Assets represent the Tools and Resources available to a character, which they can use to achieve their goals. Chapter 7: Assets contains a list of the kinds of Assets available.

Each asset is a special kind of trait, which describes a tool, resource, or something else useful which a character possesses. These Assets are used during a conflict (as described in Chapter 6: Conflict) to overcome opponents and obstacles. Some of these Assets are tangible—representing physical things, from weapons and other small possessions, to vehicles such as groundcars and ornithopters, to squads of troops and the services of agents and other subordinates. Others are intangible, representing contacts, favors, the ability to call upon friends, and similar useful things which have no physical presence in their own right.

A starting character should have three Assets, one of which must be tangible.

Size and Scale

When it comes to tangible Assets, most examples a character will have should be personal equipment… but the possibility exists for Assets which represent things larger than a character’s personal effects.

As a rule of thumb, your personal Assets can include anything you could carry on your person, any vehicle which you could operate yourself, or any group of subordinates which you could lead and coordinate alone, such as a squad of troops. Larger vehicles—ones requiring a crew to operate— and larger groups of subordinates that require other officers or a deeper chain of command are not suitable as Assets for a single character, though circumstances might grant you command of these larger-scale Assets in certain circumstances.

Example: As Kara is a fighter, Claire decides one of Kara’s Assets is a knife given to her by the master assassin who taught her. As knives are easily obtained, she decides it has the special attribute of being easy to conceal. As a noblewoman she also has a personal ornithopter as her second asset. While it obviously can’t be carried with her, it is easily accessible. Claire was tempted to create a handmaiden for Kara, but another player luckily wants to play such as character already (who will be called Anna). So instead she opts for something intangible and decides she has some blackmail material on a past lover. Who that is, and what it involves, can be decided later.

Making Assets Personal

If you can usually obtain a knife, or a Shield belt if your House is wealthy enough, it may seem pointless to take one as one of your starting Assets. The obvious answer may seem to be that you don’t. But it isn’t quite as simple as that. You may not want to risk being caught out in the few situations where you can’t obtain something you rely on.

But, beyond preparedness, if you still want to have a ‘ubiquitous item’ as an asset, it should probably be more than just a tool or resource—it should be something personal, something special. This may mean that the item takes an unusual form, it’s exceptionally effective or well-crafted, or it has some significant (and personal) history behind it. You don’t merely own a knife: you own a Crysknife, or you proudly bear ‘the knife the Duke gave you after the battle of Axian’, or you carry a ‘poisoned knife’.

Such an item works as a normal knife would, though it might have a higher Quality, but the item’s history may also make it useful in other situations. A Crysknife is sacred amongst the Fremen and bearing one may grant the wielder an advantage in social conflicts with these desert-dwelling warriors. A knife that was a gift might represent a special bond between Characters. In these cases, the extra detail given to an asset reveals details about a character’s background that can be explored in play.