Story Paths are arcs of narrative growth your character experiences. The paths can concern anything from romance to mastering a skill to going on the run, and when all of them are laid together, they show your narrative as a hero.

How Story Paths Work

Each Story Path has five events associated with it. Each time you complete a Story Path event, your character’s story advances along with their power and resources, usually by increasing the die size of a skill or gaining a new ability or argent. Some events have more than one outcome, and each outcome has its own reward.

When you create a new character, that character is starting their first Story Path. Choose any path you like, and inform the GM of your choice.

You take Story Paths one at a time. Your current Story Path represents your character’s main narrative experience at that moment in the game but not to the exclusion of other stories. For instance, a character on the Battle Story Path can still fall in love even though they aren’t on the Love Story Path. It just means that their main focus is the fight they’re caught up in.

When it’s time to choose a new Story Path, think about how your new path might tie together with your previous one. For instance, a character who just completed the Rivalry Story Path may have let someone down by not defeating their rival. That character begins the Redemption Story Path after their failure. The character redeems themselves in the eyes of the person they let down then realizes their love for that person and begins the Love Story Path. It’s a good idea to not plan your Story Paths out but just take what feels right for your character whenever it is time to start a new one. Unless specified otherwise in a Story Path’s description, a character can take the same Story Path multiple times.

Story Paths and their goals are open with possibilities, so you can experience the path in any way you want. Feel free to talk to your GM about changing goals from what is provided to better suit your story.

Sample Story Path Progressions

The following example Story Path progressions demonstrate how Story Paths work in play.

Sylo Ranisfult

Jim creates a kith’uk named Sylo Ranisfult. He decides the Contest Story Path is Sylo’s first and informs his GM of the choice.

During the first session of play Sylo learns about a spaceship race around the Ozobny system and enters, completing the “Challenge Accepted” event, the first of the path. After completing the event, Sylo earns the event’s reward. (“Increase the die size of one of your Social skills by 1.”) He increases the die size of his Suavity skill from d4 to d6.

During a later session of play Sylo learns of a complication with the race’s rules. Only older models of spaceships called boomers are allowed to be used for the competition. Sylo finds a glean mechanic with a boomer who agrees to let the kith’uk borrow the spaceship in exchange for transporting the glean’s friend from the Ghost Belt to the Heartworlds. When Sylo brings the mechanic’s friend safely to the Heartworlds, the kith’uk completes the “Curveball” event and earns its reward. (“Increase the die size of one of your Mental skills by 1.”) Sylo’s Computers skill increases from d6 to d8.

Sylo spends downtime during the next session learning to operate the boomer. After Jim describes how Sylo practices with the ship, the GM deems the “Train” event is complete, and the kith’uk earns its reward. (“Increase the die size of any one of your skills that is related to the contest.”) The kith’uk plans to use Athletics to pilot the ship during the race and increases the skill’s die size from d8 to d10.

When the race finally happens, Sylo fails several skill rolls and comes in second place to an ulran named Sevbok Syonakonoysin, completing the “Compete” event. Sylo earns the reward for losing the race, the Determined to Win special ability.

After the loss Sylo goes about repairing his reputation by publicly claiming Sevbok cheated and demanding a rematch. These actions complete the “My Reputation” event, and Sylo picks the Evolution kith’uk special ability as his reward. (“Select one special ability from your species.”)

With the Contest Story Path resolved Sylo must begin a new path. Jim chooses Rivalry for Sylo, telling the GM and adding that Sevbok might be the perfect rival for the kith’uk.

Story Paths