards), or if you’re not sure of
the exact phrasing you’re after, instead you can describe your intent to
the group and they might be able to help with some of the details (such
as wanting to use a clever cover story about being hunted to convince
the guards to let you in, but where you’re not sure the exact details of
that story).
• Embrace failure
Unlike video games, failure in Drifter isn’t a fail-state. In fact, we
encourage you to explore the various outcomes of failure and what can
come as a result. Much like how characters learn and grow in novels,
movies or television shows, we find that you can tell deeper stories by
embracing and exploring the results that come from failure and use that
to overcome further challenges put forth.
• Collaborate with your friends
You and your friends are together to play as an adventuring party to
explore the world of Drifter. This isn’t a story of one, so feel free to feed
off of each others ideas, characters, and stories.
• Learn and grow
Much like we are as people, no character is ever perfect or unchanging.
Flaws and failures make interesting characters, and they are great
opportunities for you to explore character growth.

53
 NARRATING
Each of the narrator roles are intended to be shared with all members
of the table. Whenever you change to a new phase in Drifter, a player
will take on the narrator role to do the following:
1. Weave a story together from the actions of the drifters, often
trying to bring together a cohesive string of events for the group.
2. Facilitate the rules and roles for the phase you are leading.

A few other things to keep in mind when you’re the narrator:

• Not every idea needs to be yours
You don’t need to be the sole generator of ideas, events, and reactions
in the game. Ideas can be sourced from and collaborated with you and
your friends. As narrator, pick on the ideas that you think work best
for the events at hand and run with it.
• Take on feedback
Much of what you’ll be doing is roleplaying the actions and reactions
of the characters and things in the world that the group interacts with.
Much like a character, you need to step into their shoes and communi-
cate what they say and do.
• Use the senses
When describing something in the game, use at least one of the senses:
touch, smell, taste, sight, and sound. These will help make your descrip-
tions more vivid and easier to imagine.
• Retcon away
As you put events and actions together, slightly tweaking and reor-
dering actions will help to create a more engaging story. For instance,
if a player made a roll and triggered a Consequence, that Consequence
could be positioned as a hindrance (before or during) the action being
performed, or be used afterwards (as a result of the action).
• Little details
Much like utilizing the senses, providing little details here and there
about the world and it’s characters will help build the experience and
immersion. These details can also be a starting point to expand new
ideas. For instance, the little amulet a character holds, could lead to the
group to discover a new sanctuary and explore a unique belief system.

54
 COLLABORATING
Regardless of whether you’re a player or narrator, everyone has the
opportunity to contribute to what happens in the game and where the
story goes. Some things to keep in mind:
• Contribute consequences and outcomes
There is no script that determines the outcome of every action or idea
that you have. Whoever’s the narrator may ask you or the entire group
to come up with suggestions for Consequences or outcomes for a situa-
tion, or they might want you to narrate something fitting for the action
at hand.
• Determine: resource, roll, or resource + roll
Sometimes you or one of your friends will want their drifter to perform
an action that could require a roll or resource expenditure. Since there’s
no computer to make that decision for you, someone at the table will
have to bring it up. This could be something like “Do I need to roll
for this?” Or even “I think that action could be done, but you need to
use one of your Ingredients. What do you think?” The group should
come to a consensus before proceeding. We’ve got some guidance in the
Fundamentals section (on page 57).
• Think of the story/quest/plot/arc
Your group might be exploring stories at different levels, from personal
character stories or the small story of a sanctuary to events that move
the world. It’s up to you and the group to decide how these stories mani-
fest, where the twists happen, and how the next steps of your adventure
evolve. There should be discussion every so often about where these
stories are going to help guide your main quest and inform any side
quests or subplots.

55
Fundamentals

56
MAKING AN ACTION
Now that you’ve started your adventure, you’ll want your drifter to
do things in the game. In many cases, anything straight-foward just
happens – describe what you say or do – then roleplay continues. If
the action requires extra effort, or its outcome may yield an uncertain
or interesting result, you’ll need to either spend a resource and/or roll
the dice to determine what happens next (see Resources on page 60,
for a full list on the kinds of resources in the game

SPEND A RESOURCE
For actions that are generally low risk, but require effort to pull off, this
requires you to spend 1–2 Energy, but could include other resources.
Examples include:
• Forcing open a ruined door
• Crossing a rushing river
• Crafting a ladder using Components
ROLL THE DICE
For actions that do not require much effort and where the result is
uncertain, or if an interesting complication might arise , roll the dice
to determine the outcome. Examples include:
• Trying to not spook a beast
• Sneaking past cultists
• Convincing someone to help you
SPEND A RESOURCE & ROLL THE DICE
For actions that require some effort and the outcome yields an unknown
result. This requires spending a resource such as Energy –but could
include other resources – and rolling the dice. The majority of the use
of Talents will fall into this category. Examples include:
• Climbing a treacherous cliff
• Throwing an explosive
• Activating a Talent
Who decides the cost of an action? This really depends on your group
dynamic. We recommend it being an open discussion where you come to
a consensus which types of actions warrant certain kinds of expenditure.
57
READING YOUR ROLL RESULT
Once you’ve rolled the dice, you’ll need to compare the result against
the relevant threshold. If you don’t like the result, you still have a
chance to mitigate the outcome before you trigger any Consequences.

DISCIPLINES
All actions that require a roll will fall under one of five disciplines, each
of which broadly covers an array of skills. These disciplines include:
• Combat: For fighting and strategy
• Exploration: For long-distance travel and navigating
environments
• Social: For working with people and creatures
• Manipulate: For working with remnant technology
• Survival: For camping and outdoors skills
If it’s not clear which discipline to use in a given situation, ask the group
for a suggestion to help you choose.

THRESHOLD
Each discipline is accompanied by two values known as thresholds. One
value is Fortune and the other is Temperance—each of these is a
value that your roll result must meet or beat in order to obtain that
outcome. There are three possible outcomes for a task:
• Fortune: The highest value. Meet or beat this value to succeed
at the task at no Consequence.
• Temperance: Always lower than Fortune. Meet or beat this
value to succeed at your task, but with a reduced Consequence.
• Judgment: If you fail to meet or beat your Temperance (the
lowest score), you still succeed at the task, but you trigger a full
Consequence.
The Combat phase is tweaked slightly, where many thresholds and
actions will, instead of triggering a consequence, generate points for the
narrator and adversaries to use.

58
 CONSEQUENCES
Every action you make a roll for will have a Consequence Level (CL).
This indicates the severity of the outcome that could occur, depending
on the result. A CL will range anywhere from 1 to 10+, with 1 being
equivalent to 1 Health damage or a minor setback, and above this the
Consequences scale upwards.
Talents and abilities that trigger Consequences will be marked with
the Consequence symbol [◈ ] after the description of that threshold’s
effect.
• Fortune thresholds usually do not trigger any Consequences.
• Temperance thresholds commonly trigger a reduced
Consequence [◈ ‒ 2 ], and will always be lower than the Judgment
threshold.
• Judgment thresholds will trigger a full Consequence [◈ ].
Any time you need to make a roll you should always know what the
action’s discipline and Consequence Level are. If you don’t know, ask!

MITIGATION
If you don’t like your roll result, you have a few options to change the
outcome, often using some form of resource.
• Boosting: You can spend Energy to improve your roll result.
Using your Boost Scores (Grit for physical actions and Nerve for
mental actions), each point of Energy spent increases your roll
result by the relevant Boost Score.
• Intervention Point: A shared resource that moves your roll
threshold up one step (from Temperance to Fortune, or from
Judgment to Temperance).
• Helpful Assist: Each class is specialized in one of the five
disciplines. If an ally is making a roll using your specialized
discipline, you can help them by spending your Energy to boost
their roll—using your Boost Score—just as you would to boost
your own roll result.
• Dashes: You can use the [Last Second] action to spend one
of your Dash charges to reduce Health damage taken as a
Consequence by half (rounded up).

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RESOURCES
On your character sheet, you will find a few things to keep track of,
much like a video game. These are the various resources used in Drifter
as you play. They will include:
• Health
• Energy
• Woe
• Dashes
• Corruption
• Intervention Points
• Armor
• Crafting Materials

HEALTH
This is your character’s health bar. Health represents how much phys-
ical damage your drifter can take before they are overcome.
• Some Consequences will deal Health damage to your drifter.
• Some consumables, Talents, and Downtime actions
restore Health.
• When you fall to 0 Health, your drifter falls unconscious and
take on 1 Corruption.
ENERGY POOL
Much like a stamina bar in a video game, your Energy Pool is used to
perform various actions. The Energy Pool represents how much vitality
and willpower your drifter has available..
• Spend Energy to perform or activate most actions and Talents.
• Some consumables, Talents, and Downtime actions restore
Energy.
• You can spend Energy to increase your roll result (see Boosting
on page 59).
• You can still act if you run out of Energy, you just can’t spend
any more of it.

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 WOE
Representing a drifter’s stress, fear, uncertainty and bad luck is Woe.
Woe is something that your drifter slowly accumulates until they hit
a breaking point. Each drifter has a capacity of 12 Woe before they
become tested.
• Some Consequences will cause you to take on points of Woe.
• You can spend Woe as a resource to activate some abilities.
• Some Downtime activities and abilities can remove Woe.
• When all of your drifter’s Woe fills up, they become tested and
take on either a boon or a burden (see page 73).
DASHES
Each drifter comes equipped with a Dash Module, a useful piece of
technology containing mobility power that allows them to dart around
the battlefield.
• You recharge 1 Dash when entering a new phase.
• You can spend a Dash charge to reduce damage (rounded up).
• You can spend a Dash charge to move across the Combat Board
(across points).
• You can spend Dash charges to activate special Talents
• You can spend Dash charges to cover distances quickly in narra-
tive scenes.
CORRUPTION
Corruption is a disease that haunts the land, aff licting all drifters in
one way or another and leading to their eventual death.
• You will take on Corruption if you are reduced to 0 Health.
• You may take on Corruption while exploring corrupted areas,
fighting corrupted creatures, or interacting with corrupted
objects.
• You will always know when you’re about to enter or interact with
something that is corrupted.
• Sometimes Corruption will be dealt either directly from expo-
sure to a source, or you might be allowed a save to prevent taking
on Corruption.
• Methods to remove Corruption are extremely rare.
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 INTERVENTION POINTS
Intervention Points (IP) are a communal pool of points that can be
used by all players to inf luence a game of Drifter in a variety of ways.
The IP pool will grow and shrink over the course of a game, depending
on certain factors.
• Spend 1 IP to upgrade the threshold of your roll result (from
Judgment to Temperance, or from Temperance to Fortune).
• Spend an IP to activate your class special.
• Add 1 IP to the pool when you roll either a 1 or 20 on any save
or check.
• Add 1 IP to the pool via community recognition for good
roleplaying.
• Add 1 IP to the pool by downgrading your roll result
one threshold (from Fortune to Temperance, or from
Temperance to Judgment).
ARMOR
Armor represents any gear or abilities that can improve a drifter’s resil-
ience. Armor is a pool of points granted by Talents and equipment
spent to absorb or reduce Health and Energy damage. There are two
types of Armor: Protection and Resistance.
• Protection: Used to prevent Health and Energy damage during
the Combat Phase.
• Resistance: Used to prevent Health and Energy damage during
the Exploration Phase or Travel Phase.
• Both Armor pools refresh after the Downtime Phase.
• If you have multiple sources of Armor, they stack.

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 CRAFTING MATERIALS
Drifters may harvest or discover Ingredients and Components on their
adventures. These represent materials that can be used to craft useful
items for drifters.
• You can use crafting materials as a f lexible resource to perform
certain actions.
• You can use Ingredients and Components for crafting during the
Downtime Phase (see Downtime Phase on page 120).
• You can also trade with these crafting materials.

63
TALENTS
Talents are abilities that drifters can activate that allow them to
interact with the world or the story in particular ways. When you
create your drifter, pick three Talents to add to both your Ability Bar
and Talent List.
• Ability Bar: The current active Talents that your drifter can use
while adventuring.
• Talent List: The full arsenal of Talents that your drifter has
acquired across their adventures. You will select some of these
Talents to be active on your Ability Bar.
ABILITY BAR
The Ability Bar is the set of Talents equipped from your Talent List.
Talents are broken out by discipline and organized into three categories
that correspond to the slots on your Ability Bar. These categories are:
• General Talents (3 slots)
• Dash Talents (1 slot)
• Passive Talents (1 slot)
Other important things to know about your Ability Bar include:
• There is no limit on how many Talents you can slot from your
specialized discipline.
• You can place up to two Talents from each discipline on your
Ability Bar.
• You can swap Talents around from your Talent List to your
Ability Bar using the [Preparation] Downtime activity.

64
EQUIPMENT
Your character is assumed to have most basic adventuring gear, so you
don’t need to track whether you have rations, rope, or bedrolls or other
mundane equipment. This means you can focus on providing your
characters with special equipment that you craft or discover.

EQUIPMENT SLOTS
Much like your Ability Bar, you also have equipment slots, which
contains the items that you can quickly use.
• You start with 4 equipment slots and can purchase more as part
of your advancement options.
• Any equipment that provides a mechanical benefit must be
slotted using equipment slots. This can include your weapons,
armor, assets, augments, and consumables.
• You can swap equipment between slots for free during the
Downtime Phase.

65
CONSEQUENCES
Any time you make a roll in Drifter, there is a chance you will
trigger a Consequence. Consequences are hindrances, complications,
or setbacks that should add to the events of the story taking place. As
a player, you’re free to suggest ideas and outcomes but, ultimately, the
narrator for that phase will make the final call.
In the Combat Phase, Consequences that are triggered are stored as
a pool of points that the narrator can spend to perform actions with
adversaries—these actions could be an adversary moving or attacking
or activating a special ability.
Consequences can take two forms: Mechanical or Narrative . A
Mechanical Consequence could be something like a drifter taking
Health damage. A Narrative Consequence could be something like
a drifter not being able to earn a town elder’s trust. The strength of
a Consequence is determined by the Consequence Level (CL) of the
action you are performing, modified by your resulting threshold.

When a drifter is just starting out, Consequence Levels will likely range
between 2‒5.

If a Consequence Level is ever reduced to 0 or below (usually via a

Temperance result with [◈‒ 2] Consequence), any negative effects of
the situation are mitigated. Though if you still want, you could narrate
how your drifter was able to react in time or countered the action that
was going to happen.

66
 NARRATIVE CONSEQUENCES
Narrative Consequences are outcomes that help move the story one way
or another, providing new opportunities, challenges, or even a twist in
the story.
STANDARD
CL 1-3
Standard Consequences should introduce minor developments or
complications to the events at hand. They could include some of the
following:
• The path forward may take you longer than expected.
• Your research turns up missing or incomplete information.
• The environmental hinders your travel in some way.
• There are unfriendly or unexpected attitudes towards you.
• You have attracted some unwanted attention.
• You’re put in a vulnerable or disadvantageous position.
• You’re confronted by something confusing or alarming.
• Danger draws closer to you.
FORMIDABLE
CL 4-6
Formidable Consequences are a major threat or twist that could impede
or hamper the player’s progress.
• A major environmental event occurs nearby.
• A new minor quest arises for you to complete.
• You suffer a loss of trust from an important character.
• You attract the attention of a dangerous enemy.
• Your reputation or honor is in question.
• There’s a change in government or leadership that’s detrimental
to your plans.
• The area grows more populated with enemies.
• One of your vulnerabilities or secrets is revealed.
• You inadvertently cause major collateral damage.
• You get lost or put in a very dangerous position.

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 EPIC
CL 7-10
Epic Consequences should introduce massive or game-changing devel-
opments or complications to the events at hand.
• A great titan is unleashed upon the land.
• A sanctuary is overcome by enemies.
• You suffer an unexpected betrayal.
• A great natural disaster occurs near you.
• Tales spread of your misfortune or misdeeds.
• A bounty is placed on your head.
• Some part of the nearby environment is permanently scarred or
changed in some way.
• The area you are in is suddenly plunged into war.

MECHANICAL
CONSEQUENCES
The outcome from Mechanical Consequences can have effects that
impact your character sheet (like taking Health damage) or that affect
mechanics at the table (like increasing the difficulty or cost of your
next action).
When you trigger a Consequence, the narrator can ‘spend’ the value of
the Consequence Level for an effect. In the case of combat, the narrator
is saving the points as a pool to be spent on adversary actions when
their turn comes around.
Consequences & Combat: Although many of the consequences listed
here are used in calculations for adversary abilities, for the Combat
phase you'll primarily be using abilities crafted for each adversary rather
than this list (though can be helpful if you want to craft your own).

Combining Effects: As you play, you might have the idea of combining
some of the Consequences together, such as inf licting Health damage
and increasing the difficulty of the next action. Although we recommend
that you do this, we do want to stress that this should be a minority of
Consequences that get used during play.

68
 C O N S E Q U E N C E L I ST
Unlike narrative consequences, mechanical ones are concrete and
clearly defined. When implementing a mechanical consequence, be sure
to describe the action delivering the effect.

Name Effect CL3 CL 5

Health Damage CL x = x health damage 3 health 5 health
Inf lict Woe CL x = x inf licted woe 3 woe 5 woe
Energy Cost Increase CL x = x ‒ 2 increased energy +1 energy +3 energy
Impair (one threshold) CL x = x ÷ 2 * +2 threshold +3 threshold
Impair (two thresholds) CL x = (x ‒ 2) ÷ 2 * +1 threshold +2 thresholds
New Skill Roll CL x= new action CL x ‒ 1 CL 2 CL 4
Summon Adversaries special, varies on summon special special
Lose Materials CL x = x ‒ 1 materials 2 materials 4 materials
Inf lict Corruption CL 6+ = max 1 corruption N/A N/A
* If at any point you have a fraction, the rule of thumb is to round up.
** If your calculation ever returns a 0, round up to 1(for instance using a CL 2 for [Increased
Energy Cost]).

HEALTH DAMAGE
This Consequence represents any physical damage to a drifter, such as
wounds sustained from combat or injuries from an accident.
The baseline effect of this Consequence is that Health damage should
equal the CL

[example] A CL 2 would deal 2 Health damage.

INFLICT WOE
Woe is a character’s bad luck and stress, and choosing this as a
Consequence can fit in places where Health is not the right option for
a Consequence.
Woe inf licted by this Consequence should be equal to the CL.

[example] A CL 2 would inf lict 2 Woe.

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 ENERGY COST
INCREASE
This Consequence will make a subsequent action more difficult,
increasing the Energy cost of performing or attempting that action.
Increase the Energy cost of the player’s next action by the CL ‒ 2.

[example] A CL 4 would increase the cost of Energy by 2 for the

next action.

NEW SKILL ROLL

Sometimes a Consequence will introduce a new complication that
requires a new check to overcome. It’s best if the discipline for the next
check is different to the triggering discipline.
The CL for the new skill roll is equal to that of the trig gering
check’s CL ‒ 1.

[example] A CL 3 forces the player to roll a new skill check with a

CL of 2.

IMPAIR
This Consequence reduces a drifter’s ability to perform actions. On
the player’s next turn, increase the threshold across all disciplines by
this value.
One Threshold: Increase either the Fortune or Temperance threshold
by CL ÷ 2.

[example] A CL 5 would increase either the Fortune or Temperance

threshold by 3 (5 ÷ 2 = 2.5 = rounded up to 3).

Two Thresholds: Increase both Fortune and Temperance thresholds

by (CL ‒ 2) ÷ 2.

[example] A CL 5 would increase both Fortune and Temperance

thresholds by 3 ((5 ‒ 2) ÷ 2 = [3 ÷ 2] = 2.5 = rounded up to 3).

70
 LOSE
CRAFTING MATERIALS
This Consequence removes Ingredients or Components from your
drifter. These small items are lost, crushed, destroyed, stolen, or other-
wise removed from your ability to use effectively as crafting materials.
The number of materials removed should be equal to the CL ‒ 1.

[example] A CL 2 causes you to lose 1 Component.

SUMMON ADVERSARIES
This Consequence can be used to introduce a “random” Combat
encounter. Whether you're deep inside of a delve, or in a camp with
intense negotiations, the world is a dangerous and unstable place.
Take the base CL of the added creature/character, and add the total
number added.

[example] A CL 5 would create an encounter with up to 5 CL of

adversaries. It's important to remember that you can increase/decrease
adversary CL (as it governs how many Consequence Points (CP) they
can spend)

INFLICTING CORRUPTION
This Consequence is used to inf lict Corruption on a drifter, the sick-
ness that eventually leads to a drifter’s epilogue. It’s important to be
cautious using this Consequence since Corruption is a pacing mecha-
nism in a campaign of Drifter.
Corruption should only be inf licted using CLs of 6 or greater and
should only inf lict 1 Corruption in each case (no matter the CL used).

Warning: Be careful with inf licting Corruption as a Consequence. We

primarily see it as a narrative or pacing tool and it should be used spar-
ingly. This is because there are few ways to remove Corruption in the
game. Once a player has filled up on Corruption, the time has come to
enact that character’s epilogue.

[example] Players interact with an ancient machine (with CL 8) and

get a Temperance result (CL 6). The machine awakens and spews radi-
ation across the area, inf licting 1 Corruption to the player.

71
Special
Mechanics

72
As shown in the previous chapter, your character has a few different
resources that they'll be tracking we'll go over each in-depth here.

HEALTH
When your health reaches 0, your drifter is knocked unconscious. You
take on take on a point of corruption and you are helpless until your
allies heal you. For more details for death and dying see Corruption
on page 76.

ENERGY POOL
When you run out of stamina you can still act normally, however you
cannot spend energy to perform actions until you've recovered some
energy to spend.

WOE
When your drifter fills up on Woe (12 points), you become Tested.
Make a roll, but instead of using your normal discipline thresholds,
your Fortune and Temperance value will be the highest value of each
across all your disciplines.
For example, our sample character has their Fortune thresholds at 16,
15, 16, 18, 18 and their Temperance thresholds at, 10, 8, 10, 8, 9.
This means our Tested roll will have a Woe Fortune threshold of 18
and Temperance threshold of 10.

Tested
SPECIAL

Effect: Clear your woe meter, and make a roll using your Woe Disciplines.
Fortune : Pick a Boon
Temperance : Pick a burden, discipline modifier +2.
Judgment: Pick a burden, discipline modifier +4.
Note: If you spend Energy to boost this roll, once the roll is resolved, and
for each point of Energy spent, gain that many points in Woe +3.

73
 BOONS
You’ve conquered your fears, uneasiness, insecurities, or bad luck.
Boons ref lect a drifter’s ability to overcome, and thus provide benefits
to those who do.
When you get a boon, you don't have to activate it right away. Rather,
you can use it when you feel like it’s necessary. When you activate your
boon be sure to tell the group how that inspiration manifests for your
drifter.

Second Wind
BOON

Effect: Regain all your Energy and restore 4 Energy amongst your allies.
Duration: Immediate

Inspiring
BOON

Effect: Reduce the thresholds of all your allies’ next rolls by 2.

Duration: Immediate

Confident
BOON

Effect: Reduce a total of 3 points of Woe between you and your allies.
Duration: Immediate

BURDENS
A burden has three components:
• Blocked Skill: Pick a skill thats not from the discipline
selected above. You are unable to use this skill until you resolve
this burden.
• Discipline Modifier: Pick a discipline. Any time you need to
make a roll using that discipline, increase both of your thresh-
olds by the burden amount (+2 for Temperance , and +4 for
Judgment).
• Resolution: What action is needed to resolve this burden. It
should be something that is fitting to your character and the
events at hand.

74
 If you have multiple burdens, their effects will stack, so it's best to try
and resolve them when you can.

RESOLVING A BURDEN
• Indulging: While at a sanctuary, give into one of your charac-
ter’s vices. This costs you 1–2 gearbits and 1 Downtime slot.
• Discovery: There are some locations that can be uncovered
either as part of the Travel Phase or Exploration Phase. These
locations can remove burdens from players.
• Making Amends: Once a player decides their burden, they can
link it to a past action (or inaction) that causes them to have
guilt or a revelation. The character must undo this wrong, make
amends, or make right by that character to move on and resolve
the burden.
• Self Care: Time, ref lection, training, mentorship can all
contribute towards resolving a burden. These can be performed
by the player or by allies as a Downtime activity.

SAMPLE BURDENS
Name Skill Discipline
(cannot use) (increased threshold)
Lost Track Exploration
Directionless Cartography Survival
Insecure Inf luence Manipulate
Tasteless Cook Social
Indifferent Negotiate Combat
Irritable Empathy Exploration

75
CORRUPTION
A disease haunts the land, leading to the eventual death of all drifters.
There are two major ways in which you'll take on corruption.
• Reaching 0 Health
• Corrupted creatures
• Corrupted objects
• Corrupted locations
When a drifter’s Corruption Bar fills up, they know that they too, will
be overcome by the sickness that has led to the deaths of many before
you. Each drifter can sustain 12 points of Corruption before it is time
for their Drifter’s Epilogue (see page 78), to narrate an end to your
character’s story.
Corruption is a crucial campaign pacing tool, depending on the rate
of which corruption is given out will determine how long or short your
drifter’s adventures will be.

We typically suggest that corruption should only appear for the players
once every 2-4 sessions'

REACHING
ZERO HEALTH
There may be times where your drifter is reduced to 0 Health.
Fortunately if you do not want it to, this isn't the end of your drift-
er’s story. With the [Not Today] action, your drifter does not die, but
instead they take on 1 Corruption and fall unconscious until they are
able to heal.

Not Today
1 CORRUPTION + 2 WOE | REACTION
Requires: You are reduced to 0 Health.
Effect: Instead of dying from your injuries, you fall unconscious. You can
choose to take on an additional 1 Corruption to regain half your
maximum Health and Energy straight away.

76
 CORRUPTED
CREATURES
As you adventure you will encounter creatures that have been warped
by the Corruption. These adversaries are typically treated as bosses or
mini-bosses, which are stronger than most other adversaries.
• When you see a corrupted creature, your drifters will know and
feel it. It should be clear to the group the creature is corrupted.
• When fighting or interacting with this creature, however the
Corruption damage is dealt (as a save, or a burst on death, or
when the players get first struck by the creature) you only deal 1
point of Corruption (no more).
CORRUPTED
LOCATIONS
Some drifters say, the deeper you delve, the closer to the source of
Corruption you get. Although this may be true, few seem to live for
long enough to tell about it.
Corrupted locations are those where the stakes should be higher for
the group. It might be that the objective or mission is more crucial than
what has come before, and that even in the face of Corruption, the risk
is worth the reward.
Much like corrupted creatures, players should know when they come
upon a corrupted area. You will most likely find corrupted areas during
the Exploration Phase, although they could come up during unstruc-
tured roleplay as well.

• During a delve, taking a point of Corruption after exploring a set

number of cards.
For instance, after exploring 6 tiles the party will each take on a point
of Corruption.
• During a delve, taking a point of Corruption after spending the
Downtime Phase (or spending a number of Downtime slots).

77
DRIFTER'S EPILOGUE
When you reach maximum Corruption (12 points), it’s time for your
character to find their final moments. Create an epilogue or decide
what you want your drifter’s last moments to be and share it with
the group.
You may want to time this moment with the end of the session. After
this epilogue, allow the player to pick up a new character (perhaps an
NPC) or allow them to aid in the role of narrator.
WHEN AND HOW TO END
A drifter’s epilogue doesn’t need to happen immediately after they
reach maximum Corruption, but it should happen before the end of the
session, if possible. If your drifter reaches maximum Corruption early
on in a session, they could hold on long enough until towards the end
of a session before they meet their epilogue. If you’re already at the end
of the session, the next session should start with the drifter’s epilogue.
Timing the epilogue with the end of the session is a good way to send
off a main character with the gravity that they deserve.
Each player should have an ending in mind for their character if
the need for one arises, especially when their drifter begins to reach
their maximum corruption. When maximum Corruption is reached,
the player and narrator should make sure to take enough time to decide
on a fitting and satisfying ending.

78
 WAYS TO RETIRE
Choose one of the following ways to retire, or work with the narrator
to come up with your own retirement option. When your drifter leaves
the group, they always leave something behind, such as a Talent, piece
of equipment, or important information.
Popular tropes for retiring your character are:
• Blaze of Glory: This is your moment to shine, leave a mark, or
be remembered for the things you believe in. Your drifter’s end
comes about through some dramatic or impressive moment—
this could be sacrificing themself against an adversary in combat,
or holding a door closed long enough for the other drifters to
escape a menace.
• Quiet End: The drifter’s end is near, but they have a little more
time to live before they are overcome. They might have time for
some final moments ith with close friends, or enough time to
hang up the cloak, enjoying a quiet life for their remaining days.

79
Phases

80
You and your friends play drifters who will sometimes travel long
distances in the game, exploring and discovering new places, meeting
allies and adversaries, delving into unique ruins, and fighting the
monstrosities and horrors of the past in an attempt to leave the world
slightly brighter than it was. To help facilitate these different aspects
of play, we’ve created four game phases:
• Combat Phase: For when swords cross against the drifters and
the fighting breaks out.
• Exploration Phase: For when the drifters are exploring ruins
and dungeons.
• Travel Phase: For when the drifters are traversing long distances
and journeying across the landscape.
• Downtime Phase: For when the drifters have the chance to rest,
leaving time for shopping, crafting, and recovering from their
ordeals.
These phases provide rules and guidelines to lead your drifters from
one stage of their adventure to the next. Each phase is led by a narrator,
who helps to run the mechanics and weave the events together into
a story.

GAME FLOW
Upon entering a new game phase, the following will happen:
1. Decide who the narrator will be for this phase. This will depend
on which game mode you are playing and how your group
decides to share the narrator roles.
2. Recover any resources at the start of the change of phase. This is
generally one Dash charge.
3. The narrator sets the scene, picking up from the previous phase
and, if necessary, seek contributions and ideas from everyone at
the table.
4. Following the guidance of the phase, the narrator collaborates
with the players for everyone to take actions, make rolls, use
abilities or resources, and so forth.
5. When the players want to engage in any activity that triggers a
new phase, repeat this process.

81
 PHASES
Here, we describe the four game phases to Drifter. Each phase has its
own narrator role, set of rules, and abilities tied to that phase.
COMBAT PHASE
The Combat Phase starts when the group enters into combat for any
reason.
• The narrator of this phase is called the Battlemaster, and they
are responsible for controlling the actions of the adversaries.
• This phase takes place upon the Combat Board.
• Players take turns to let their drifter perform actions. Between
each player turn, an adversary can take an action.
• Consequences triggered by players add to a Consequence
Pool, which the narrator spends on adversary actions during
their turn.
The Combat Phase ends when:
• The party is victorious in battle.
• The party or adversaries retreat.
• Both sides agree to yield, stand down, or call a truce.
• Or any other reason that would interrupt the ability for both
sides to fight (such as the collapse of a facility), or the need to
fight (such as destroying a mind-control device).

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EXPLORATION PHASE
This phase starts when the group party enters some kind of facility, be
it an underground laboratory or a library built into the side of a moun-
tain, a vast ruined area, facility, or space.
• The narrator of this phase is called the Dungeonmaster, and
they are responsible for building out the delve and deciding what
each room or space will feature.
• This phase uses the Delve Deck to help visualize and track the
party’s progress through the delve.
• As players explore the facility, new delve cards are placed down
with various elements that the drifters can interact with. Players
will explore moving and placing down cards, interacting with,
exploring and discovering elements in each tile.
• During this phase, the group may enter the Combat Phase or
Downtime Phase as part of a tile feature.
The Exploration Phase ends when:
• The party leaves the delve (and isn’t not soon returning).
The Exploration Phase is a broad one, and can encompass multiple
phases within it (usually the Combat Phase, the Downtime Phase, and
Unstructured Roleplay).
Each card of the delve deck represents a piece or feature of that ruin,
facility, or dungeon you're exploring. Once you resolve or overcome that
challenge, you continue exploring that delve.

83
TRAVEL PHASE
This phase starts when the group intends to travel long distances, often
trekking through the wilderness.
• The narrator of this phase is called the Cartographer, and they
are responsible for the worldmap, and facilitating the narrative
that emerges between the players.
• This phase uses the montage to provide a structured journey for
the players and the events during their travel.
• Players will each make a skill roll to contribute to the story of
this journey.
• The narrator will help weave together these contributions to
make a coherent adventure.
The Travel Phase ends when:
• The drifters arrive at their destination.
• The group decides to end the montage early (stopping in a map
hex) to explore or interact with the world.

84
DOWNTIME PHASE
This phase starts when the group enters a friendly sanctuary or needs
to rest and recover.
• The narrator of this phase is called the Quartermaster, and
they are responsible for roleplaying the NPCs in town and
determining the total number of Downtime slots each player
can spend.
• Players will spend Downtime slots to perform special actions
only available in the Downtime Phase.
• Players can roleplay and interact with the characters in a sanc-
tuary or other location (and even look for or pick up quests).
The Downtime Phase ends when:
• Everyone spends all of their Downtime slots.
• The party leaves the sanctuary.

85
 UNSTRUCTURED ROLEPLAY
It’s important to remember that these phases only facilitate certain
aspects of the shared experience of Drifter. The rest of what happens is
often unstructured roleplaying, which serves as the glue that connects
all of the phases together. Or, to put it another way:
Unstructured roleplaying is everything that
happens that’s not governed by a phase.
A few things to note:
• Roleplaying is not its own phase.
Roleplaying is all of the actions, interactions, and conversations that
happen that are not strictly governed by a phase. So any time you need
to spend resources, make a roll, talk to characters, or interact with
something, this is all part of roleplaying.
• Roleplaying happens both within and outside of the
game phases.
The Exploration Phase and Downtime Phase encourage players to
engage in roleplay as a key part of the phase.

The Combat Phase and Travel Phase are a bit more rigid in process,
with less opportunities to roleplay—this is intentional. Some role-
playing may still organically occur though.
• The extent of roleplay will vary with your group’s preferences.
The game and its world is yours to explore, and the phases as provided
are only tools for you to leverage and use. If your group spends most
of their time outside of these phases, or within a few specifically, that’s
totally fine.
• Unstructured Roleplay could be considered a phase.
[example] If two characters engaged in a duel (the Combat Phase),
and afterwards they wanted to talk to each other, even though they’re
done with the fighting, they might continue roleplaying until a new
phase is triggered (say, the two duelists decided to team up and travel
to the Boreal Forest to face off against a shared enemy, thus triggering
the Travel Phase).

86
 EXAMPLE GAME FLOW
Below is an sample game f low, with a recap of what may happen during
that phase to showcase how the game can transition between the
various game phases.
Combat Phase: Just outside the sanctuary, the party encounters and
fights some physically warped wolves. After the encounter, the party
proceeds into town.

Unstructured Roleplay: Upon entering town, the party discovers it

is called Rivel and learn of increased beast attacks in the area. They
also learn the potential origin of the attacks to be from a titan’s corpse.

Downtime Phase: The party then rests and decides to prepare for
their journey ahead to investigate further.

Travel Phase: The party sets out up the mountain towards the titan’s
corpse. During this time (covered by a montage), they discover a hidden
technology cache (which they decide to come back to later), fight some
warped beasts, and survive a rockslide. Eventually, they arrive at the
base of the titan’s corpse.

Exploration Phase: The party ventures inside the massive corpse to

explore. Upon entering the titan, they find it to be far more techno-
logical than organic, outfitted with rooms and elevators. The party
explores and tinkers with some of the internal mechanisms they find in
the facility,” working their way up to the heart of the titan.

Combat Phase: Upon arriving at a heart chamber, the party encoun-

ters a warlock trying to bring the titan back to life. The party confronts
the warlock in battle, before defeating them.

Unstructured Roleplay: Unfortunately, the warlock’s mechanism was

put into motion before the party could prevent it. The party races to
stop the titan from waking up.,Although they are successful in this, the
corpse begins to collapse. The narrator uses a montage to describe the
party’s escape sequence, until they finally exit the titan’s corpse just as
it crumbles.

Travel Phase: Now safe, the party makes their way back to the sanc-
tuary from earlier , now that they know the path (using a shorter
montage).

Downtime Phase: The party arrives back at Rivel and receives a

trove of resources as their reward for their work in making the area
around the sanctuary safe. The party thanks the residents of the sanc-
tuary for their hospitality, and sets off back to the previously discovered
cache to start their next adventure.
87
Combat
Phase

88
89
Led by the Battlemaster (narrator), the Combat Phase is the most
directed of the phases, where the players will face off against adver-
saries in combat. This phase works much like that of a tactics game,
taking place on a set grid known as the Combat Board. It is here
players and adversaries take turns to perform their actions.

THE COMBAT BOARD.

The Combat Board is the standard combat area where your battles will
take place. The board is a 3×3 isometric grid. You’ll find an example
on the next page.
• The drifters and any allies start on the west (left) 4 tiles, while
any adversaries start on the east (right) 4 tiles. The center tile,
known as the “heat,” intersects the two starting positions.
• Characters can move freely across edges, but not across points,
unless they’re using a Dash action.
• You, and sometimes your adversaries, can leave combat by using
the [Retreat] action from any edge space of the board.
While the standard Combat Board is 3×3, it does not have to be
restricted to only that size. You might try experimenting with the board
size and shape—perhaps it’s a weird S-shape, or perhaps characters
must jump or dash around to get to other platforms during the fight.
As long as you have rules for moving around the Combat Board you’ll
be fine.

FLOW OF COMBAT

COMBAT BOARD

90
 SETUP
Place the Combat Board down where it’s accessible by everyone.
• Players place their characters down on the western 4 tiles
• Narrator places the adversaries on the eastern 4 tiles of
the board.
• The center tile, known as “heat,” is shared between both sides.
The top and bottom tiles will always be empty at the start of the
Combat Phase.
PLAYER TURNS
Combat starts with one of the players taking a turn, where the spot-
light is on them. Players can act in any order they decide between
themselves. Between each player’s turn is an adversary turn.
During the player turn:
• You can perform any action, activate abilities, use items, make
skill checks, and so on.
• Each action performed by the current player beyond the first will
have an increasing Energy cost in addition to any ability cost it
might have. Your first action starts at +0 (plus base action cost),
with each subsequent action adding +1 Energy to the cost.
First action +0, second action +1, third action +2, and so on until you
wish to stop or run out of energy to spend.
• Once you’re done with your turn, you cannot act again until all
other players have acted.
• Between each player turn is an adversary turn.
• Instead of Consequences being triggered on your actions, the
value of any Consequence gets added to the Consequence Pool
for use in one of the adversary turns.

91
 CONSEQUENCE POINTS (CP)
The Consequence Pool is only used in combat. This is a pool of points
the narrator gets to spend on adversary actions:
• The starting value of the pool is equal to the sum of all adversary
Consequence Levels.
• Many player actions and threshold outcomes will add CP to the
pool. This is value is shown as [+x ◈ ].
• Any skill roll that would normally trigger a Consequence will
instead generate CP using the following: Fortune ([+1 ◈ ]),
Temperance ([+2 ◈ ]), Judgment ([+3 ◈ ]).
ADVERSARY'S TURN
After each player turn, the narrator picks a single adversary to act.
• After this adversary acts, they cannot act again until all other
adversaries have taken a turn.
Bosses and Mini-Bosses are the only exceptions to this rule—to make
combat with them more interesting they don't have to wait for all other
adversaries to take an action and instead can take an action on every
other turn (if other adversaries are present).
• The narrator can spend points from the Consequence Pool to
have an adversary perform actions, but they cannot spend more
CP than the adversary’s Consequence Level.
• The CP can also be spent to increase the effect of adversary
actions.
• The CP can also be spent to implement Consequences beyond
the immediate actions of the current adversary, such as invoking
environmental events.
ENDING COMBAT
There are several ways for combat to end— it doesn’t always have to be
killing everything in sight. Some possible ends to the Combat Phase
could include:
• One side is victorious in battle.
• Both sides call a truce.
• One side gives up, surrenders, or retreats.
• Something happens to both sides in combat that stops or inter-
rupts the encounter.
92
PLAYER'S TURN
The spotlight is now yours, and your moments are few. What actions
will your drifter do to turn the tide of battle in your favor?
• Prepare and plan your action: as a player, it’s important to pay
attention to what’s happening on the board. Think about the
action you want to perform, and plan with your allies as your
turn comes up.
• If there’s some detail about the combat environment or the
adversaries that you want to check—or even establish with the
group—just ask the group, or speak up.
• Sometimes you might ask about details about the combat that
require a bit more time, skill, or effort to obtain. These are
considered actions and may require you to spend a resource and/
or make a roll.
• Although you’re fighting on a grid, you’re also roleplaying. This
means that if there’s some part of the environment you want to
interact with, check with the narrator or group to make sure it’s
reasonable for that element to be there.
• Once you’ve decided what your action(s) will be, make them clear
to the narrator or group what you want to do before spending
any resources or make a roll. We highly recommend describing
and adding detail to how you perform your action to the group.
• Consequences: Unlike the other phases, in the Combat Phase,
the majority of your actions generate Consequence Points (CP)
that the narrator can spend to implement adversary actions
and Consequences outside of the player’s turn. While weaving
together the f low of events together, feel free to contribute your
ideas and even re-work events to fit the action at hand.

93
PLAYER ACTIONS
Below is a list of general actions that you can perform in the
Combat Phase.
Moves Cost Effect
Activate Talent Varies Use a talent on your Ability Bar.
Activate an ability from one of your
Use Equipment Varies equipment slots.
Perform a general action that utilizes
Other Actions Varies a skill in a discipline.
Buy Time 0 Energy Recover some energy.
0 Energy +
Heal 2 Ingredients Restore Health and/or Energy
Reduce damage taken in half
Last Second 1 Dash (rounded-up)
Quick Dash 1 Dash Move 1 tile (across edges or points)
Remove or recover from a
Recovery Special status effect.
Reposition 1 Energy Move one tile (across edges)
Retreat 2 Energy Leave the Combat Board
Strike/Blast 1 Energy A basic attack.
Use Use an asset, consumable,
Simple Item 0 Energy or other item

94
 MULTIPLE ACTIONS
On your turn, you can perform as many actions as your resources allow.
Every action after your first has an increasing +1 Energy cost. This
increased cost resets at the beginning of your next turn.
• First action: +0 Energy
• Second Action: +1 Energy
• Third Action: +2 Energy
[Example] It’s your turn and you want to make a [Strike] then
[Reposition]. Your first action [Strike] costs 1 Energy, and next action
[Reposition] costs 2 Energy (1 action cost + 1 second action).

CONSEQUENCE POINTS
For many abilities, you will find them marked with notation such as [+1
◈]. This means that you add 1 Consequence point to the Consequence
Pool. Most abilities range from [+1 ◈ ] to [+3 ◈ ].
If you need to perform a skill or make some undefined action that’s not
covered by abilities, triggering a Consequence makes no real sense in
this phase since it plays outside of the f low of events. Instead, use the
following thresholds:
• Fortune [ +1 ◈ ]
• Temperance [+ 2 ◈ ]
• Judgment [+ 3 ◈ ] .

95
 GENERAL COMBAT ACTIONS

Buy Time
GENERAL COMBAT ACTION EXPLORATION

0 ENERGY

Effect: Recover energy, this action can only be used once per turn.
Fortune: Recover 5 energy [+ 1 ◈]
Temperance: Recover 3 energy [+ 2 ◈]
Judgment: Recover 3 energy. [+ 3 ◈]
Heal
GENERAL COMBAT ACTION SURVIVAL

2 INGREDIENTS | CLOSE

Effect: Restore Health and Energy to yourself or one ally in your tile. Points
granted by this action can be split between Health and Energy.
Fortune: Restore 4 points
Temperance: Restore 3 points [+ 1 ] ◈
Judgment: Restore 3 points [+ 2 ] ◈
Last Second
GENERAL COMBAT ACTION

1 DASH | REACTION

Effect: Before you take damage from a Consequence, you can spend a Dash
to take half damage (rounded-up). [+1 ◈]
Quick Dash
GENERAL COMBAT ACTION

1 DASH

Effect: Move 1 tile in any direction. You can move across edges or across
points. [+1 ◈]
Recovery
GENERAL COMBAT ACTION SURVIVAL

X ENERGY

Effect: Remove a negative effect on your character. The Energy cost

will depend on the Consequence Level and description of the
effect. [+1 ] ◈

96
 Reposition
GENERAL COMBAT ACTION COMBAT

1 ENERGY

Effect: Move 1 tile (along an edge).

Retreat
GENERAL COMBAT ACTION COMBAT

2 ENERGY

Effect: When in any edge space of the Combat Board, you can retreat to take
yourself out of the encounter.

Strike // Blast
GENERAL COMBAT ACTION COMBAT

1 ENERGY

Effect: Deal damage to a target in range.

Fortune: Deal 1[w]+1 damage
Temperance: Deal 1[w] damage [+ 1 ◈ ]]
Judgment: Deal 1[w] damage [+ 2 ◈
Use Simple Item
GENERAL COMBAT ACTION

0 ENERGY

Effect: Use or activate a simple item. This can be used for actions such as
activating a consumable, eating trail mix, or activating a def lector
array. [+1 ] ◈

97
ADVERSARIES
Adversaries are any sort of character, creature, or automaton that
drifters may come up against. Each adversary comes with the following
information:
• Adversary Name: The name of the adversary. This could repre-
sent a solo adversary (such as a warped wolf) or even a group of
adversaries (such as a pack of warped wolves).
• Consequence Level (CL): Primarily used to determine how
much from the Consequence Pool the adversary can spend. This
also serves as the Consequence Level for the adversary if the
drifters interact with it outside of the Combat Phase
• Description: Any useful lore or tactics that the adversary
might use.
• Health: How much damage can the adversary take before
it is defeated. Health is typically it’s two to three times the
Consequence Level of the adversary.
• Special: Any attributes or abilities the adversary has. These can
include passive abilities and modifiers.
• Consequences: While in control of this adversary, these are the
actions they can perform. The cost is listed as (x ◈ ) CP.
• Variants: Not all adversaries need to be the same. Variations
of each adversary are suggested with mechanical tweaks and
changes to mix up your combat experience with them.
The statblocks here are templates or building blocks for you to use. Feel
free to modify these to make your own adversaries and monstrosities.

98
SAMPLE ADVERSARIES
CRYSTAL SPIDERS
CL 3
Crystal spiders are aggressive creatures that can freely move through
the unique growths in the area. When disturbed, they will attack
aggressively, aiming to overwhelm and entomb their victim in a crystal
growth they can emit from their body.
Health: 4
Pierce (1 ◈)
CLOSE | HEALTH DAMAGE
Swarm (2
CLOSE | IMPAIR
◈)
A bite or stab Spiders begin crawling on you
as crystal pierces your f lesh. weighing you down.
Effect: Deal 1 damage to the target. Effect: Increase target's
For each additional point Temperance Threshold by 2
◈
of CP ( ) spent, increase until the end of the target's
damage by 1. next turn.
For each additional point
◈
◈)
of CP ( ) spent, deal +1
Solidify (2 Health damage.
CLOSE | INCREASE ENERGY COST
While on you they begin crystallizing,
making it difficult to act.
Skitter (1
MOVE
◈)
Effect: Increase target's per action
energy cost by 1 until Effect: Move Crystal Spiders
the end of the target's along 1 tile.
next turn.

Variants:
• Hardened: Reduce damage taken by 1–3 for each attack against
the spider.
• Swarm: Each spider adversary can be spread across multiple tiles
but still uses the same statblock.
• Queen: Add [Summon Allies] (3 ◈ ) to summon 2 crystal
spiders.
• Giant: Increase CL by 2, triple health, and +1 [Pierce] damage.

99
 DIRKS
CL 3
Dirks are a form of warped humanoids commonly found across the
world. Those who study the past believe the dirks were created for
some great conf lict, though this has not been confirmed. Some drifters
tell stories of pools of these monstrosities hovering in a red liquid deep
inside ruined facilities.
Dirs are capable of using a variety of guns and weapons that they
find, albeit not very efficiently. They tend to work together in groups
and sometimes, one can observe some sort of hierarchy amongst them.
All attempts at contact with these creatures so far have only resulted
in violence.
When there are no allies around, or when they are overpowered,
dirks will panic and try and f lee.
Health: 8
Special:
• Gang Up: If this dirk shares a tile with another dirk, increase all
Health damage dealt by 1.
Strike/Blast (1 ◈)
CLOSE/RANGE 1 | HEALTH DAMAGE
Aggression (1
MOVE
◈)
By blaster, claws or brute force. Effect: Move Dirk along 1 tile
Effect: Deal 1 damage to the target. or move another dirk on
For each additional point the board.
◈
of CP ( ) spent, increase
damage by 1.

Variants:
• General of the Sword: Double or triple dirk Health and increase
[Strike] damage by 1.
• Commander: When using [Aggression], activate both effects.
• Shielded: Dirk is shielded by some means, increase it's health by
3-5 points.
• Gunner: Increase the range of [Blast] to Range 2. When [Blast]
deals damage, it deals 1 Health damage to all players in that tile.

100
 PLANT BEAST
CL 4
Plant beasts are any vegetation or vegetation-like mass that has grown
awareness and become highly territorial. One moment, simply a small
f lower, the next a hissing mass of plant matter charging at you. Little
is known about these creatures and how they may have become warped
or what it may have warped from, if anything at all. They have been
encountered both as solitary beasts or in clusters of vegetation.
Health: 14

Bite/Slam (1 ◈)
CLOSE/RANGE 1 | HEALTH DAMAGE
Something vaguely teeth-like strong
enough to take your arm off.
Effect: Deal 1 damage to the target.
For each additional point
◈
of CP ( ) spent, increase
damage by 1.
Charge (2 ◈)
NEW SKILL ROLL | MOVE
With a loud hiss,
the plant beast charges forwards,
hitting everything in its path.
Effect: Pick a direction (across
edges) and move the plant
beast in a straight line
until it hits the edge of the

◈)
board. Players in its path
Writhe (3 must make a Exploration
CLOSE | IMPAIR CL 5 check using the
Plant beasts are a constantly shifting thresholds below.
mass of vines and roots that can make Fortune: No effect.
some actions difficult. Temperance: 3 Health damage
Judgment: 5 Health damage
Effect: As long as the players are
in the same tile as the
plant beast, increase both
thresholds by 2. This lasts
Saunter (1
MOVE
◈)
until the start of the plant
beast’s next turn. Effect: Move Plant Beast along
1 tile.
Variants:
• Evergrowth: Whenever the plant beast uses [Charge], all tiles
that it crosses start rapidly growing new vegetation, making
terrain more difficult to maneuver. Until the end
• Call Plants: Add [Summon Allies] (4 ◈ ) to summon 2 plant
beastlings.

101
 HANGED MAN
CL 5 || BOSS
A survivor, rumored to be some sort of military leader during the cata-
clysm. As much as that glory may have been, they are only a shadow
of their former selves, driven mad by the crystal that keeps them alive.
Health: 50
Special:
• Boss Moves: If there are multiple adversary's present, The
Hanged Man can act on every other adversary turn.
Sword Slash (1
CLOSE | HEALTH DAMAGE
◈) Crystal Burst (3
SPECIAL | NEW SKILL ROLL
◈)
A large sharp blade, edged in a The hanged man strikes the ground,
constantly regrowing crystal. creating a wave of crystal spikes.
Effect: Deal 1 damage to the target. Effect: From the hanged man’s tile,
For each additional point and extending out in all
◈
of CP ( ) spent, increase directions, bursts a wave of
damage by 1. crystal. Players must make
a Exploration CL 6 check

◈)
using the thresholds below.
Zeliska (2 Fortune: No effect.
RANGED 2 | HEALTH DAMAGE Temperance: 3 Health damage
An energy blaster that packs a punch. Judgment: 5 Health damage
Effect: Deal 2 damage to the target
and if they have an Armor
(Protection) pool, deal 1
Agility (1
MOVE
◈)
point of damage to it as
well. For each additional Effect: Move the hanged man
◈
point of CP ( ) spent, across any tile.
increase damage by 1.

Variants:
• Commander: Can spend (1 ◈ ) to move any of its allies.
• Break Free: Add [Summon Allies] (3 ◈ ) to summon one CL 2
soldier.
• Equipped: Give the hanged man two stimpacks and explosives.
• Corrupted: The hanged man is aff licted with Corruption, and
fighting them will result in taking on 1 Corruption.
102
103
Exploration
Phase
Led by the Dungeonmaster (narrator) in the Exploration Phase, you
and the party explore all kinds of facilities such as ruined buildings
or underground laboratories. For the most part, you’ll be involved
with unstructured roleplaying where the group freely interacts with
the environment, make skill rolls, engage with creatures and NPCs,
perhaps even shifting to the Combat Phase. To more easily create the
kinds of facilities drifters often find themselves in, you will use the
Delve Deck.

THE DELVE DECK

The Delve Deck is a deck of hexagonal cards that serves as a method
to generate the facility being explored. Each card of the deck provides
players with the features of each area that the players have just entered
into. The size of each area can vary widely: from a small room, a zone,
or even an entire f loor of the delve—whatever fits the story or idea for
the facility the best.
• All delves start with the entrance card and expand from that
point, attaching further cards face-down next to the delve
entrance.
• When the group wants to enter a new area, f lip over a card, and
use the card’s theme to inform what happens next.
• As the drifters explore further, continue to place cards until
either the deck is finished, the players accomplish their objective,
or the players decide to leave the delve.
CARD FEATURES
• Theme: Inspiration for what is in the area of the delve. Some
cards are more specific, while others are more general, allowing
the group to adapt to the context of the story or area.
• Doors: Alongside the edge of some cards are pathways or doors.
When placing cards, try to connect doors and paths with each
other as you build out the delve.
• Locks and Keys: Some cards may show an icon for a lock or a
key. In these cases, the drifters will need to obtain the key to
that door before you can travel into the locked card. This can be
an actual key or anything else from switches, control consoles, or
any other MacGuffin that the drifters need to collect or use to
106
 move into the locked area.

CARDS THEMES
Each card comes equipped with a theme to provide ideas for how the
narrator should build the next area of the delve.
Card Description
Boss + Miniboss A difficult encounter.
Challenge Room A danger or challenge to overcome.
A feature of the delve such as its ambiance,
Delve Feature environmental, or a feature of the ruin.
A place where nothing feels quite right, often
a result of some remnant of the past or from a
Unsettling Area recent event.
Something important about this place or area
that cannot be moved or brought back by the
Discovery drifters.
Some history or lore left previously behind
Lore Room about the facility or elsewhere.
Someone, or something else, is in the delve
Character Encounter with you.
Safe Room A space where you can take a moment to rest.
A pathway that leads to somewhere hidden or
Secret Passage unexpected.
Teleporter A device that takes you to a new location.

The Exploration Phase is more of a broad game phase, where you can
move between unstructured roleplaying, and the Combat Phase and
Downtime Phase.

107
 SETTING FORTH
THE DELVE
Use the following for playing out a delve.
1. The narrator places down the entrance card, then draws and
places cards face-down to connect doors to the entrance.
2. Players choose which tile to next explore into. As narrator, you’re
free to check any face-down cards so you can give hints to what
may lie ahead.
3. Flip over the delve card the drifters move into. Utilize the new
card’s theme to provide the next experience or challenge in the
delve. As narrator, don’t be afraid to ask the group for ideas
regarding the contents of the delve (this entire process can be
done collaboratively if you’d like).
4. Once an area has been explored or completed, continue to draw
new cards and place them face-down to indicate new directions
for the party to explore.
5. Repeat this process of exploring areas, and placing down new
tiles until:
• The Delve Deck runs out of cards.
• The narrator deems the facility has been fully explored.
• The players accomplish any mission or goal they have in the
facility.
• The players decide to leave the delve.

108
 WITHOUT A DECK
If you don’t have the Delve Deck itself, a printer-friendly version is
available to print and cut-out on our website. As an alternative, use the
roll-lists below to help generate your delve.
If you’re using the delve tables here, you may want to limit how many
each “card” is in the delve. Keep track of when each card is rolled,
and if you reach the limit you’ve applied and that number is rolled
again, instead use the roll values of the neighboring card categories
(or another card type you want to increase the probability of getting).

Base Deck Extended List

Roll Card Roll Card
1-2 Boss + Miniboss 1-4 Boss + Miniboss
3-6 Delve Feature 5-8 Character
Encounter
7-12 Challenge Room
9-12 Challenge Room
13-16 Unsettling Area
13-15 Lore Room
17-19 Roll on Extended List
16-17 Secret Passage
20 Safe Place
18-19 Teleporter
20 Discovery

109
CARDS
BOSS + MINI-BOSS
The boss and mini-boss cards feature a specific adversary. How this
adversary is presented is up to the group. Their appearance might be a
complete surprise to the drifters, or there may be some prior explora-
tion to the bosses’ reveal. It’s expected that the main route to victory
against the boss or mini-boss is through combat, though that doesn’t
have to be the case. The drifters might be able to convince the hanged
man not to reactivate the war machine that would wreak havoc on the
nearby sanctuary.
CHALLENGE ROOM
A challenge room could represent many things, from a puzzle or a trap
to a skill challenge. The nature of the challenge and what sort of devel-
opments might come from it is up to the narrator or group to decide on.
You can use the disciplines and skills list (see page 32) to help frame
what the challenge is and how to make it fit within the particular delve
the drifters are involved with.

1d20 Challenge Theme

1-3 Combat
4-6 Social
7-11 Survival
12-16 Exploration
17 - 20 Manipulate

110
 DELVE FEATURE
This area has a particular feature of interest to this delve.Perhaps the
room is a special kind of laboratory, or experiment chamber, or it has a
giant forge where automatons were once created. This can lead to ques-
tions about what the purpose of the facility was, or provide opportunity
for the drifters to poke around—this could be through making skill
checks or interacting with different areas of the facility. The narrator
will also have the opportunity here to describe more of the environ-
ment around the drifters.

UNSETTLING AREA
There is something about this area that doesn’t feel right. Perhaps
there’s a disconcerting sight of seeing people that look like you
suspended in vats with an eerie glow, or the scene of a bloody last stand.
This can be used to prepare things to come, or that may be revealed.

DISCOVERY
The drifters stumble upon an unexpected discovery in the delve,
perhaps a beautiful vista or amazing new technology. Whatever the
discovery is, it cannot be moved from the delve, though it imparts some
benefit to the party now. The benefit from the discovery could include
a random boon, an answer to a question (or more questions), a new
Talent, the opportunity to remove a point of Corruption (very rare),
or something else that adds to the drifters’ story or gives them a real-
ization about the world.

111
 LORE ROOM
Something has been left behind in this room that can provide some
history or lore about the facility or something else in the world. With
a little work, inquisitive drifters can unearth this fragment of the past.

1d20 Lore Types

1-4 A last message from a person (audio, video, or
holographic)
5 - 8 A recorded history of a place (current facility, or else-
where)
9 - 12 A retelling of an event (at the current location, or near it)
13 - 16 The recording of a breakthrough (possibly technological
or cultural)
17 - 20 Evidence of a betrayal of some kind that led to a disaster

CHARACTER
ENCOUNTER
You’re not in this place alone after all—perhaps there’s another drifter
in the facility with you, or a survivor from some nearby disaster. The
narrator should consider who this character is and what their inten-
tions are. What are they trying to accomplish? Are they friend or foe?

SAFE PLACE
This area of the delve is a quiet, serene place. Perhaps there’s a
relaxing scent in the air or the area is warm with the reassuring hum
of machines. Or, perhaps a reassuring light that shines through on a
quiet grassy patch.
In this space, the drifters can take a moment of respite. If the group
wishes, they can enter the Downtime Phase with 1 Downtime slot.

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 SECRET
ROOM/PASSAGE
You discover a secret area of the delve. With keen eyes or the right
key for the job, you are able to gain access to this hidden area. Perhaps
the drifters find a passage connecting to unexpected areas of the
facility or they find a room with someone’s carefully concealed stash
of technology.

TELEPORTER
A teleporter device (or possibly some other transportation device)
resides in this area. With the right tweaks and fixes, it can be up and
running in no time. The question is, where does it go?
If the drifters use the teleporter, find the other teleporter card from
the Delve Deck and place it down anywhere: it could connect to an
existing room, to another area of the facility unable to be otherwise
accessed, or maybe it connects to a different facility altogether. Where
you end up could be the same facility, elsewhere on the continent, or
not even on the same planet. The device is unstable and might require
resources for each activation.

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Travel
Phase
Led by the Cartographer (narrator), during the Travel Phase you and
your companions set out to explore the world, traversing breathtaking
vistas, beautiful landscapes, and a ruined civilization, all marked with
scars from the past. During this phase, you and your companions travel
great distances using the montage and hex-map tools to facilitate this.

HEX MAP
To map and uncover the world you need a hex-map (either blank or
detailed). Each hex represents a broad geographic area and around 2–3
days of travel (or approximately 30‒40 miles or 48‒64 kilometers). You
might use unstructured roleplay during travel of a hex, but more often
than not when you need to travel from one place to another you will
use the montage. Each hex has the following features:
• Consequence Level: Used as a baseline reference for any skill
checks, montages, or encounters in this hex.
• Environmental Feature: Something that describes the land-
scape/s in this area.
• Hex Hook: Something interesting to your players that might be
worth their drifters investigating.
Not every hex has to be defined before the journey begins, or be detailed
with some hook for the players. Some hexes might contain nothing but
an environmental feature, others just ruins.

MONTAGE
A montage is a narrative tool useful for skipping to the most inter-
esting parts of a journey, and even then possibly only touching on
these moments brief ly. Montages are a way to form a sense of a journey
through fragments of story and events.
A montage is a collaborative low-risk sequence where all players in the
game each make a narrative contribution to what their characters are
doing on the journey or detailing what happens along the way.

116
There are four stages to a montage:
1. Distance: As a group, determine which hex will be your desti-
nation and the path that will be traveled (if you travel more than
one hex).
2. Difficulty: Determine the Consequence Level of the montage.
This difficulty can be applied per hex or be used as the difficulty
for the entire montage.
3. Cost: Each montage contribution has a resource cost. We recom-
mend only using 1 to 2 Energy per player per contribution.
4. Player Contributions: Each player makes a contribution to
the montage, which should end in a skill check of some kind.
Together, the group weaves the actions and outcomes to tell a
story of the journey.
Repeat: For each hex your group travels into, have the group do two
rounds of contributions.

PLAYER
CONTRIBUTION
As a player, when it’s your turn in the montage you will:
• Declare Intent: Decide on some useful action your drifter
undertakes during the journey. This can build off another play-
er’s contribution, or be completely separate. For inspiration, look
at the skill list on page 32.
You can use any skill, and its outcome will only contribute to the narra-
tive. This means you can use skills like [Attack], [Access], or even
[Heal] to add to the narrative.
• Pay Resource: If there is any resource cost, pay it.
• Make the Roll: Roll the dice and compare the result to the
appropriate discipline. If you don’t like the result, you can boost
the roll (see Boosting on page 59).
• Enact Consequences: If the roll triggers a Consequence, the
narrator (or the group) decides on the outcome.
• Narrate the Result: You or the narrator weave a small narrative
about your action and how it impacts your journey.
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HEX PROPERTIES
CONSEQUENCE LEVEL
Consequence Levels (CL) are assigned to each hex. This can be used to
inform encounters within the hex as well as being an optional baseline
difficulty for any skill checks during a montage in that hex.
The narrator and the group are free to come up with a Consequence
Level, but if you’re looking for a simple solution, use the roll list below.
You can roll either once to determine the CL, or roll twice, with the
second roll modifying the SL from the first roll—this gives a broader
range of CL for the hex.

Roll CL Modifier
1-5 CL 4 +2
6 - 11 CL 3 +1
12 - 16 CL 3 -1
17 - 20 CL 2 +0

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ENVIRONMENTAL FEATURE
The nature of a particular hex is intended to add f lavor or a theme to
the journey, and it can help inform player contributions for a montage.
The feature could be some description of the landscape itself, the
weather in the area that day, or even a kind of mood imbued into
the area.
• A fog overlays this area that is strangely not heavy with moisture.
• Some monolith or statue is always visible while traveling through
the area.
• All the f lora and fauna here is imbued with crystalline growth.
HEX HOOK
While the environmental feature is a broad descriptive element of
the area, hex hooks are specific things of interest in the area that the
drifters might pause their journey to further investigate.
• Every so often, a signal pulses drawing your attention to a
nearby spire.
• All travelers you encounter in the area bear the symbols of some
religion.
• A foreign army has recently invaded the area and taken control
of the populace there.
If players are interested in exploring a hook, have the group finish the
round of player contributions before doing so,

119
Downtime
Phase
Led by the Quartermaster (narrator), whenever the drifters needs to rest
or spend time in a sanctuary, this starts the Downtime Phase. During
this phase, each player gains Downtime Slots that can be spent during
that rest. In this time you can take time to heal injuries, swap out
Talents, cook up meals, take care of allies, or craft tools and upgrades.

DOWNTIME SLOTS
Downtime Points are determined by the narrator of this phase. These
points resemble the amount of time that characters have to rest, recoup,
and prepare. Below are a few guidelines to how many activity points to
grant for the phase, though special circumstances can always modify
these.
• 1 Slot: A moment of respite (1-2 hours)
• 3 Slots: A campfire evening (3-5 hours)
• 6 Slots: One day of work (8-12 hours)
If the party wants to spend downtime slots than alloted, they can but
doing so will make things more difficult in the future.

TYPES OF
DOWNTIME ACTIONS
Downtime allows you to perform a number of activities that fall into
the following rough categories:
• Restore: Actions that recover Health, Energy, and Woe for
yourself and your party members.
• Prepare: Actions that give bonuses or advantages to you or your
allies against future challenges.
• Craft: Actions that use Components and Ingredients to create
items that can be equipped in your equipment slots.

122
 Crafting Cost Effect
1 Slot + Create a meal that can heal you. Recover
Break Bread 2 Ingredients 3 Health
Tear down the basecamp and recover the
Break Camp 1 Slot Components (3) spent on it.
Buff: 2 Slots +
Weapon Damage 2 Components Increase your weapon’s base damage by 1.

Create: 2 Slots + Craft a device that, once activated, absorbs

Personal Def lector 4 Components one Consequence.

Create: 1 Slots + Craft two consumables that recover 2

Trail Mix 3 Ingredients Health or Energy each.
Grant an ally a bonus that they can spend
Encourage 1 Slot on a future roll.
3 Slots + Create a meal for all drifters in the group.
Hearty Feast 4 Ingredients Everyone recovers all Health and Energy.
1 Slot + Establish a basecamp that increases future
Make Camp 3 Components Downtime rests in this space.
Swap Talents and gain a bonus when they
Preparation 1 Slot are first activated.
Pick a skill. Next time that skill is used,
Ref lect 2 Points you can upgrade the threshold.
Pick an ally and gain a bonus when using
Support Ally 2 Slot Cooperative Assist.
Take in When at a discovery, you spend some time
the View 1 Slot to take in the view. Recover Health, Woe,
Tend to Distribute 3 points of Health and/or
Wounds 1 Slots Energy between yourself or allies.
8 Slots +
Upgrade: 8 Components + When equipped, your [Last Second] ability
Def lecting Strike 4 Gearbits deals damage to an adversary.

Upgrade: 8 Slots + When equipped, your [Cleave] deals extra

Charged 8 Components + damage, and you gain a cleave attack
Spin Attack 4 Gearbits powered by a dash.

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 DOWNTIME ACTIVITIES
Partial Work: Partial work: Some crafting may happen over the
course of multiple Downtime Phases. Keep track of which activity was
started and how many resources you’ve put into it.

Break Bread
RESTORE
1 Downtime Slot + 2 Ingredients
Effect: Create a satisfying meal for yourself. Heal 3 Health and 3 Energy.

Break Camp
BASEBUILDING
1 Downtime Slot
Effect: Tear down a camp you have constructed and recover the components
(3) used to create it.

Buff:
Weapon Damage
PREPARE
1 Downtime Slot + 2 Components
E ffect: Pick a weapon in your equipment slots, increase it's base damage by
1. This effect lasts until the next Downtime Phase.

Create:
Personal Deflector
CRAFT CONSUMABLE
2 Downtime Slots + 4 Components
Effect: Create a small device that projects energy, intercepting incoming
attacks for a brief time.

Def lector (1 equipment slot): You can activate this device using the
[Activate Simple Item] action. When activated, the def lector
provides you with 4 points of bonus armor which can be distrib-
uted to protection or resistance as you see fit. If the def lector is not
destroyed before your next Downtime, it will break down and you
recover 1 Component.

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 Create:
Trail Mix
CRAFT CONSUMABLE
1 Downtime Slot + 3 Ingredients
Effect: Create two consumables that you can distribute between yourself
and your allies.

Trail Mix (1 equipment slot): When consumed with the [Use Simple Item]
action, recover 2 Health or 2 Energy.

Tail Mix only takes one equipment slot no matter how many charges
or stacks of trail mix you have.

Encourage
PREPARE
1 Downtime Slot
Effect: Grant an ally a +2 bonus that they can apply to one future roll.
If target ally has a burden that can be resolved by this activity,
resolve it.

Hearty Feast
PREPARE
4 Ingredients + 2 Downtime Slots
Can only be used at a Sanctuary or Basecamp.
Effect: Create a large or fancy meal for your party. Everyone in the party
recovers all Health and Energy. If an ally has a burden that can be
resolved by this activity, resolve it.

Make Camp
BASEBUILDING
1 Downtime Slot + 3 Components
Effect: Establish a basecamp where you can return to and rest before setting
off on your journey again. If you return to your basecamp to enter
the Downtime Phase, increase the number of slots you gain by 1.

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 Preparation
PREPARE
1 Downtime Slot
Effect: Swap out or slot one of your talents into your ability bar. The
irst time you use a newly slotted talent, gains +1 to your roll, if
applicable.

Reflect
RESTORE
2 Downtime Slots
Effect: Your drifter spends time ref lecting on events and how things
could be done differently next time. There is always room for
improvement. Pick an action or skill where you previously made a
Temperance or Judgment result. The next time you perform that
action, you can choose to upgrade the threshold as if you had spent
an Intervention Point. This effect lasts until your next Downtime.

Support Ally
RESTORE
2 Downtime Slots
Effect: Pick an ally. The next time you spend your Energy to boost their
roll, increase the total Energy you spend by 2. You must spend at
least 1 Energy to gain the bonus. If your ally has a burden that can be
resolved by this activity, resolve it.

Take in the View

RESTORE
1 Downtime Slot
You must be at a Delve Discovery or Wonder
Effect: Recover 2 Health, 2 Woe, and 2 Energy.
If an ally has a burden that can be resolved by this activity, resolve it

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 Tend to Wounds
RESTORE
1 Downtime Slot
Effect: Take a moment to apply aid to yourself or allies. You can distribute 3
Health or Energy between yourself and/or one other ally. For every
additional 2 Ingredients you spend, increase the amount of Health or
Energy recovered by 1.

Upgrade:
Weapon Deflector
CRAFT AUGMENT
8 Downtime Slots + 8 Components + 4 Gearbits
Effect: Create a small device that augments your weapon capabilities.

Dash Def lector (1 equipment slot): If you attack an adversary that had just
spent its turn to attack or deal damage to you,

Upgrade:
Charged Spin Attack
CRAFT AUGMENT
8 Downtime Slots + 8 Components + 4 Gearbits
Effect: Create a small device that augments your weapon attack.

Spin Attack Augment (1 equipment slot): If you use [Cleave], increase it's
damage dealt by 1. In addition, gain the following action.
Spin Attack (1 Dash | Close)
Deal 1[w] to all adversaries in your tile.

127
Session
Zero

128
Before adventuring in a game of Drifter, it’s essential for all players to
be on the same page about the social rules and etiquette of play. This
way everyone knows what kind of experience they’re going to have once
they dive into the game. Whenever a group gathers to chat about these
topics, this is known as a Session Zero. It’s often valuable to have a
Session Zero whenever you start a new campaign or introduce a new
player to the group.
A Session Zero can cover a lot of topics and usually it’s best to do so
prior to the first game session. You might cover topics such as:
• Content Rating
• Gameplay Style
• Lines and Veils
• House Rules
• Rules of the Table
• Character Planning and Relationships
Some topics require the group to come to a consensus (like content
rating, house rules, and character relationships), while others will be
information for the group to remember (like lines and veils and safety
checklist).
CONTENT RATING
Much like checking the rating of a movie before watching it or a video
game before you play it, everyone involved in the game should help to
frame the kind of content they want to see in a game of Drifter. This
will be a starting point as you discuss with the group in the next step.
Guideline ratings include:
• All Ages: May contain mild language and fantasy violence but
no swearing or nudity.
• Young Adult: May contain violence, infrequent use of strong
language, and suggestive themes or situations.
• Mature: May contain depictions of violence, sex, and
adult themes.
• Mature Plus: May contain intense and graphic scenes of
violence, nudity, sexual content, and substance use.

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 GAMEPLAY STYLE
What kind of story do you want to be told through a game of Drifter?
What do you or your character want to achieve in the game? There are
countless ways to play Drifter, and it can be important for you and the
other players to know what kind of play environment to expect.
For example, your game of Drifter might decide to focus on one of
the following styles of play:
• Social: Social problem-solving, political maneuvering, high
intrigue, or interpersonal drama.
• Combat: Back-to-back fighting, or gritty or heroic battles.
• Exploration: Artifact research, resource expeditions, or
survival mode.
• Other: Bleak or cosmic horror.
If the group has trouble figuring out a balance between these options,
another way is to mark a triangle, with each point representing “social,”
“combat,” and “exploration.” Then have everyone pick a point where
their preferred balance lies. This helps to better understand the balance
of action everyone wants.
If you haven’t figured out what kind of story or adventure you want
to experience, that’s totally fine. The more you play, the more you’ll
learn about what you do and don’t like.

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 LINES AND VEILS
Although the content rating provides a general sense of how often
content may appear in your game, The use of lines and veils provides
you with a specific understanding of what content is okay for partic-
ular players, those which could be problematic, and which areas are a
firm hard no.
To help facilitate the sorts of content that might appear in your
game,you can use a content checklist like that below. You can also find
a similar content checklist available on our website.
The content checklist might look as follows (though it’s not limited
to just these areas of concern):
• Horror: Eyes, spiders, blood, harm to children or animals.
• Relationships: Romance, gas-lighting, sex.
• Social and cultural issues: Racism, real-world religion, sexism.
• Mental and physical health (cancer, claustrophobia, freezing
to death, genocide, natural disasters, police aggression, sexual
assault, terrorism, torture, starvation)
If you’re looking for more in-depth resources about safety tools and
dealing with problematic content, or consent, we highly recommend
reading Consent in Gaming by Monte Cook Games, and the TTRPG
Safety Toolkit by Kienna Shaw and Lauren Bryant-Monk.

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 Appendix 1
Character
Creation
PICK AN AFFINITY.
Non-mechanical. Any anthropomorphic creature.

SELECT YOUR CLASS.

Mechanical. Your class provides you with the your starting ability
scores (health, energy, boost) as well as determining your specialized
discipline, helpful assist, and class special.
• Warrior (Combat discipline)
• Versifier (Social discipline).
• Wielder (Manipulate discipline).
• Delver (Survival discipline).
• Wayfinder (Exploration discipline).

SET THRESHOLDS.
Mechanical. All Fortune thresholds start at 18 and all Temperance
thresholds start at 10.
• Your Fortune threshold is always larger than your
Temperance threshold.
• Your specialized discipline reduces both thresholds by 2.
• Distributed 8 points amongst your thresholds. Each point
applied to a threshold reduces that value by 1. You can not
reduce a threshold by more than 4 points.

PICK TALENTS.
Mechanical. Pick three talents from the Talents section. Write them
on your ability list, and slot them into your talent bar.
You can only slot up to two talents from each discipline, unless they are
from your specialized discipline.
132
PICK AN EQUIPMENT SET.
Mechanical. Pick an equipment set. Then proceed to build your
weapons in the equipment section.

PICK A CHARACTER FEATURE.

Mechanical. Pick any skill from the Discipline/Skill List. When making
a roll with this skill, reduce your Temperance threshold by 2.

CHOOSE A CHARACTER TRAIT.

Non-Mechanical. Something unique about your drifter.

NAME YOUR DRIFTER.

Non-Mechanical. Name your drifter.

CREATE CHARACTER DRIVES.

Mechanical. A short sentence that encapsulates your drifter's goals or
motivations. As you advance you can call upon these Drives to grant
you a bonus.

CREATE CHARACTER BOND.

Non-Mechanical. Share your drifters with members of your group and
create a bond with at least one of them. Bonds are usually phrased as
• Someone I admire:
• Someone I owe:
• Someone whose respect I want to earn:
• Someone I disagree with:

133
 Appendix 2
Disciplines
& Sk ills
EXPLORATION
DISCIPLINE
Skills that encompass overland travel and navigating the environment.
• Awareness
• Balance
• Cartography
• Climb
• Jump
• Lift
• Ref lex
• Swim
SURVIVAL
DISCIPLINE
Skills that are used for camping and surviving in the wilderness.
• Cook
• Craft
• Forage
• Fortitude
• Heal
• Nature
• Sneak
• Track

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 SOCIAL
DISCIPLINE
Skills that used to interact with other creatures and characters.
• Empathy
• Handle Animal
• Inf luence
• Intimidate
• Lead
• Negotiate
• Perform
• Resolve
COMBAT
DISCIPLINE
Skills that are used in combat or for fighting.
• Aim
• Assess
• Fight
• Maneuver
MANIPULATE
DISCIPLINE
Skills that are used to interact with remnant technology.
• Access
• Build
• Repurpose
• Salvage

135