Negative conditions make player characters and NPCs less powerful. Such a condition could be a lingering injury, a magical effect, an extreme emotion, or some other state that is a detriment to the character. 

Player Character Negative Conditions

Minor negative conditions applied to a player character increase the complexity of skill rolls made with a specific skill by 1. This effect lasts until the condition is removed. For instance, if Luwe the glean’s memory is compromised by a weak poison, she gains the “muddled memory” condition. Until this condition is removed, each time she makes a Knowledge skill roll the complexity of that skill roll increases by 1.

• Sample minor negative conditions are: annoyed, bruised arm, distracted, embarrassed, muddled memory, sprained wrist, and tired.

Moderate negative conditions applied to a player character increase the complexity of all skill rolls made with Mental, Physical, or Social skills by 1. This effect lasts until the condition is removed. For instance, if Luwe suffers partial memory loss due to a blow to the head, she gains the “moderate concussion” condition. Until this condition is removed, all skills rolls made with her Mental skills have their complexity increased by 1.

• Sample moderate negative conditions are: angered, broken wrist, exhausted, humiliated, moderate concussion, panicked, and sliced belly.

Significant negative conditions applied to a player character increase the complexity of all skill rolls made by the character by 1. This effect lasts until the condition is removed. For instance, if an attack magically tampers with Luwe’s mind, she gains the “mind-wiped” condition. Until this condition is removed, each time she makes a skill roll with any skill the complexity of the skill roll increases by 1.

• Sample significant negative conditions are: disemboweled, disgraced, enervated, enraged, frozen with fear, mind-wiped, and severed hand.

NPC Negative Conditions

NPC conditions work very similarly to player character conditions, except that instead of increasing the complexity of skill rolls, a negative condition decreases the complexity of skills made to attack and influence the NPC. 

Minor negative conditions applied to an NPC reduce the complexity of skill rolls using a specific skill to attack or influence the NPC by 1 (to a minimum of 2). For instance, when Brutu the pirate captain stays up all night partying, he gains the “tired” condition. Until this condition is removed, the complexity of Might skill rolls made to attack or influence Brutu are reduced by 1.

Moderate negative conditions applied to an NPC reduce the complexity of all Mental, Physical, or Social skill rolls made to attack or influence the NPC by 1 (to a minimum of 2). For instance, if Brutu fractures his wrist blocking a physical attack, he gains the “broken wrist” condition. Until this condition is removed, the complexity of all Physical skill rolls made to attack or influence Brutu are reduced by 1.

Significant negative conditions applied to an NPC reduce all the complexity of all skill rolls made to attack or influence the NPC by 1 (to a minimum of 2). For instance, if Brutu gets his hand cut off in a fight, he gains the “severed hand” condition. Until this condition is removed, the complexity of all skill rolls made to attack or influence Brutu are reduced by 1.

Removing Negative Conditions

Aside from special abilities and equipment that specifically remove negative conditions as noted in their descriptions, conditions can be removed in one of two ways: with time or by visiting a specialist and giving them money to treat a specific condition. 

A condition is often removed simply with the passage of time. Living with the penalties for the duration specified on the Removing Negative Conditions table removes the condition from a character.

To remove a negative condition faster, the character must be able to find and purchase the goods and services required to treat their condition by spending the amount of argent listed on the Removing Negative Conditions table and spending the amount of time designated working to remove the condition. The duration could represent time resting and buying supplies needed to recover from an injury, time out on the town needed to bounce back from an insult, or the time spent meditating and taking classes to restore the mind. 

While those are the most common ways to heal a condition, the GM can rule that specific story circumstances remove a negative condition. For instance, Luwe the glean has the “annoyed” condition, but when she gets a surprise visit from her best friend who she hasn’t seen for a decade, the GM rules the condition is removed.

Removing Negative Conditions