Every mortal in Chaesharin, from the lowliest farmer to the highest official in a prince's court, puts considerable stock in the signs of the stars and the omens their configurations reveal. The star sign under which each person is born is thought to be especially precious. These signs are said to reveal themes in a mortal's personality and ultimate destiny. Vaishineph often do not remember the star sign under which they were originally born, but they do remember the sign under which they were resurrected into their new lives. Vaishineph treat the new sign as a gift from their aihalan, almost as if it were a replacement soul and a replacement destiny. A vaishineph's new sign is a symbol of the way they have discarded the royal cults' ordering of time, and the new sign is an oath, to break the kaidir that keep the people of Chaesarin bound to the calendar of false gods.
Introduction
TWE treats time and distance in dramatic, rather than exact, terms. Dramatic time and distance are approximate and serve the needs of the story being told first and foremost. Time and distance are important concepts for communicating what characters are doing at any given time and their physical relationship to other characters and the environment around them. When time and distance are communicated poorly, the emotional content of a game is diminished. When they are communicated effectively and consistently, the story in the game comes alive and feels more tangible to everyone participating. Below are some key concepts that TWE uses to communicate time and distance.
Sessions and Scenes
A session is any time the players and gamemaster get together to play TWE, regardless of the amount of time actually spent playing, or the actual time that passes in the game world as everyone plays. Sessions tend to be a few hours in length and over the course of several sessions the players and gamemaster will tell an ongoing story together. It can be helpful to think of a session as a movie, with the overarching story being something like a long running series of films. Each movie, or session, tells its own story, with a well defined beginning, middle, and end. Future sessions pick up roughly where the last left off, but with new challenges and new objectives, much like a subsequent sequel would. The player characters grow in strength, knowledge, and power over the course of the overarching story, and their abilities and roleplaying potential changes from session to session to match this growth.
Each session is broken up into units of time called scenes. Again, much like with a movie, a session is made up of several smaller snapshots of time where the camera focuses in on particular events. These scenes may take anywhere between a few minutes and an hour to play through and resolve, and might represent anywhere between a few minutes and a few days in the passage of game time, depending on the needs of the story. At the beginning of each scene, the gamemaster establishes the scene's purpose and setting. A purpose is a basic outline of the players' objective in the scene. What are they trying to accomplish? What are the most obvious stakes? What do other characters in the scene apparently want and how does that influence what the players are doing? A scene's stated purpose is only there to give the scene its initial momentum. Once the players begin to act and interact, they may change the purpose to suit their changing goals and desires. The stakes might change, their initial hopes or expectations might be thwarted. Things may become violent, or violence may be averted. While the gamemaster establishes an initial purpose to get everyone in the same page, the purpose is ultimately fulfilled by the player's choices. A scene's setting is a basic description of the environment, characters, timing, and events surrounding the player characters. Are the player characters on the deck of a ship, deep in the waters of Tai? Are the player characters prowling through a capital city's streets by moonlight? Are the player characters in the High Prince's court or on a corpse strewn battle field? Each scene's purpose and setting makes it clear to the player's what they can do, and allows them to formulate among themselves what they should do.
The three most basic purposes for scenes are described below.
Conflicts: The purpose of a conflict is to overcome an opponent. A conflict scene is an action orientated situation in which two or more groups of characters square off against one another in a martial or social confrontation, in a stealth versus observation contest, in a large scale battle, or in a chase scene, where lives and significant resources are on the line. Conflicts can be high risk, high reward situations. If the player characters prevail, they may rid themselves of antagonists or other obstacles, and they may be able to claim rewards as a result. But if the player characters fail, or are forced to withdraw and retreat, they could suffer death, dishonor, or the loss of much needed resources and opportunities. Vaishineph can be powerful combatants and manipulators, and frequently outclass common opponents several times over. But in Chaesharin, there are also a variety of beings and creatures that outclass the vaishineph in equal degree. Player characters should approach open conflict with caution, they should quickly evaluate their chances for victory and adjust their tactics accordingly, and they should press every advantage possible if they choose to stand their ground.
Explorations: The purpose of exploration is to experience an environment. An exploration scene sets an environment or situation in front of the player characters and tasks them with moving around in it and learning more about it. By traveling and investigating the characters come to learn more about the world around them, which in turn gives them a better sense of how to accomplish their long term goals. Sometimes exploration can be as simple as finding a way from point A to point B. Sometimes it can be as complex as finding a way from point A to point B with no map, no leads, and no sense of direction. B might not even be known in advance. The players must rely on their characters and their knowledge, and characters must rely on the ingenuity of their players. The actual environment explored can be practically anything. Sometimes exploration can be of an ancient library or of a crime scene or of a drug den, and the goal is less about traveling and more about revealing secrets and gathering clues. Exploration scenes are great opportunities for the players to more directly interact with TWE's world and lore, and for characters to express themselves in unconventional ways.
Trials: The purpose of a trial is to survive an ordeal. A trial is a dangerous or threatening situation in which the player characters simply attempt to weather an onslaught of circumstances. While a conflict pits the player characters against other characters, and while exploration allows the player characters to study an environment and its secrets, a trial combines the two and pits the player characters against the environment itself. The land of Chaesharin is tough on its best days and genocidal on its worst. The player characters might find themselves fighting to keep a ship afloat in Tai's waters, fighting to climb a mountain beneath a torrent of rock slides and lightning strikes, of fighting to make their way through urban streets, while critically wounded, while towing a reluctant hostage, while being chased by guards, and while the city burns down all around. Trials can push player characters to their mental and physical limits, but it can also push them to the heights of their creativity. Trials against the environment prompt players to employ innovative uses of their abilities to solve problems and overcome challenges. Only when the most obvious paths are forcibly closed, do people begin to look for alternatives, and a trial is nothing if not a closer of paths.
Limits: Several game mechanics in TWE are also limited by sessions and scenes. For example, insight points, which are used to improve a character over time, are dolled out on a per session basis. Threads, which are strong emotional connections that player characters have to the various factions in TWE's world, are also limited to being used once per session. On the other hand, some of the most powerful Whispers that the vaishineph have access to are limited to being used once per scene. These limitations are intended to be guidelines, rather than hard and fast rules. The idea is to gently force the players to make interesting and strategic choices about some of their most powerful and influential abilities, rather than allowing them to constantly rely on them as catch all solutions to the challenges that they face. Sometimes though, if a session is running particularly long, or if a scene stretches on to encompass a large amount of game time, it might make sense for the gamemaster to ease the per session or per scene restrictions and allow an extra use of these abilities.
Breaks
The time period between scenes is called a break. Breaks are the perfect opportunity to allow game time to pass quickly, so that the next scene begins at an appropriately crucial moment for the ongoing story. Breaks can be measured in three approximate durations, and the duration of a break determines what can be accomplished during it. Breaks can be quick cuts, short transitions, or long transitions. A quick cut is a break in which only a few moments, or perhaps a few minutes, pass in game time. This kind of break is ideal for transitioning between scenes that are close in time. If all that is happening between scenes is that the characters are outside and moving inside, or on a ship and disembarking, or moving from one fight to the next, then a quick cut is appropriate. A short transition represents somewhere between twenty minutes and a couple hours in game time. A short transition allows the player characters to talk with one another, to reflect on what has transpired, to catch their breath, check their gear, recover from shock and fear, and put together a meaningful plan of action moving forward. A long transition represents anything more than four or five hours. A long transition allows for a more complete period of rest and permits the player characters to pool their resources to enact more sophisticated plans.
Described below are four of the most common activities that player characters can undertake during breaks of different durations. One thing, however, that happens during a break of any length at all, is that all of the player characters remove all of risk from their character sheets. Risk only ever persists until the end of scene and requires nothing but a scene transition to remove.
Healing: Healing is the term used to describe the removal of mark conditions. Under normal circumstances, healing can only be achieved during breaks between scenes, and then only during restful breaks of a short or long duration. A restful break is a break during which the player characters can physically relax, and are not taxing themselves physically in harsh conditions. While vaishineph characters do not require food, water, or rest, and can live indefinitely without them, they do require time for the manna in their veins to heal their bodies and minds. During a short transition, players can remove up to two conditions from their characters. During a long transition, players can remove up to four conditions from their characters. Chaos damage conditions and the scar lethal damage condition can only be removed between sessions however.
Equipping: Related to the concept of healing is that of equipping. To be equipped means to have had the time and the resources necessary to restock a character's signature tools of the trade, don and adjust their armor, repair their weapons and equipment, prepare their items, ready their mounts for action, etc. A player character in The Way of the Earth is either considered to be equipped, and a character can be considered unequipped even if they incidentally happen to have a weapon or shield in their hands. Some of a player character's abilities can only be used "while equipped." These tend to be abilities that require certain expendable items in order to be effective. For example, a Lisraii Alchemy Wife's Poison Arrow or an Atrian street magician's Devouring Smoke can only be used while equipped. Characters are considered equipped by default, and only lose that status if something in the course of the game removes their conventional gear, such as needing to use disguises or costumes, or having gear forcibly taken away from them, or being attacked in the middle of the night while sleeping. Characters become reequipped during any short or long transition in which they have ready access to their possessions.
Travel: Breaks are a good time for the player characters to cover large distances, whether by foot, mount, or ship. If a particular trip is uneventful, and the players and gamemaster simply want to advance time until the group's arrival at their next location, a break between scenes can be used to accomplish this without having to narrate the details of the entire journey. The nature of the travel can affect the possibility of recovery, however. Casual travel still counts as rest, for the purposes of healing conditions, but hard travel does not. Casual travel is any travel through easy to moderate terrain, without significant resistance from the environment, and without concerns like active pursuit. Hard travel is travel through difficult terrain, or travel where the weather or environment is hostile, or where the player characters are being pursued by opposing forces. Generally, the circumstances of the story will simply dictate what kind of travel is at hand. But if time is of the essence, the gamemaster can offer the players a choice about whether they travel casually, and so arrive at their destination more slowly, or travel hard, and arrive much sooner. Selecting the latter option saves time in exchange for not being able to properly heal or reequip characters. In either case, the gamemaster will make (reasonably) clear what the stakes are, and what stands to be gained or lost by the choice.
Threads: A thread is a strong emotional and relational connection that a player character has with one of the neutral factions in the world of The Way of the Earth. In terms of game mechanics, threads represent a player character's level of wealth and influence in the world. The higher a character's rank in a thread, the more resources a character has with respect to a particular faction, and the more equipment, information, and special privileges they can get access to through that relationship. Using a thread is called "weaving." Successfully weaving a thread allows a character to influence the outcome of an upcoming scene by provisioning the player characters with information and resources they would not otherwise have access to. The Threads page has full information about how threads are woven and what the various factions can provide. For here, it is enough to know that threads can only be woven during long transitions between scenes.
Calls
Calls are ways of organizing which characters get to act when in situations where there is not a natural or intuitive answer to that question. In quick moving and dramatic scenes like conflicts of various kinds, calls can be used to help give structure to the chaos of action. A bit of structure creates opportunities for strategy, but not too much structure so that the frenetic nature of conflict can still be preserved. When a character or group of characters is called by the gamemaster, the gamemaster will set up the immediate circumstances surrounding the character, and then turn the narrative over to the character and allow them to take action. How the action proceeds from there depends on what type of call is being used and the results of the Truth die on rolls taken by characters.
Open Call: An open call is a type of call wherein the gamemaster opens it up to any character to act in any order they desire, so long as the actions continue to make narrative sense, and no one character dominates over any other. Open calls are ideal for exploration and some trial scenes, in which characters are each acting independently and investigating their various curiosities, and when there is not a unified adversary or challenge moving against the player characters. An open call is the most flexible call and the default call if the gamemaster has not established otherwise.
During an open call, Truth rolls tend to produce guilt and innocence of the first and third type on the Judge Two page, that is: reveal, challenge, and taking guilts, and secret, recovery, and taking innocence.
Round of Calls: A round of calls is a type of call where the action can trade back and forth between two sides of a conflict as the tide of the conflict waxes and wanes. A round of calls is the default type of calls for all conflicts, including martial and social conflicts, wars and naval engagements. In a round of calls, one side of the conflict begins with the call, and the side collectively decides which one of their characters will take action. Once the chosen character does take action, Truth rolls and character choices determine who takes action next.
During a round of calls, Truth rolls tend to produce guilt and innocence of the second and fourth type on the Judge Two page, that is: turning guilt and turning innocence. When a character gets an innocence on a roll in a round of calls, they keep the call for their side of the conflict, and one of their nearby allies undertakes an action. When a character gets a guilt on a roll in a round of calls, they lose the call for their side of the conflict, the opposition side receives the call, and one of the nearby opposing characters undertakes an action.
If multiple characters on one side of a conflict must make rolls at the same time, for example, to save against a danger that stands to threaten multiple characters, then all of the Truth results are considered, and whichever result is rolled more, guilt or innocence, counts for the purposes of which side of the conflict receives the next call. Ties break in the favor of guilt, that is to say, if a side rolls an equal number of guilt and innocence, the opposing side will be the next to receive the call.
If a character undertakes a simple major action on their call that does not involve a roll of the dice, then the Truth die obviously cannot be used to determine which side of the conflict receives the next call. In this case, the side to receive the call next is the opposite of the side that had the call prior to the current call. For example, if an enemy side takes an action and then the call moves to the friendly side, and then if the friendly side chooses a character who undertakes a simple major action without a dice roll, then the call will remain on the friendly side. But if the friendly side takes an action and keeps the call, and the next character chosen to act undertakes a simple major action without a dice roll, then the call would switch to the enemy side.
Strong Call: A strong call is a situation where one side of a conflict receives a set number of actions to distribute between characters on their side before the action transitions to a round of calls. The gamemaster might use a strong call to represent a situation where one side of a conflict ambushes, surprises, or otherwise plays a large tactical advantage over the other side. This advantage is expressed in actions the side gets to take before the other side can respond. Generally a strong call will be limited to one to three actions, depending on the degree of the advantage, and one side can distribute those one to three actions to any of their characters, though no one character can act twice in a row. After the actions provided by a strong call are used and resolved, the gamemaster transitions the scene to either an open call or a round of calls, depending on the needs of the story.
During a strong call, as with an open call, Truth rolls tend to produce reveal, challenge, and taking guilts, and secret, recovery, and taking innocence. Since strong calls are all one sided, turning guilts and innocence are not appropriate, though on the last action of a strong call, before transitioning to a round of calls, a turning guilt or glory can be used to determine which side of the conflict has the call to start with.
Distance
In TWE, distances and movement in space are reckoned in approximate terms that serve the needs of the ongoing narrative and are flexible in their specific measurements. The maximum range of some weapons and abilities, and the amount of distance that characters and vehicles can cover in a short period of time are also reckoned in these approximate distances. Areas that can be affected by weapons, abilities, or other environmental conditions are reckoned in related terms.
There are four ranges in TWE and each range has a related area. If a weapon, ability, or other effect has a limited range or area, then it cannot be used outside of that limitation.
Touch / Small: Touch distance, sometimes referred to as melee distance, or "at hand," is roughly the distance that an adult character could cover by taking two or three quick steps and reaching out an arm, or, approximately six to ten feet. Touch distance is the maximum range of melee weapons in martial conflicts, and the assumed distance of most characters engaged in a social conflict as well. A small area is a circular space with a radius roughly equal to touch distance.
Near / Medium: Near distance, also called "nearby," or "engaged," is roughly the distance that an adult character could cover if they walked in one direction for ten to fifteen seconds, or if they sprinted in one direction for a few seconds, or, approximately fifty to one hundred feet. Near distance is the maximum range of some ranged weapons and most Whispers. A medium area is a circular space with a radius roughly equal to near distance.
Far / Large: Far distance is roughly the distance that an adult character could cover if they walked in one direction for a several minutes, or if they sprinted in one direction for about a minute, or, approximately six hundred to one thousand feet. Far distance is the maximum range of the strongest ranged weapons and Whispers. A large area is a circular space with a radius roughly equal to far distance.
Further / Very Large: A further distance is a measurement for anything exceeds the far distance, and whenever the term is used, a more specific distance will be mentioned. Typically, things marked with further distance or very large areas are things like siege engine ranges, or the area covered by weather effects, or abilities that effect entire cities or regions of space.
Movement Speed
Sometimes it may be necessary to have an understanding of how quickly characters, vehicles, or other objects traverse distances. There are four, rough movement speeds in TWE which correspond to the four distances described above. Generally speaking characters can move about either while doing something else, or while concentrating on nothing but movement. The amount of distance a character can cover on a call while otherwise acting or while doing nothing but movement is determined by the character's speed.
Slow speed characters cannot move at all while otherwise acting, and can move touch/small distances while focused on nothing but movement. Some of the largest creatures in Chaesharin have a slow speed by default, as do more conventional characters who are wounded or carrying heavy loads.
Even speed characters can move touch/small distances while otherwise acting, and can move near/medium distances while focused on nothing but movement. Even speed is the default for members of the sapient kinds and for most other creatures and conventional vehicles in Chaesharin.
Swift speed characters can move near/medium distances while otherwise acting, and can move far/large distances while focused on nothing but movement. Swift speed is the default for riding animals like horses, seraphin, and vassha, and for some creatures in the wilds of Chaesharin. Swift speed can also describe vehicles like chariots and ships.
Fleet speed characters can move practically unrestricted, even while performing other actions. Few beings or creatures are considered to be of fleet speed, and they are typically flying predators, supernal beings like demons, or unique relics like the solar chariots of Atri, or the kaimal of Deiyeh.
Describing Spaces
The two most common ways in role-playing games to describe and define the spaces that characters interact in at any given time are through the use of miniatures and grids, and through the use of the theater of the mind. When using miniatures and grids, the players and the gamemaster represent their respective characters with miniatures that move about on grids like pieces on a conventional board game. The spaces created by the grid represent well defined distances and areas and there are generally substantial gameplay rules which dictate how far characters can move within the grid and how they interact with the spaces.
When using the theater of the mind, there are no miniatures or grids. Characters are not represented physically at all. Instead, everything takes place within the imagination of the players and the gamemaster. The Way of the Earth uses the theater of the mind as a way of describing spaces. Characters are generally assumed to be able to move freely around a space without any limitations at all unless one of the following conditions applies: the movement of two or more characters would come into conflict with one another, it is important to know how fast two or more characters are moving relative to each other, or one or more characters would resist the movement of other characters. In these situations, the above rules for distances, spaces, and movement speeds should be used to help resolve the conflict.
Creating Spaces Together
When the gamemaster describes a space in which the characters are moving around and interacting, the gamemaster should communicate three important pieces of information about the space up front. The first is the rough size of the space, described in the terms above. The second is one or more notable features of what is occupying the space (objects, furniture, architecture, rocks, trees, and other natural elements, etc.). And the third is what other visible characters are occupying the space. It is generally not necessary to describe a space in great or precise detail because The Way of the Earth encourages players and gamemasters to create spaces together through the actions of their characters, rather than through plain verbal description.
For example, if the gamemaster says that the player characters have entered a palace antechamber, they might say that the space is medium size, richly decorated, with long feasting tables and marble pillars, and that there are two guards on either side of the room. When the players receive their call to action, one player might say that their character is going to casually walk along one of the walls looking inconspicuous as they exam the artwork there. The gamemaster never said there was artwork along the walls, but artwork can be seen as a further description of "richly decorated." Another player might say that they are going to hide behind one of the pillars and prepare to ambush one of the guards. The gamemaster never said that the pillars were wide enough to hide behind, but such an action adds greater description to the "marble pillars." A third player might say that they leap atop one of the feasting tables and kick some candles at one of the guards. The gamemaster never said that the tables had candles on them, but it is reasonable, and more fully describes the "feasting tables" and what they are holding.
These player driven creations can have mechanical benefits as well. Taking cover behind a marble pillar might provide a character a bonus to a save against ranged attacks, while flipping a table over for cover could do the same. Flinging food at another character might provide a distraction with some bonuses or penalties applied, while hiding beneath a table could be a valid tactic if a conflict arises. So long as the elements introduced by the player characters are not obviously abusive of the scene or the gamemaster's intentions for the story, gamemasters and players are encouraged to create spaces together in this way.
Sight and Perception
TWE draws a distinction between objects or characters that are "in sight" of one another and objects or characters that are "perceivable" to one another. If something is in sight, then it can be seen clearly enough to identify it. If something is in perception, then it is not necessarily in sight, but it can be identified clearly by some other means. Generally, these other means refers to the use of various supernal abilities. For example, an ability might require that the target be "in sight," in which case the character must be able to physically see the target. But another ability might only require that the target be "perceived," in which case the character can use other means to perceive the target. The most common supernal form of perception available to the vaishineph player characters is the channeling Whisper, which allows them to see and hear the world through the eyes of other characters. If perception is achieved in this way, the perceived objects or characters could be far away, or hidden well out of conventional sight, nevertheless they would be considered "perceived" just not "in sight."
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