Daybreak System Rules

When designing your character, the first thing to consider is the Aspects that shape them, perhaps the most important of which being the High Concept. The High Concept is the central Aspect to describe your character as an individual, be it a "Determined Anti-Christian Mage", a "Veteran Finnish Sniper" or an "Exiled Russian Spy", each snappy phrase has to tell you a lot from the get-go, and start to paint a picture that the rest will fill in from.

High Concept Examples

Trouble

The second most important piece to the puzzle is your characters' Trouble or Troubles. Whilst the High Concept may make your characters up, the Trouble should burden their existence, even threatening to break them. With a good Trouble it should be hard to solve, not implied by your High Concept or other Aspects, and a burden of great proportions.

Alongside being mostly negative things, even Troubles may have positive uses. Playing into them can not only give you the opportunity to earn back extra Miracles, but Invoke them for utility in times of need. "Worlds' Most Wanted" probably implies that you've had a lot of experience evading the authorities for example, and can use that to your advantage.

Additional Aspects

Each and every other Aspect that you choose for your character must too reflect part of them, something core. At the beginning of the game, you will be asked to create 5 of these alongside your High Concept and Trouble. These can range from important items to things from your characters past, but as a note; Aspects are best when they push the story and your character into interesting situations.

Miracles are the lifeblood of Daybreak, they both help keep your character alive, and push them to achieve their goals.

Using Miracles

You may utilize them in a number of ways:

1. Upon losing an Exchange, nullify enemy Boost.
2. Reroll or add +2 to a dice utilizing an appropriate Aspect.
3. Upgrade a Boost to a Situation Aspect. Something like "Unsteady Footing" when Charles successfully defends from Hamzah's attack, turning from a 1 turn effect into 3.
4. Remove a Situation Aspect from affecting you. Above applies, or even remove a factor of the scenario like "Incredibly Steep Hill" that's impeding every move you make.
5. Declaring a minor detail about the story or situation based on evidence. Say Dawson runs into the Underneath without preparation, he could say "Of course I prepared, I never leave home without my backpack."

Earning Miracles

They can be earned through:

1. Rest. Naturally each character, if they were below 3 Miracles, they are Refreshed to 3 at the start of each turn or in game day. This applies to less if you have traded Miracles for stunts.
2. Hostile Invokes from other players or the GM- even yourself!- utilizing your Aspects against you to create Disadvantage. An example could be with Stephanie's "Clumsy Beyond Compare", she chooses to fumble at an important time for narrative reasons, giving her a Miracle back, and some story content.
3. Compels from the GM to keep your character acting in a way that is reasonable for them. This is similar to Hostile Invokes, but instead of forcing a consequence, it instead would be a way of keeping characters on track. For example if Noah wanted to bludgeon a stray cat to death, I would contest that with a Compel, reminding him of his Aspects and character.

Skills are used with every action you wish to take that requires a bit of contest. Be it push back in an argument, or trying to catch up to another car in a chase, even in combat. They are also used as modifiers for several of the systems in-game, like Health or Mental Fortitude.

Skill Categories

There are 3 Categories with a few pointers:

Base Skills & Inherited Skills

These are all Base Skills from which to inherit from, by individually created Inherited Skills. Inherited Skills are more specific, and imply some proficiency in the Base Skill itself too. This proficiency is half of your Inherited Skill, rounded down. For example, if Faro had a 3 in Swordsmanship, he would by extension have a 1 in any generic Fight Skill. However some of the suggestions on the list for example Empathy, under Talk, could very much as well be under Look, Mind or even Survive! Its all about how you spin it.

Special Base Skills

The skills Body, Mind, Cast and Assets are not only able to have Skills inherited from them, but they also fuel other mechanics on their own.

• Mind directly adds Shifts to your Mental Stress Track and gives you more points to allocate in your Skill Tree. Mind × 2 = Points Added.

• Body at a high enough level directly adds Resistance to your Health Track and determines the amount of items you can carry on you without disadvantage in physical actions. More in All Things Health.
• Assets determine your in-game material wealth and starting items limit.

• Cast determines your Mana, Spell Slot limit, and Fundamentals limit. Fundamentals allowed is equal to your Cast skill. Your Spell Slots are equal to the amount of points you invest into Cast based Skills +2. Mana is determined by 12 + Cast × 4.

Starting Points

At the beginning of the game you are given a set of points to allocate into your Skill Tree. Masters are usually given 20 with a cap of +4 in any particular Inherited Skill, Servants 30 with a cap of +6.

This will not be mandatory and upon discussion, will be flexible. You may put negative points into particular Skills to gain more positive points- but do this sparingly and in character. Nobody wants to metagame.

Example Skill Tree

Here's an example of a Servant's skill tree:

Skill Ranking Scale

Skills are rated using the same ranking system as servant parameters, from F (lowest) to EX (legendary):

Best Practices

It is encouraged to branch out, and at least take from 5 Base Skills to help round your character. Throughout the game there will be times when you may be given Skill Points to add to your Skill Tree, and even exceed the +4 limit for Masters, and +6 limit for Servants, so don't worry too much about it being immediately perfect, starting flawed is more fun here.

There is also little to no point having lower Inherited Skills with less than or equal points to your Base Skills they prior come from. For example if Mano has +6 in Provoke, and thus a natural 3 in Talk, there is no need to have a +2 in Rapport, as you can just roll Talk for it, however when utilizing a Base Skill, all Boosts and Situation Aspects added are halved.

In a game where the underlying premise is combat, it would be foolish to not at least have thought about staying alive. In quite a difference to FATE, the shift system has been mostly replaced with a representation of your body with individual Shift Tracks of their own, alongside natural Resistance.

Body Parts & Stress Tracks

For the average individual, it is split into 4 main sections: Head, Body, Arms and Legs. Each have different Stress Track values for "total health", depending on your character. However there is a standard, just with an extra few points equal to your Body Skill, to allocate where you wish. For example, Luca might want extra shifts on his upgraded arm, or Charles might want powerful legs to leap around and mitigate some Consequence damage.

The starting values are:

• Head: 4
• Body: 5
• Arms: 6
• Legs: 6

Resistance & Damage

Overall your Resistance is based upon your Body Skill too, alongside any armour or protections your character may have. Upon losing an Exchange, you will then subtract the Resistance from the damage to see how much you take.

Consequences

Upon taking a Consequence, you will take penalties to any Physical Roll that requires using this body part. Each penalty is a -1. Should you wish to temporarily, for the length of this battle, nullify this penalty, you may ask Crow or another ally with sufficient Healing based Skill to try and fix you. Unlike many Skills, in this case Healing is just a Skill Check. Should you pass that, your Consequence effects are gone until the end of battle, though the damage and name remains.

If you were then to take another wound to a body part that reduced it's total Stress to 0, you can either make another Consequence like Broken Ribs or upgrade your existing consequence to something worse like Spine Beyond Repair and remove the healing done.

Healing & Recovery

After the battle is over, you will want to check over allies again and permanently fix them. Through use of Stunts or a Healing Skill, outside of battle the same rules apply, but you may permanently remove the Consequence instead, allowing for Sleeping to heal the Shifts. Sleeping heals a Shift an hour, doubled for Servants- but only if the Consequences have been removed.

Threshold

Your characters have a total health called Threshold too. This is just over 50% of your added limb and body shifts +1. So If Giada The Wise had a 3 in each arm and leg, an 8 in torso and a 4 in his head, that is a total of 3+3+3+3+8+4=24 now halved is 12+1 is 13.

If your character's Threshold reaches 0, and it agreed to be lethal, your character will be out of the game for a sufficient time frame, and considered in "Life Threatening Condition", or dead. Should your replacement meet the same fate, then we will talk about subbing your original back in if agreed beforehand.

Mental Shifts

Mental Shifts have remained largely the same, but with Consequences named. Each character starts with 4 + their Mind stat, and can be taken out mentally as normal or through excessive pain, depending what we deem your Physical Consequences to be.

Example: Full Health Display

Here's what a complete health display looks like with all components together:

The least changed part of the Daybreak system, Abilities are as constant as ever and shaped into a few categories:

Passive Abilities

Passive Abilities are in the name, you do not need to activate them for them to have an effect.

Active Abilities

Active Abilities are ones that require purposeful usage. They not only have a cost to activate, but they also have Cooldowns. The bigger the Ability, the bigger the cost or the bigger the Cooldown.

Resultant Abilities

Resultant Abilities activate automatically in result of something, a trigger- be it on death, on taking damage, or something else entirely. May also have Cooldowns- case by case basis.

Conditional vs Constant Abilities

Some Abilities may be utilized whenever, like the ones above, these are called Constant Abilities. Others are Conditional and require circumstances or other factors to be just right to use them. Phrases like "Upon succeeding in style", "When defending from Fight based Skills" and "When pursuing an actively fleeing enemy" are all indications of this. The more specialized you make an Ability, within reason the more powerful it may be.

as an ability, as well as saying far more about both characters.

Negative Effects

Furthermore, you may add Negative Effects into an Ability to increase its power or just to shape your character. An example of this is:

Ability Growth

Abilities are all case by case, make them as different as you want! They don't have to follow any particular set of rules, and can be inspired by anything. Another thing to factor in is it might be more fun to start off with an imperfect set, and reshape them as the game progresses alongside your character arc. To change Abilities midgame, you will need a time of Rest and a talk with the party about why.

For example, an ability might evolve from:

Granted Abilities

Some Abilities grant access to other Abilities upon meeting certain conditions or reaching specific thresholds. These are called Granted Abilities. When an Ability grants another, the granted Ability becomes accessible once the condition is met.

Spell Abilities

Magical abilities follow the same structure but use mana costs:

Bringing you back to both the Assets and Body Skills talked about earlier, each are very relevant here. The Assets Skill you start with determines the amount of Items you begin the game with, and Body determines how many you can hold on you. For example, if your Body Skill is 2, your total Item count you can hold is up to 5. You may store an infinite amount of Items in other places, but in scenario you will need to take a turn to go and get them out.

Item Types

Now, Items can be anything from a flaming battleaxe to a portable toolkit to a pet frog. Each has their benefits and detriments, so choose well what you have on you at all times. Items come with Skills, Abilities, both or neither, depending on what they are, and entirely range in power from common items like rope to Noble Phantasms. A piece of rope could be argued to give +2 Move when used in situations where that would be helpful, or it could simply achieve the task in more mundane situations. Whereas something more complicated like Lucas' Halberd may come with +3 Halberd Proficiency built in, and even a slashing move perhaps.

A more complicated ability-granting item might look like this:

Resistance & Piercing

Another interesting aspect of weapons, and armour, is that they are the two things in-game (beside the Body stat) that interact with Resistance and Piercing. Resistance as you already know negates Shifts taken, whereas Piercing directly counters this. It is of note that with sufficiently protective armour with high Resistance, there may be a detriment to your Move based Skills.

Explosives

Explosives are a frequent bane to the existence of everyone that comes near them, so do not fear any-more. With the new Explosive Rating system, most crises should be averted. Each Explosive is created with a Create based Skill, or found with a pre-existing roll tied to it. This means should Caruso want to replicate the disaster of Pompeii, he may roll his 6 in Magical Engineering, inheriting from Create to give his Explosive a flat 8 as its Explosive Rating with his positive roll of 2! In combat, it doesn't need to roll any more, it simply hits for flat 8 alongside any additional Advantages or Aspects used on it like +2 for a surprise factor.

Upon Noticing an Explosive in battle, you may roll Move or Body based Skills within reason to escape it. To tank, you would have to roll a relevant Body based Skill, half the roll rounded down, and take the difference in damage. This is the same for escaping with a Move based Skill. Resistance still applies in both circumstances.

Example: Explosive Damage Calculation

As a Master, you are granted an extra boon in your battles. This comes in shape of Command Seals, magical "I Win" buttons that far surpass Miracles in power. Anything from teleporting your Servant to upgrading something on them- if its within the scope of your imagination its probably doable!

Upon reaching 0 Seals, your Servant no longer has to listen to you- but still can. Its up to you! But an important part to remember will always be your Master-Servant relationship, it may be necessary in-game, but is it wise to reach that point?

Connecting you and your Servant too, is an unbreakable bond, and you may talk over long distances through it.

As a Servant, the bonuses you gain are equally extravagant. The main one, your Noble Phantasm is about as strong as they get. As it is meant to represent you totally and entirely, it can be anything you like, but there are some major consistent types:

• Reality Marbles: Imposing your inner world on the space around you, dragging yourself and all in the nearby vicinity into a space that operates under your rules. Must have a way out.
• An Active Ability: A major version of your regular Active Abilities, this can be anything from a giant attack to some utility.
• A Passive Ability: Again, a major version of your regular Passives
• A Resultant Ability: Usually on death, largely a screw you move to whatever killed you, or a bounce back from death.
• An Item

Noble Phantasm Example

Servant Forms

You also have multiple different forms as a Servant:

• Physical Form is what Servants take to actually do things. It is only in this form that they can affect the world around them. They can take damage, inflict damage, use Abilities and Skills in this form. Servants can sense when other Servants are in the area, although not a specific location.
• Spirit Form is an immaterial form that Servants can take within a small area round their Master (i.e: a block of buildings). They can float around and watch the world, but cannot affect it. Servants cannot sense other Servants who are in spirit form naturally, but must instead roll Cast against Cast to detect and hide from them respectively.

Servant Identity

There is a major downside to being a Servant though. Upon a successful appropriate roll, your identity may be known if reasonable. The more hints you give, the easier this will be, especially against a crowd who can put the pieces together. Once your name is known, it becomes easier to identify your weaknesses- your Trouble, your Artifact, and the name of your Noble Phantasm are all able to be found through the same roll process now.

Whilst your identity can be a detriment, there are cases where it can be a boon however. Each Servant has a particular place where their myth and Authority shines brighter. In this place, they may have a free conditional Ability, be it a Passive, Active or Resultant.

As a mage in the Moonrise universe, it is custom for each to only have one Magecraft Speciality of their own. Sometimes, when talking about servants mostly its more of a "Sphere Of Influence" called Authority. For example, Mano being both Moon/Stars magic alongside her Ice stuff.

Obviously there will be exceptions, the main one of note being Dawson and the Blackflame alongside his Projection- though this I would like to remain very restrictive, its not fun if everyone can do everything.

Mana Tracks

Alongside your magecraft Specialty, each Master and each Servant both get their own Mana Track, however the Servant may dip into and steal from the Master's. Masters default at 12 + their Cast Skill × 2. For example if your highest Cast skill is 3, you have 18 Mana Shifts. This Mana is used in some Abilities, Noble Phantasms, and every time you roll a Cast Based Skill. If you ever reach 0 Mana, you go into Mana Shock.

Mana Shock

Mana Shock is a temporary aspect that applies a -2 to every Cast roll you do, and may injure you if you try to keep casting spells...

There are a few ways to restore this Mana:

• Eating hearts. Will give you the Mana left in the body of the individual.
• Sleeping

Blood Pacts

Another system to remember is Blood Pacts. Blood Pacts can be made between individuals who give their consent. It involves either signing a contract with each person's freely given blood, or shaking hands while bleeding from the palms. Watch out for the specific wording, lack of it, and other loopholes, for these pacts cannot be broken without all parties' consent, and force you to not break its wording.

Remember this! Masters and Servants are separate entities, and may perform Blood Pacts separately from each other. If one does such a thing, it does not mean that the other is bound to it too. It is possible to make more than one Blood Pact, but you cannot make additional pacts that would break the terms of the first ones.

Example Magic Info

Elemental Lenses

When two magical effects directly clash, the outcome is influenced not only by Rank, but by the Elemental Lens through which the magecraft is expressed. Only apply elemental dominance when the concepts meaningfully interact. If unclear, they default to Rank only. Only one source of Advantage or Disadvantage may apply per clash.

Fundamentals

Fundamentals are general purpose magical frameworks, usually learned in the clock tower. You may have as many fundamentals as you have a Cast stat. They are rolled with your Cast base skill, and have lower priority than regular spells. They are as follows:

• General Fundamentals (If you have any, this must be the first)
• Individual Fundamentals
• Spiritual Evocation
• Mineralogy
• Zoology
• Botany
• Lore
• Astromancy
• Creation
• Curses
• Archaeology
• Modern Magecraft Theory

For example if Caruso wanted to warp a steel doorframe. He may hold the element of fire, but he does not hold fire magecraft. But he has knowledge of creation fundamentals. He rolls cast, reshaping the metal's structure just enough to deform the hinges, and it crudely opens.

In Daybreak, leadership represents less of the ability of one character to impose direction and take charge, and more how a specific game plan or pattern to follow can shake up an entire team's viability and feeling in different scenarios. Choosing a leader shapes how a group acts, how they survive failure, and how they fracture under stress.

Choosing a Leader

At the beginning of any Mission, Scenario or Major Conflict, the party may designate one leader. This leader must be present, conscious and recognisable to the group. They are decided out of character, after weighing up the viability of each for the mission ahead.

Whilst a leader is active, their effect counts as an ability that their team may utilise freely.

Changing Leaders

Once a leader is chosen for a mission, they must freely abdicate their position if the group wishes to change. Upon switching leader mid mission, the entire team moves to the end of the turn order and their next set of rolls are at disadvantage. The new leader may pay 1 miracle per each of these effects to negate them.

Leadership may be forcibly broken too upon the current leader being Taken Out, or acting against the group's intentions.

Leadership Effects

Leaderships are intended to fundamentally change the mechanics of how the system is played. Effects such as a team pool of Miracles, granted abilities, turn order manipulation, shared aspects, extra shifts, or the ability to straight up ignore game mechanics.

But there is no real system on the limits - leadership abilities can be creative and game-changing!

As a footnote, there is a ranking system from 0 to 8 as follows to help thematically rank Skills, Abilities and Spells appropriately. The average human is usually an E - D, Servants are between C and A depending on their merit, and only hugely powerful individuals such as gods would have A+ - EX stats. These will also be able to be viewed upon a successful Look based Skill. For example, Angelo may turn up and I could roll Observation with Faro on him to figure out his Mana stat, or his Luck stat. The same goes for Servants and their Noble Phantasm. Ability rankings are different, and I will go over them with you. Whilst really they mean little, it helps power gauge.

Definitions

• Boost: Temporary +1
• Advantage: Roll twice, take best
• Disadvantage: Roll twice, take worst

Turn Order

To initiate Combat, one side must swing first. Given the chance that multiple parties attempt to initiate at the same time, it will begin with a Look roll from all sides until there is a clear victor. At that point, they, and their allies, will take their turns. Going forward there will be no changing order, and combat will play as turn based. Servants will always go first in combat, then Masters.

Actions Per Turn

There is a range of things that you may do once your turn has started. The most useless, and basic, is to Pass. Whilst helpful on occasion, it is usually advisable to at least take a look around, or support an ally with this action. The order of your actions is irrelevant.

Per turn, you may do 1 Big Action, and 1 Small Action.

Attack Process

1. Wish to Attack.
2. Decide Action. Either with Abilities or Skills. May use existing Aspects and Boosts to take advantage of. Must be in line of sight and/or range if appropriate. If using Full Offense, you get +2 to your roll, and +2 direct damage upon hit.
3. Roll dice.
4. Resolve:
   • Fail: Opposition gets a free boost or at a cost, tie.
   • Tie: Nothing.
   • Succeed: Deal difference in Shifts to your opponent.
   • Succeed In Style: Gain boost for use in next turn.
5. End Attack

Create Advantage Process

1. Wish to Create Advantage.
2. Decide action. Either with Abilities or Skill. May use existing Aspects and Boosts to take advantage of.
3. Roll dice
4. Resolve:
   • Fail: Opposition gets a free boost or at a cost, tie.
   • Tie: You get a free boost. Unnamed and lasts till the beginning of your next action.
   • Succeed: You get a situation aspect with free invoke. Lasts until the situation is over.
   • Succeed In Style: You get a situation aspect with free double invoke. Lasts until the situation is over.
5. End Create Advantage

Overcome Process

1. Wish To Overcome.
2. Decide action. Either with Abilities or Skill. May use existing Aspects and Boosts to take advantage of.
3. Roll dice.
4. Resolve:
   • Fail: Choose to fail, or succeed at a cost.
   • Tie: Reroll.
   • Succeed: Overcome successful.
   • Succeed with Style: Overcome successful alongside gaining a boost.
5. End Overcome.

Defending

Upon noticing an incoming attack, you will be given the option to go Full Defense or not. This must be declared before you end your defense. Gain +2 to your defensive roll, and +2 Resistance, but you must forego your Big Action next turn.

1. Wish To Defend.
2. Decide action. Either with Abilities or Skill. May use existing Aspects and Boosts to take advantage of. If using Full Defense, gain +2 on your roll and Resistance.
3. Roll dice.
4. Resolve:
   • Fail: You take the difference in Shifts to the incoming damage, applying consequences where necessary.
   • Tie: Nothing.
   • Succeed: You get a free boost.
   • Succeed In Style: You can Parry or gain an extra Small Move.
5. End Turn

Servants are required to walk the path of a Class, inheriting their +6 bonus, Passive, Active and Weakness, and having a relevant Artifact linked to them. These Artifacts, for example Saber's Sword, would directly link into their +6 bonus, and upon being lost, impact their game heavily.

Anomalous Classes

Due to the unexpected summoning and improper classification within the Grail, each anomalous class decides its own rules case by case.