Unwritten: System Reference Document/Game Basics

What do you need to play?

• People - Three to five people are ideal. One person is the gamemaster (GM); the others are players.
• Fate Dice - Rolls in Unwritten use special dice called Fate dice (sometimes called Fudge dice): six-sided dice with sides that are blank, or have a plus (+) or a minus (-). A plus stands for +1, a minus stands for -1, and a blank stands for zero. Roll four dice and add the sides together for the value. The range of values is from +4 to -4.
• Character sheet - Each player will need a character sheet. You can find blank character sheets at the end of the book that you can photocopy, or you can write your own.
• Tokens - Tokens symbolize fate points. You can keep track of them on paper if you like, but something physical for players to hold add a little more fun. Edible tokens are ill-advised.
• Index cards - Optionally, you can have a stack of index cards available to jot things down and place where everyone can see them. Sticky notes and whiteboards work as well.

What do we do?

In any game of Fate, you’re either a player or a gamemaster.

Players, you...

...portray protagonists in the story, called Player Characters (PCs).

...make decisions for your PCs.

...describe what your characters say and do.

...direct your character’s growth over time (this is called the Journey).

...roll dice for your characters when situations have uncertain outcomes.

...maintain your character’s character sheet.

The gamemaster...

...portrays the world the PCs inhabit.

...portrays and roll dice for non-player characters (NPCs).

...creates the environments and scenarios characters interact with.

...acts as the final arbiter of rules.

Everyone...

...helps everyone else look awesome.

Powered By Fate

Unwritten is based on Fate Core by Evil Hat Productions. You do not need Fate Core to play Unwritten, but if you like this game, we suggest you check out Fate Core and other games Powered by Fate. You can find excellent games for almost any genre you like.

Player Characters

Each player has a character: it’s their interface with the setting. Their character is also one of the protagonists of the story as it unfolds. The player characters are the stars of the show.

Let’s look at the nuts and bolts of a character. This is just an overview. Each of these are explained in greater detail elsewhere in this book.

A character has:

• Aspects. Important and dramatic details that can help the character, or cause interesting complications they must overcome.
• Skills. What the character can do, and how good they are at doing it.
• Stunts and Resources. Special talents, situations, or other factors that give the character special bonuses.
• Consequences. Aspects that describe the lasting effects of things gone wrong.
• Fate points. Points the player can spend to affect the course of play.

How do we do stuff?

Players, most of the time you will just do things. As long as it makes sense, you describe it and it happens. Sometimes though, life isn’t that easy.

When something is difficult, or whether you succeed or not is interesting, you will have to roll the dice to see what happens. This is called attempting an action. You will roll the dice when you’re opposing another character with your efforts, or when there’s a significant obstacle in the way. Otherwise, just say what your character does and assume it happens.

The Ladder

The basic measuring stick for Unwritten is the Ladder; it is used to measure skills, opposition, results and more.

+8	Legendary
+7	Epic
+6	Fantastic
+5	Superb
+4	Great
+3	Good
+2	Fair
+1	Adequate
0	Mediocre
-1	Poor
-2	Terrible

Each step on the Ladder has a name and a numeric value. The name is descriptive; you can describe an action as Epic, or someone’s skill as Mediocre. The number is used for rolls and other parts of gameplay that need a little math in order to work. Whichever version is easier for your gaming group works just fine, though this book will include both, such as "Adequate (+1)".

If a GM wants, they can use levels above or below the provided ladder and name them what they wish (e.g. "Horrible (-3)"). However, this book will assume the ladder is as listed.

Skills and Rolls

Skills determine what a character can do and how well they can do it. Each player has a number of skills, each with a rating indicating how good they are at it. Everything else that a character does is considered "Mediocre (0)".

When you try to do something, you roll the four Fate dice, add up the pluses and subtract the minuses, then add an appropriate skill.

All else being equal, if the result is positive then you succeed. If the result is high, you do really well. If the value is negative, then things don’t work out for you. If the dice total up to zero, then you don’t quite do it, but you get close or make progress.

Of course, nothing is ever completely equal. Other factors will shift the result up (add to the result) or down (subtract from the result).

Opposition

Your actions will often be opposed. The value of the opposition shifts the value down. Opposition comes in one of two forms: active, when someone is rolling dice against you, or passive, when an obstacle just has a set rating. In your favor, you may have stunts which can affect the result of your roll. They may shift the value up, or give you other options.

Once the result, measured in shifts, is finalized you determine success or lack thereof. Later in the document, we’ll talk about different instances where getting shifts on a roll benefits you.

Stunts

Stunts represent something about the character that translates into bonuses or special mechanics that are always in play. These can be personal talents, special training, etc.

One type of stunt is called a resource and reflects special items, key contacts, or locations. Resources are stunts that are tied to a specific location, person or thing. They are listed separately to make it easier to remember that the character has to be at the place in order to use the stunt.

Fate Points

Each character has a pool of fate points. Spending a fate point indicates that the character is doing something or being affected by something dramatically significant.

You can spend fate points to invoke an aspect or to activate certain powerful stunts. You earn fate points by accepting a compel on one of your aspects.

Each character has a refresh rate. Each session, a character’s pool of fate points will refill up to their refresh. Refresh is also used to buy additional stunts and resources as the character grows and changes.

Declaring a Detail

Sometimes, you want to add a detail that works to your character’s advantage in a scene. For example, you might use this to narrate a convenient coincidence, like retroactively having the right supplies for a certain job (“Of course I brought that along!”), showing up at a dramatically appropriate moment, or suggesting that you and the NPC you just met have mutual clients in common.

To do this, you’ll spend a fate point and justify your story details by relating them to your aspects. GMs, you have the right to veto any suggestions that seem out of scope or ask the player to revise them, especially if the rest of the group isn’t buying into it.

Aspects

Aspects are a key tool that Unwritten provides. Aspects are short phrases that signify important details about a character, a place, a thing, or even an action. They can cover a lot of ground and help paint a complete picture. For example, a character could have an aspect of Hotshot Big Game Hunter. That immediately indicates several things about that character: they are a hunter and probably pretty good at it, they have a tendency to take risks, they are pretty confident in their ability, etc.

Aspect can represent anything that is distinctive or noteworthy. But more than being a description, the GM or players can use an aspect to affect play. A character aspect of Shy can be used to the character’s advantage (a shy person might be harder to pick out in a crowd) or to their disadvantage (a shy person is going to have a hard time in social situations).

Invoke an Aspect

An aspect can be invoked by a player in appropriate situations to improve a character’s chances. For example, Hotshot Big Game Hunter could be invoked when when doing something really dangerous, because you are used to taking big risks.

Whenever you’re making a roll, and you’re in a situation where an aspect might be able to help you, you can invoke it in order to shift the dice result. This allows you to either reroll the dice or shift the roll by +2, whichever is more helpful. You do this after you’ve rolled the dice and you aren’t happy with your total. You also have to explain or justify how the aspect is helpful in order to get the bonus—sometimes it’ll be self-evident, and other times it might require some creative description.

You spend fate points to invoke an aspect. You can spend more than one fate point on a single roll, gaining another reroll or an additional +2, as long as each point you spend invokes a different aspect. You can also roll to gain ‘free invocations’, which allow you to invoke an aspect without a fate point.

When stopped at a gas station near the deserts above the D’ni caverns, Naomi discovers that someone has stolen a Linking Book from her car. She sees a figure run off behind the dunes and follows. When she rolls to see if she can track the thief, she spends a fate point to invoke her Desert Rat aspect, which gives her a +2 bonus.

Compels

Sometimes (in fact, probably often), you’ll find yourself in a situation where an aspect complicates your character’s life and creates unexpected drama. When that happens, the GM will suggest a potential complication that might arise. This is called a compel.

Sometimes, a compel means your character automatically fails at some goal, your character’s choices are restricted, or simply that unintended consequences cloud whatever your character does. You might negotiate back and forth on the details a little to arrive at what would be most appropriate in the moment. In our hunter example, if the character was challenged to a bet, the GM could compel Hotshot Big Game Hunter to decide that the bet ends up being more risky than the character expected, and the results stir up all sorts of trouble.

Once you’ve agreed to accept the complication, you get a fate point for your troubles. Alternatively, you can pay a fate point to prevent the complication from affecting your character, but we don’t recommend you do that very often—you’ll probably need that fate point later, and getting compelled brings drama (and hence, fun) into your game’s story.

Players, you may also call for a compel when you want there to be a complication in a decision you’ve just made, if it’s related to one of your aspects. GMs, you call for a compel when you make the world respond to the characters in a complicated or dramatic way.

Anyone at the table is free to suggest when a compel might be appropriate for any character (including their own). GMs, you have the final word on whether or not a compel is valid. Speak up if you see that a compel happened naturally as a result of play, but no fate points were awarded.

Character Aspects

A character’s aspects describe important parts of the character that can help or hinder them.

Characters have three types of aspects:

• High Concept - A character’s High Concept gives a basic overview of the character in one phrase. While this is not the entirety of the character, it is the core concept of the character.
• Journey Aspects - A character’s journey aspects reflect where the character is in their life: their hopes, their desires, what and who is important to them. As characters advance along their Journey, these can change.
• Consequences - A character has a set of consequences, which are aspects representing things that have occurred to and hamper the character, such as stress, set-backs, and so forth.

Non-Character Aspects

Objects can have aspects, as well as areas or scenes. These often fill the role that situational modifiers use in other games. For example, a tool might have an aspect of Malfunctions Easily. That could be compelled to force a problem at a difficult moment. Or it could be invoked by a player whose character is trying to break it. A warehouse might have aspects like Full of Boxes and Shadowy Corners, which could be used by players and NPCs or compelled by the GM, throughout a scene.

The Next Step

Now that you know the basics of how Unwritten works, you are ready to play the game. The next chapters, Starting a Game and Character Creation, will walk you through creating your game and your protagonists.

If you have questions about the rules, the chapters in the Tools of the Journey section delve deeper into the mechanics of the game, how they interact and what issues might arise as you play.