Kingdom of Nothing

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For Caroline, my eternal muse and collaborator.

Copyright © 2010 Jeff Himmelman. All rights reserved. Written by Jeff Himmelman. Edited by Brennan Taylor. Cover and interior illustrations © 2010 Jeff Himmelman. Layout design by Kevin Allen Jr. Layout by Brennan Taylor.

Printed in the United States of America.

Playtested by Caroline Himmelman, Matt Blank, Olga Kogan, John Laffan, Crystal Malarsky, Shoshana Kessock, Warren Morrison, Evan Lidestri, Emerson Daly, Brendan Conway, Christopher Grau, Rich Flynn, Brennan Taylor, The Master Mines, and the 2007 Dreamation Design roundtable. Special thanks to the master mines. Your collective game design experience helped me take a vague idea floating in my head and develop it into something pretty cool. http://www.galileogames.com/kingdom-of-nothing/

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TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: AND THE DARKNESS OVERWHELMED US page 4

Introduction, What the Game Is About, Welcome to the Nothing, The Lost and Gatherings, The Forgotten Places, Rag-Pennies, Denizens of the Nothing.

CHAPTER 2: ANATOMY OF A GHOST page 16

Character Creation, Who You Are, Who You Were, Who You Will Be.

CHAPTER 3: SPARE CHANGE page 34

Conflict, The Order of Conflict, Hope. The Stash, Player Vs. Player Conflicts.

CHAPTER 4: TALES TOLD AMONG THE WANDERERS page 46

Scenes, Plot Coins, Realizations, Types of Scenes.

CHAPTER 5: SLIPPED THROUGH THE CRACKS page 52

Life on the Street, Sleeping, Shelters, Health and Hygeine, Alcohol, Drugs.

CHAPTER 6: ODDS AND ENDS page 60

Cobwebs, Fighting Cobwebs, The Named Ones, DimmerStiffs, Gatherings, Rag-Pennies.

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Once upon a time, great monsters of grey glass and granite rose up into existence all across the world. They tore and gnawed and gnashed their way through the dirt and bedrock until their roots were buried deep within the earth. They sucked the life from the surrounding land. Their sinews coursed with cement and rusted metal, their veins pumped sewage. They choked the air when they inhaled into steam-filled lungs; and when they exhaled, only smog and fire escaped. With a thousand limbs they reached up and scraped the sky. As years passed and these horrors grew and grew beyond all reason, pieces of them died and fell away. Most of the time, they would cannibalize their dead extremities and grow new ones in their place. Sometimes, though, these places were left to rot. It was in these dead places that ghosts came to live; in the shadows and tunnels of the urban nightmare. In the Forgotten Places. These ghosts inhabit a world most have never seen. It exists in disharmony with the reality we’ve come know, at once overlapping and contradicting it. It exists in the shadows and back alleys and tunnels of the urban landscape; in abandoned train stations and condemned buildings. Great rotting palaces lie within these places, vast labyrinths within the tunnels of the city. There is still much wonder left in these magic places, but there are also many perils...

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WHAT THE GAME IS ABOUT Kingdom of Nothing is a game about people who’ve lost everything, and their struggle to crawl their way back out of the cracks through which they’ve slipped. In it, players take on the role of a forgotten person. Something happened to them that was so horribly traumatic it brought their lives crashing down and forced them onto the street and into homelessness. Through the course of the game, they come to grips with the thing that destroyed their lives. If they’re stronger than it is, they rise above it. As a result of the world collectively ignoring those who are truly desperate, a force called the Nothing came into being. The Nothing seeks out those who have lost everything they loved and drags them deeper and deeper into obscurity until the world completely ignores them. Victims of the Nothing are known as the Lost. The Nothing manifests their fears and hopes into creatures that only they and other Lost can see. The fears are called Cobwebs and the hopes are called Echoes. The ever-lingering question of whether or not this is all just a delusion is always hanging in the air for the Lost. Some embrace it as fantasy and choose to remain there because it’s better than the real world. Kingdom of Nothing, however, is meant to tell the stories of people who wish to fight their way out of obscurity to find something better.

WELCOME TO THE NOTHING There are stories that are told in the slums and back alleys all over the world. They tell of a malignant force born out of apathy and fed by despair that swallows up everyone who slips through the cracks. No one knows how old this force is; some say it has been around as long as humanity, lying dormant until we awakened it, others say it was born with the first cities, when it became easy to ignore those crying out for help among the teeming masses of people. The cities eroded human compassion just enough to let loose the beast. The stories generally agree that it was during the Industrial Revolution that this force truly came into power. They tell of beggars who inexplicably lost their memories, and claimed to be pursued by nightmarish creatures. Though the homeless could sometimes still see these tortured souls, they had become invisible to almost everyone else. Most distressing of all for the afflicted was

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that they could not recall their true names, or, as many claimed, their name had been “eaten.” While it seemed more reasonable to assume that these poor men and women had lost their minds, the same thing was happening to an alarming number of people. What was even more frightening was that many of these people were disappearing without a trace. Soon after the disappearances began, people started blaming it on the Nothing. Who coined the phrase, if anyone, remains a mystery. Perhaps it just felt right; as if everyone knew all along what that foul force should be called.

THE LOST AND GATHERINGS During the late 19th century in the wake of the Civil War, the United States saw a surge in homelessness. It was around this time that newly displaced soldiers and citizens created a few classifications to use amongst themselves. Hobos were migrant laborers who traveled the freight trains taking work where they could get it, as opposed to vagabonds who primarily traveled around, only working if they had to. Those who didn’t work or travel were simply called bums. Those who were taken by the Nothing eventually came to be known as the Lost. The words carried little meaning outside the slums, but they sent shivers down the spine of anyone who really understood them. The Lost found that having a name for themselves aided them in seeking each other out. Now that they knew what they were, they could band together for mutual survival. Some were even able to fight their way out from the Nothing and retrieve their lost names. Over time a strange thing happened. These groups, or Gatherings, as they had come to be called, seemed to form out of something beyond just survival or companionship. Members of a Gathering would, more often than not, have some connection in their past. Maybe members shared a workplace at one time, or a family connection, or even a close friendship. It soon became apparent to the Lost that maybe not all the supernatural forces in the world were working against them — some were on their side. As their numbers grew, the Lost began to form a society based around Gatherings. Given that they had little in the way of money, favors became currency. If it could be proven that someone reneged a favor, they would be subject to the punishments of any Gathering who decided to enact them. In general, every Gathering makes it their business to make an example of those who go against the one law that the Lost have.

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Interacting with the outside world To most people, the Lost are more or less invisible. If one of the Lost is in a crowd, people will unconsciously avoid them. Sometimes someone can be forced into seeing one of the Lost, but through nothing short of grabbing and shaking the person. Even then the person will forget the interaction a moment later. The one exception is during sleep — the Lost are able to be seen clearly when sleeping. No one knows why this is the case, but it’s usually more of a drawback than a benefit for them, as sleeping in public is illegal in most places.

THE FORGOTTEN PLACES The homeless were not the only thing the Nothing changed — the cities grew new forms as well. The cities were constantly evolving, as they continue to do to this day. New buildings were born and old ones died. Often when it was too costly to tear down an old structure that wasn’t being used anymore, it would be left to rot and wither away. Soon cities were populated with these corpse buildings, and people ceased to recognize that the structures were even there. The Nothing had moved in and warped these buildings into palaces of decay, only seen by the Lost. In general, one of the Lost can readily recognize an entrance to a Forgotten Place. Rusted pipes adorn the area as if they grew there decades before like snaking vines. Proportions seem skewed — dilapidated as if crushed down by the weight of all the heavy surrounding buildings. Yet, there is something magical, inviting, and wondrous about these places. They beg exploration from the Lost, beckoning like a siren’s call. Forgotten Places each have something special about them, some innate magical quality linked to the function the building had when it was ‘alive.’ An apartment building retains the memories of those who lived there, an abandoned hospital grants it’s inhabitants the ability to heal others through the use of otherwise useless home remedies. Power plants and factories give their Gatherings the ability to forge small magical artifacts called Rag-Pennies. The Lost devised a set of Glyphs to let travelers know when there is a Forgotten Place nearby.

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FLICKERPORTS

Subways and Train Stations These places act as magical gateways to other places in the city. Gatherings who live here for a long time end up getting an innate direction sense that leads them to where they want to go, even if they’ve never been there. Most subway stations are portals to one specific place. Larger train stations may have gateways to any number of places for those who know the right tunnels to walk down.

JITTNEYMILLS

Factories and Power Plants Gatherings that set up shop in these places can forge artifacts that have magical properties. These artifacts are called Rag-Pennies (see below). Anytime a new Rag-Penny is produced, it drains the Forgotten Place a little. Gatherings that take from their Forgotten Place too greedily may find that their building has been noticed by city planners who want to tear it down and turn it into a new condominium.

GLIMMERJOINTS Residential Buildings

Any time someone lives in an apartment building, they invest a little of themselves into it. The Lost can experience the memories of the people who used to live in the building. The longer the person lived there the stronger the memories are. If the former residents had any strong connections to a person who didn’t live there, one of the Lost can experience that person’s memories too, but not nearly as clearly.

GALWAY LIGHTHOUSES Holy Places

Churches, synagogues, mosques, and other holy sites will often be de-sanctified and left to rot like any other building. Gatherings built around faith will often live in these places. They are coveted for their ability to restore mental acumen to those who sleep there.

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STITCHER SHACKS Hospitals

Hospitals are many times thought of as places of great suffering, but when an abandoned hospital becomes a Forgotten Place, it is the hope and healing that remains. One of the greatest dangers of life on the street is not having access to any health care. Though not a substitute, Gatherings that remain in hospitals can help to ease some of the pain of sickness and injury of others. This is not done through knowledge of medicine, but simple caring. A cup of tea given to someone with pneumonia can help to ease their symptoms for a while. It’s not the tea itself that does this, but the compassion of the one who prepares it in combination with the power of the Forgotten hospital.

RAG-PENNIES Rag-Pennies are magical trinkets that look like pieces of junk to an outside observer, but for the Lost they are precious items that have almost magical attributes. Minor Rag-Pennies are usually produced by Jittneymills. These can be anything from pendants that glow with a calming light to help it’s bearer find their way in the darkness to a thin ratty old jacket that inexplicably keeps it’s wearer warm and dry from head to toe no matter how bad the weather gets.

While these are still fairly rare, the more powerful Rag-Pennies are even harder to find, and are jealously guarded by the Gatherings who claim ownership over them. Televisions that show glimpses of the future through the static, sneakers that call forth tornadoes of litter to obscure the wearer as they escape, bags that have unlimited room to store possessions are some of the more powerful RagPennies rumored to exist. For more information on Rag-Pennies, see Odds and Ends, page 76.

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DENIZENS OF THE NOTHING ECHOES The world of the Lost can be a harsh one, but there are guides and helpers along the way that can light the dim and winding path back home. These guides are called Echoes, and their sole purpose is to aid the Lost with whom they share a bond. No Echo exists solely on its own, and each Lost can have many Echoes. Echoes can take many forms, whether as an animal companion or a jacket covered in buttons with inspirational messages. Some even appear as people, the reflections of loved ones faded into the memory of time. Echoes will often slip in and out of existence as quickly and easily as a breeze on a spring day, touching just barely on the minds of those they are meant to affect. Some Echoes will be much more forceful, but few can permanently remain in existence.

COBWEBS Back when humanity was just old enough to question it’s own nature, myths were told to help explain the mysteries of the outside world and ourselves. Monsters and demons were created as a way of externalizing the darker aspects of these mysteries. They represented our fears and weaknesses, as well as the most wicked parts of our souls. In the myths passed along by the Lost, there are tales of beasts who hunger for the Lost; horrors born out of their darker impulses and lost memories that try to scratch their way to the surface. Often there is more truth to these myths than even the storytellers realize. These monsters are known as Cobwebs to the Lost, and they are very real. They hunt the Lost and feed on the dismal feelings out of which the Cobwebs were first born. They raze the minds of their victims, rending painful emotions from human psyches and leaving despondent husks of men and women in their wake. Sometimes Cobwebs aren’t born from a single person. Certain poisons plague scores of homeless, destroying hundreds of lives over time. Insanity, violence, drugs... these things have caused misery in so many people that the Nothing has given them substance and power. Cobwebs created in this way are not tied to any one person, but they are drawn to those who exhibit the matching trait.

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Dangerous though they are, Cobwebs can’t take any physical action against the Lost. They are creatures born out of despair, and they so seek to perpetuate despair. Instead of doing damage to your body, they attack your mind, sapping your lucidity. Every Cobweb has a different way of going about this. Sometimes it will look like the victim is being physically attacked, but afterwards they will show no visible signs of being in a fight. Some of the more insidious Cobwebs will track down the people who are important to their victim and antagonize them. Cobwebs can’t be fought through physical means. The only way to overcome a Cobweb is to prove that you’re stronger than it, emotionally. Guns are useless, but hand-to-hand weapons like blades and clubs can help you against them. It’s speculated that humans have been using weapons like this to fight back the darkness for so long we have an innate connection with them. They have almost become extensions of ourselves and our spirit.

DIMMER-STIFFS AND DRAGRANKS When a person becomes Lost, often the first thing they’re told about is the dangers of giving in to the Nothing and forgetting who they once were. They are told of souls who have completely withdrawn from reality and have now become twisted creatures that lurk in the dark corners of the city. Back during the Depression, the hobos had called them the Dimmer-Stiffs. The name stuck. Their Echoes have left them, and their relationship with their Cobwebs is a unique one. Though the Cobwebs obey their commands, the Stiffs are still tortured by them. Guilt is ever-present, unable to be placated because its source is forever unknown to them. They are inevitably driven to madness and corruption. Whatever it was that the Dimmer-Stiff repressed begins to warp him the longer he remains alive. If he killed someone in his former life, his skin begins to rot, his joints undergo rigor mortis and his eyes begin to sink deep into their sockets. He becomes a walking corpse. If he lost everything to a drug habit, his features become impossibly long and drawn out, his skin might become pale to the point of near-translucent, he’ll always be shaking, unable to satiate his hunger for poison.

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Dimmer-Stiffs will always find one of the Forgotten Places to hole up in, and they can never leave. The place becomes their prison. They don’t need food or water, they subsist on unfortunate Lost whom they are able to bring into their domain. Though they are certainly capable of killing them, the Lost who are caught by the Dimmer-Stiffs are rarely harmed physically. It’s something more ethereal that provides their sustenance. It’s unclear whether they are feeding on their emotion, their pain or even their soul, but what is clear is that a victim of a Dimmer-Stiff is left drained of any will of their own. Their mind is broken. They babble incoherently morning and night, react to figments of their imagination. It’s apparent to anyone who looks into their eyes that they’re simply not there anymore. These victims have come to be known as the Dragranks. The Dimmer-Stiff that created them controls them like puppets. Wherever the Dragranks go, the Dimmer-Stiff controls their bodies and sees through their eyes. They use them as a lure to get more Lost into their clutches, like grotesque spiders waiting for more flies to be caught in their web.

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Character creation in Kingdom of Nothing is a collaborative effort. It’s broken up into three phases:

PHASE ONE • Concept • Nickname • Hope • Survival and Lucidity • Light at the End of the Tunnel • What Just Happened to You? • Echo • Skills • Stuff • Burdens

PHASE TWO • Write your character’s nickname on a separate sheet of paper. Draw a circle around it and pass it to the left. • The next player writes a Secret about the character. When they’re done, they pass it to the left. • The Narrator creates a Location. When they’re done, they pass it to the left. • Once there are five Secrets on each sheet and five Locations, everyone passes the sheets of paper to the Narrator. He comes up with a final Secret for each player.

PHASE THREE • The Narrator and the players find connections with their characters, past and present. • The Players determine how they all met and where they are now.

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PHASE ONE: WHO YOU ARE CONCEPT Your concept is a paragraph about your character’s present state. Nothing about their past is mentioned here, because that comes later, and it isn’t created by you. Here you can mention things like what your character does, what they look like, how they act, how old they are, or anything else you feel would be important to mention. Inspiration for a concept can be found in a lot of different places. Movies, books and TV are all very helpful when it comes to finding an idea for a character. If you live (or even used to live) in an urban area, chances are you’ve come in contact with a homeless person or two. Basing a concept off one of them could be a good start. Creating a character without a back story may be a little tricky for some people, especially experienced roleplayers who are used to making detailed characters. Try to avoid using any past-tense words like “was.” The following are things you should think about when making your character: • What does your character do to survive? Everyone has to eat and sleep somewhere. Many times deciding how your character takes care of these basic needs will say a lot about who they are. • Think about whether or not there are any places that are important to your character, even if they don’t know the reason yet. In many ways the Lost are like ghosts, and one of those ways is that they tend to haunt places that meant something to them in their former life. Maybe there’s a house they find themselves wandering back to, or a train station they’ve set up camp in. • Does your character have any tattoos, scars, injuries or seemingly irrational fears that they harbor? These things all tell a story, and will help guide the other players when they’re coming up with your Secrets. • What does your character wear? Whether it’s army fatigues, filthy, beat-up evening gowns with gaudy costume jewelry, a rumpled business suit, or anything else, these will say a lot about a character’s personality.

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• Does your character have any pets? Many times homeless people will get a pet for some companionship in a world that has all but alienated them. Animals are immune to many of the effects of the Nothing, but sometimes they will act in the role of Echoes. Some ideas for concepts include: • Gypsy • Subway Panhandler • Street Preacher • Collector • Mugger/Thief • Tagger • Gutterpunk • Gambler

• Drug Addict/Pusher • Veteran • Street Performer • Criminal • Gypsy • Street Performer/Poet/Artist • Ex-Convict • Ex-Asylum Inmate

NICKNAME Names are an extremely important element in Kingdom of Nothing. At the outset of the game your character has lost their real name, so they’ve earned a nickname based on their actions. Names are very evocative when it comes to weaving stories. When the other players start coming up with Secrets in the second phase of character creation, much of what they’ll be coming up with will be based on your nickname. Something like ‘Ace,’ for example, inspires very different story elements than a name like ‘Rita Two-Cats.’ So much of the theme and mood of your back-story is dependent on your nickname. Below are a few examples of nicknames: • Lady Grey • Wall Street • Joe Skunk • Hard-Stare Harry • Rag Doll • Crack-Knuckle • Bleeding Toe Mike • Gluttonous Slim • Zilch • Mastiff Mama • Steve the Rat

• Fork-Tongue Fred • Slow-Motion Jones • Amelia Dirt • Guestimate Johnson • Butterknife Sal • Twistback • Gin-Bucket Greg • Antiseptic Jack • Still-Standing • Molly Bewigged • Dishonest Abe

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• Microfiche Roy • St. John’s Wart • Cecilia Graveside • One-Bullet Bart • Virgil Gaunt • Jimmy Coughblood • Judge Slander

• Dr. Know • Andy Widow-Kisser • Five-Bucks Benny • Manny Broke-Nails • Chip-Tooth Berman • Nell Dismal

HOPE Hope is just about the only thing one of the Lost has left. Hope can be spent to get you out of tough situations, or push yourself past your limits to get something important accomplished. For more info on Hope, see Spare Change, page 43. For now, Hope starts at one.

SURVIVAL AND LUCIDITY Being homeless takes a merciless toll on your body’s well-being. Survival is the measure of how well you’re standing up to all the hardships the real world throws at you. It’s partly your physical endurance, but it’s also a measure of luck. In a physical conflict, you use your Survival. Surviving isn’t just dependent on physical prowess however. Much of it has to do with luck, getting one’s self out of bad situations. At any point, a player can spend a point of Survival to get a lucky break for their character. The only stipulation is that you can’t spend Survival to do something you would need to have some special knowledge or skill to do. For example, if a police officer succeeds in his check to throw cuffs on you, you can spend Survival to slip away anyway. You couldn’t spend Survival to disarm a security system even though you don’t have the proper knowledge to do so. Lucidity is your mental endurance. It represents your mental health, social prowess and wits. In a mental challenge, you use your Lucidity as a modifier. Certain things can threaten your sanity however, and bring your Lucidity down. The lower your Lucidity is, the more susceptible you are to the Nothing and the Cobwebs. Lucidity can also be spent to remember certain details from you past, seeing if you have any experiences relevant to your current situation. When you spend Lucidity, you push through the fog the Nothing has created in your mind, and you pull out a memory for a short time; just long enough to use a skill you don’t normally have. This is a temporary skill and leaves your thoughts after you’ve used it, but you can spend Lucidity to get that skill back for another use.

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A player can roll Lucidity to get temporarily noticed by someone outside the Nothing. At character creation you get seven points to distribute among Survival and Lucidity. A character’s ratings in these two attributes determine where their Exhaust Stacks will start. While a character’s Survival and Lucidity ratings determine what a character’s physical and mental limits are, their Exhaust Stacks represent the current amount of energy they can utilize to engage in challenges. They fluctuate up and down based on a number of factors, such as how often a character engages in conflicts and whether they win or lose said conflicts. The full explanation on how this works is in the Spare Change section later in the book, page 39. There are separate Exhaust Stacks for Survival and Lucidity. When the game starts, players put a number of coins in each stack equal to their base rating in it’s respective score. For example, a character with five Survival and two Lucidity would put five (5) coins into their Survival Exhaust Stack and two (2) coins into their Lucidity Exhaust Stack. There are spaces set aside on the character sheet for allocating these resources. When one of the Exhaust Stacks goes down to zero, the character can use the other stack to defend themselves, but they can’t initiate any challenges until both stacks are at least at one. For example, if a character’s Lucidity is brought down to zero, and an antagonist starts trying to outwit them, the character’s only recourse would be to punch the guy in the face. If both stacks hit zero, the character blacks out and gains a point of Despair. If your Despair goes up past five, it starts to reduce the maximum amount of Hope your character can have. If your Hope is completely devoured by your Despair, you become one of the Dimmer-Stiffs and your character is given to the Narrator. Of course, the opposite is also true. If a character’s Hope goes above five, it can start to overcome Despair.

A LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL The Light at the End of the Tunnel is something positive waiting for the character on the other side of the situation they find themselves stuck in. The Light represents needs a character will be looking to fulfill, but they can only achieve it if they deal with all of their issues first. Anything from going to college, to finding an estranged woman they have a picture of in their wallet, to eating at the most upscale restaurant in New York can act as a Light.

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Acting on this motivation earns a player Plot Coins at the Narrator’s discretion. For instance, if a character compulsively collects any books they find in a scene in preparation for eventually going to college, this might earn them Plot Coins. Other examples of this may be spending time writing a novel if they aspire to be a famous author, visiting internet cafes to google any information on the person who keeps appearing in their dreams, or repeatedly sneaking into a building that they want to live in some day.

WHAT JUST HAPPENED TO YOU? This is a sentence or two about some recent supernatural event, that has thrust the character into the game. After this event occurred, no one was able to see the character anymore except the homeless and the Lost.

ECHO A character’s Echo is the embodiment of the part of themselves that wants to find their way out of the mess that they’re in. It protects and guides the character. At this point, each player invents the form their Echo takes. Maybe it’s an old shaggy dog that follows them around, or a mix tape that always happens to play the right song at the right time. Obviously the player won’t know why their Echo takes the form that it does, but it will be explained during phase three of character creation. The players and the Narrator have authority over what actions the Echo takes. The player to whom the Echo belongs isn’t even allowed to suggest what their Echo does at any point.

SKILLS Skills are things that your character is particularly good at. It’s a lot of what sets them apart from the other characters around the table. Skills make dice rolls easier to win when a conflict falls into the realm of your skill. You get a physical skill for every point in Survival you took, and a mental/ social skill for every point in Lucidity. There is no predefined list of skills. Players are free to make up their own skill within reason. The Narrator is the arbiter of what is reasonable. You will be able to purchase more skills later on with coins. For more information on this see Spare Change, page 43.

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Example Skills The Narrator can interpret these however he wants. Players are encouraged to come up with their own skills not mentioned on these lists.

Mental: Remembering, Foraging, Intimidating, Empathizing, Convincing, Hiding, Lying, Inspiring, Listening, Following, Lockpicking, Hotwiring, Pickpocketing, Crafting, Using Computers, Cheating, Animal Handing, Noticing, Giving First Aid, Knowing Facts (Law, Politics, City History...), Fixing Engines, Speaking a Language, Gathering Information.

Physical: Throwing, Jumping, Escaping, Climbing, Running, Protecting People, Knife-­Fighting, Using Improvised Weapons, Sneaking, Lifting, Dodging, Kicking, Grappling, Swimming, Tumbling, Driving, Balancing, Taking a Punch, Eating Anything, Ignoring Pain, Biting, Wrestling, Holding Your Breath, Staying Awake.

STUFF ‘Stuff’ is a deliberately vague term that represents all of the gear a character owns. This could be anything from a broken down car, to a bug collection, to a shotgun. Having the right tool for the job will give a player an automatic success as described in Spare Change, page 40, so it pays to have a lot of stuff. There’s two limitations to a character’s stash of stuff:

1. It has to be something the character could have conceivably scrounged for and can store some place or carry with them.

2. After everyone has written down what their character has, the Narrator

goes in and starts mercilessly crossing things off that list. The Narrator is encouraged to be a dick about this. Narrators can feel free to point to the this rule if their players complain. However, the player is allowed to circle one thing that the Narrator can’t touch.

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BURDENS Players begin the game with two Burdens. Each Burden has a mechanical penalty. The mechanical penalty will only apply when the character would logically be impeded by that Burden. For example, a character with a bum leg wouldn’t be penalized if they were in an arm wrestling contest with someone else, but the penalty would apply if they were trying to outrun the police. During the game, characters may gain Burdens by by failing certain conflicts or raising stakes a little too high. Characters can have a maximum of five Burdens at any given time. If they go over five, they fill out one square under Hope, thereby lowering the maximum amount of Hope they can get, but they do not receive a sixth Burden. This loss of Hope is permanent, though they can deal with specific Burdens and get rid of them through Burden Scenes as described in Tales Told Among the Wanderers, page 49.

Psychoses Psychoses range from quirks to full-on derangements. During conflicts that use Lucidity, the number of successes needed is raised by one for each psychosis a character suffers. • Depression • Phobia • Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder • Fixation • Schizophrenia • Delusions of Grandeur • Infatuations • Insomnia

Frailties Frailties are drawbacks to a character’s physical well-being. These include injuries, hygiene issues like rotting teeth, gangrene, old age, and sickness. During conflicts that use Survival, the number of successes needed is raised by one for each frailty a character possesses. • Injury (disabled, broken limb) • Disease and Infections (AIDs, cancer, tuberculosis, pneumonia, etc.) • Very Old or Very Young • Susceptible to Hunger, Cold, or Heat

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Addictions If a character is addicted to uppers like crack or speed, the number of successes needed in conflicts of Survival is raised by one until the character gets their fix, then the penalty applies to Lucidity. If the character needs downers like heroine or alcohol, the number of successes needed in conflicts of Lucidity is raised by one until the character gets their fix, then the penalty applies to Survival. Characters can only have one addiction at a time. Players can feel free to roleplay having multiple addictions if they so choose, but only one will apply to the character in terms of mechanics in conflicts. • Uppers (cocaine, crack, speed) • Downers (heroin, morphine, barbiturates, alcohol, hallucinogens)

PHASE TWO: WHO YOU WERE The second phase of character creation is centered on creating your character’s past. This is the source of your character’s pain, but it is also unknown to the character (or player) at the outset. Thus, one of the main focuses of play is the characters delving into their past, uncovering their own Secrets and dealing with the consequences thereafter. A character’s past is not created by the player who will be portraying them. It is made through a collaboration of all the other players at the table. In turn, every player will help create the stories of the other player’s characters. During this phase, the players create a character web that builds this story for each of the player characters.

CREATING SECRETS Character backgrounds are created through writing Secrets. A Secret is an event in the character’s former life that, when discovered, will drive the plot a little further forward and bring the character closer to finding out why they’re in the situation they’re in. It has to be based on something the character put down on their sheet, such as a burden, an item, some part of their concept or anything else. On a separate sheet of paper, each player writes down their character’s nickname and draws a circle around it.

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They then pass it to their left, along with their character sheet. The Narrator is included in this circle, though he’ll be passing around a Locations Sheet, which will be explained later. Each player takes a look at the concept on the character sheet that was just handed to them, along with everything else. They then draw an arrow leading away from the circle at the center of the Secrets Sheet, and write down a Secret as well as the trait it was based on from the character sheet .

When they are satisfied they got the idea down, they pass it to the left again. Everyone takes a look at the new sheets that they have gotten: the character sheet and the Secrets Sheet with one Secret. Each person now has the option of expanding upon the last Secret, drawing a line from the last thing written and adding a new layer of complication to it:

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...or making an entirely new Secret by drawing a line from the name in the center. The game works a little better with a few long branches as opposed to many short ones, but if a player has a great idea for a new branch or an existing one has reached it’s logical conclusion, players should feel free to make a new one.

When they’ve done that, they pass it to the left. Secrets need to the catalyst for a dramatic scene later down the line, so they must be something that will cause some kind of emotional upheaval when they’re discovered. When it comes time to pass the secrets sheet to the original player it belongs to, THE SHEET SKIPS THAT PERSON. The player should never get to see their own secrets. Part of what makes the game fun is not knowing what happened in your past and discovering it through the course of the game. This continues until you have five Secrets. Players can keep continuing in straight line away from the name, or even split a topic in several branches, but they can’t connect topics.

WRITING GOOD SECRETS Secrets are incredibly important to a successful game, so it’s vital that they be written well. To best explain what separates a good Secret from a bad one, we’ll create some for a sample character named Hard-Stare Harry. Harry’s concept is that he’s a large guy who hangs around outside bars picking fights with people. He’s got a pair of old boxing gloves he keeps around with him all the time, and it looks like his nose has been broken a few times and set incorrectly. Here’s an example of a bad Secret:

Hard-Stare Harry was a boxer.

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We’ve got a decent start here. It begins to explain some of the things in the concept. But why doesn’t this work? First off, it’s obvious. When this Secret is revealed to the player, it’s not going to be exciting because they already know about it. Second, even if it was unknown, it doesn’t amount to anything. Every Secret should take into account why it matters. What was important about it? Let’s tweak this so it works better:

Hard-Stare Harry was the best boxer in NYC. This is a little better but it’s still lacking. It definitely matters now, but it’s still not going to be a particularly large revelation for the player. Let’s keep adding to it:

Hard-Stare Harry was the best boxer in NYC until he killed someone in the ring. This is perfect. Not only does it explain part of the concept, but it’s a pretty dramatic moment in the character’s life. It matters. Not only that, but it’s going to be a pretty large revelation when it comes out. Also there’s tons of room for other people to build on it. Let’s look at another example for poor Hard-Stare:

Hard-Stare Harry had a wife. Weak sauce. Who cares? Lots of people have wives. Maybe the next person can build on this and make it interesting, but players shouldn’t have to rely on others to make their Secrets good... they should be good from the beginning! Let’s start adding on to this.

Hard-Stare Harry’s wife didn’t love him. Okay, so now we’ve got a little fuel for a dramatic situation. An estranged wife could possibly lead to some cool scenes down the road. We can go a little further with it however:

Hard-Stare Harry’s wife left him for the boxer he killed in the ring right before Harry killed him. That’s some serious drama. It gives Harry a lot of mental baggage to deal with, along with the possibility for some pretty intense scenes down the line. It’s possible to overdo it however. Lets say the next person jumps in with:

Hard-Stare Harry killed his wife.

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Try to avoid turning characters’ backstories into bloodfests. Death can be pretty powerful when used in small amounts, but it’s also a cheap way of injecting meaningless drama into a situation. The other way around usually doesn’t work either:

Hard-Stare Harry’s wife killed him. Though it’s probably possible to use this game to play ghosts instead of homeless people, it’s always a mistake to mix the two. The game is intended to be played with characters that come from mundane backgrounds, and if a group intends to add supernatural elements it’s something that should be decided beforehand and done consistently for every Secrets Sheet. There are ways of making this more interesting that don’t involve supernatural elements:

Hard-Stare Harry was thrown in jail for violating a restraining order his wife took out against him after the incident. Not only have we added more information to the last Secret, but we’ve opened up a whole new set of possibilities for the next person. What happened to Harry in Jail? What happened when he got out? This is a great Secret!

CREATING LOCATIONS Because the Narrator does not have a character sheet, there will be one person who doesn’t get a Secrets Sheet each time they are passed. This person will take a separate sheet of paper and write down the name of a Location, be it a Forgotten Place or just a normal urban locale. The Locations created here will eventually come into play during the story. The player will have to answer three questions about the Location:

What is this place? Anything goes here, from abandoned subway stations to ritzy penthouse apartments. Just jot down a sentence about what the nature of the place is, as well as where it’s located.

Why is this place important to the Gathering? Locations created by the players will usually tie into Secrets being written about the other characters in the Gathering. For instance, if one of the characters accidentally killed their friend in a hotel room, that hotel room would be a great candidate for a Location. A character’s Echoes can sometimes lead

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them to discovering these places, though the Lost may not immediately recognize their full significance. However, being host to a Secret is not the only reason a Location can be important to the PCs. Players can designate a Location as a haven for the Gathering once they come together (also the Narrator has the option of saying that the characters start at such a Location already having known each other). Perhaps there is a Location guarding a powerful Rag-Penny the characters will eventually need to get for one reason or another, or the Location is a Forgotten Place they will need to visit in order to continue on their journey of self discovery. If the Location is significant to a player’s background, don’t let that player know. Either write it in vague terms or just write it on a separate sheet of paper and hand it to the Narrator.

What is the conflict surrounding this place? The conflict surrounding a Location can be anywhere between seemingly insurmountable to mildly annoying. Regardless of the magnitude of the conflict, it’s there to stir up plot and make things a little harder for the Lost who try to get to them. Maybe the Forgotten Place the characters will need to gain access to is controlled by an insane rival group of Lost, or a Location important to a character’s background is infested with hungry Cobwebs. On the other hand, it’s possible that the place is just really far away (perhaps so far that the characters will have to use a Forgotten subway in order to access it) or it’s just plain drafty during the winter.

SO THERE YOU ARE... Having the characters start the game in separate Locations and being brought together either by circumstance or by their Echoes is a great way of getting across the loneliness and isolation of being Lost. It is, however, a fairly time consuming process and some players can be frustrated by it. An alternative for shorter games is to start with everyone knowing each other and starting the game in the same place. If someone has an idea for a starting Location, they can create it during Phase Two and say that the Location is important to the Gathering because it’s their home. Players may want to quickly discuss how their characters met each other before the game starts, ideally while the Narrator is in Phase Three.

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PHASE THREE: WHO YOU WILL BE In the last phase of character creation, two relationship maps are drawn up; one by the players and one by the Narrator.

PLAYER CONNECTIONS The players all decide what their attitudes are towards each other and begin to fill out the relationship map. The Lost can be pretty anti-social people, but there has to be at least one person every character will want to stick by no matter what. Players write their name in the boxes provided (there’s eight boxes, obviously not all of them have to be filled in) and draw lines from one box to another, describing the strongest relationships along that line. It will end up looking something like this:

If someone is ambivilant towards another member of their Gathering, that doesn’t have to be written on the sheet. As long as everyone has at least one connection it’s okay.

BACKGROUND CONNECTIONS Not only does everyone have some kind of connection in the present, but the Nothing has a way of bringing together people whose pasts are connected to each other. The Narrator is responsible for drawing these connections. Though it may seem a little daunting at first, there are a lot of ways of drawing quick connections if one knows what to look for. Again, the players won’t see this, but as more Secrets get revealed they’ll realize just how strong the connections are between them.

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Estranged Family Sometimes what the Lost are looking for is right beneath their nose. Does one character have a missing child, abandoned parent or lost love? Most of the time it’s possible to fit one of the PC’s into that role.

Mutual Friend Maybe two of the characters knew the same person at different times in their life, or even at the same time. They may have loved the same person, or hated the same person.

Organizations Were two characters in the army? Were they in the same music class? Look for similar organizations in Secrets Sheets and try to draw connections through that.

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The mechanics in Kingdom of Nothing make characters put everything on the line in order to achieve what they want. They allow other players to jump in and help their friend, but there’s always a risk to doing so. Before the game begins, each character gets seven pennies, one nickel, one dime and one quarter . The seven pennies are placed onto the character sheet under Survival and Lucidity. The nickel is placed under skills and the dime is placed under your Echoes. The quarter is placed by your Burdens. As an aside, though the rules make reference to American currency, any coins can be used as long as you have four different types. Any time a situation comes up where the outcome is in question, such as when a skill is employed, a character needs to stand up to the beatings of a rival Gathering, or a Cobweb is threatening to destroy a character, a Check is called for. The base mechanic for any Check requires a player to put the appropriate amount of coins into a cup, shake a few times and turn the cup upside down, counting the number of heads up coins and discarding the rest. Any heads-up pennies are one success, heads up nickels are two successes, heads-up dimes are three successes, and in the rare cases where quarters are used, they count as four successes. Each Check will have a predetermined Difficulty, or a number of successes required to succeed in any given task.

THE ORDER OF CONFLICT 1. The stakes of the conflict are determined. 2. The Difficulty is set by the Narrator. Burdens raise the number of successes needed by one for each that applies.

3. The player puts their coins (called the Investment) in the cup to engage in the challenge.

4. Any positive modifiers are determined and applied. 5. The player throws their coins, consulting the chart to see if they won the conflict.

6. Coins are either handed out or lost, the result is narrated.

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1. THE STAKES OF THE CONFLICT ARE DETERMINED The first thing you need to determine is what’s at stake in the conflict. This should be what your character is hoping to gain from the situation. If a character wishes to attack another character, it needs to be stated up front what the intended result is. Does the character want to kill them or merely knock them out? Do they want to rough them up to get some information out of them, or do they want to intimidate them to keep them quiet? Think in terms of the entire conflict rather than the individual act of hitting him. This concept applies to anything from sneaking into a Forgotten Place, to sweet talking someone into giving you a Rag-Penny they’re holding on to, getting away from the Gathering who’s attacking you. Once the player has stated what they want out of the conflict, the Narrator determines what’s at stake if they fail. Going back to the example of the player attacking their friend, the Narrator may state that their friend will retaliate and break their jaw, or maybe the friend will be emboldened and he’ll tell everyone he knows the secret you were trying to get him to keep. If it’s possible for the character to avoid the conflict all together, it’s decided during this stage.

2. THE DIFFICULTY IS SET BY THE NARRATOR Now the Narrator decides how hard or easy the conflict will be. Consult the chart on page 38-39 to see the range of Difficulties in any given conflict. Each level of Difficulty is associated with a number of successes that will need to be achieved in order to come out the victor in any conflict. The Narrator will determine Difficulty based on how high the odds are stacked up against the player attempting to act (or react). Benefits to the character’s situation are not factored in yet, only the things making the conflict more difficult to overcome. Is the character outnumbered? Has he been surprised? Is it snowing? Any number of elements can make a conflict more insurmountable, thereby raising the Difficulty. Also illustrated in the previous chart are the Difficulties for fighting various Cobwebs, from the weaker ones to the frighteningly powerful “Named Ones.” See Odds and Ends for more information on Cobwebs, page 62. When fighting human adversaries, it the Narrator must determine if the player is weaker than, equal to or stronger than their opponent. This is done

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Successes Difficulty Needed

1

2

3

Examples

Investment

Getting some information on someone (who isn’t Lost), Hiding from someone who isn’t really looking for you, Getting shelter for the night

0

Somewhat Easy

Getting somewhere on time during rush hour, intimidating a weakling, Slowing down a pursuer with a simple trap, Scrounging up some clean food

1

Moderate

Defeating or defending against someone who is weaker or dumber than you, Getting information out of a coward, Stealing from someone who isn’t very observant

1

Easy

4

Slightly Difficult

5

Difficult

Defeating or defending against someone who’s your physical or mental equal, Hiding from someone chasing you in a crowd, Convincing a friend to do something they don’t want to do, Sneaking into a Forgotten Place,escaping a weak Cobweb Defeating or defending against someone stronger or smarter than you, Killing someone who’s your equal in a fight, Navigating a network of abandoned tunnels without a map, defeating a weak Cobweb, escaping a powerful Cobweb

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1

2

6

7

Amazing

Epic

Defeating or Defending against two or three people who are your equals, Inspiring a large group to follow you into a fight, Sneaking into a secure complex with alarms, Defeating a powerful Cobweb, Escaping a Named One Defeating or defending against an entire Gathering alone, Inspiring all the Lost in the city to follow you into a fight, defeating a Named One

2

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by adding the player’s Survival and Lucidity and comparing it to the adversary’s total Survival and Lucidity. Alternatively, the Narrator can make an educated decision as to what the Difficulty would be for the fight based on what’s logically and dramatically appropriate.

3. THE PLAYER PUTS THEIR INVESTMENT IN THE CUP TO ENGAGE THE CHALLENGE Immediately after the Difficulty is determined, the player puts a few pennies into the cup. These pennies are called the Investment, and the number you put in is determined by the Investment column on the Difficulty chart. The Investment must come from the appropriate Exhaust Stack: Survival for physical conflicts, Lucidity for mental conflicts. The entire Investment must come from one stack. A player can’t use one from Survival and one from Lucidity. If the player does not have enough pennies in either Exhaust Stack to make the minimum Investment, they can use the quarter in its place. This act symbolizes the character is down and out, but is making a last ditch effort to succeed by any means necessary. The Quarter takes the place of the entire Investment whether it’s one, two or three, but it can only be used in this way if the player can’t make the Investment from one of their Exhaust Stacks. If the Quarter is used in this way, it only counts for one success, and the player can not use an Act of Desperation (see below). If they lose, they black out. When they come to, they add another Burden on to their character sheet. This Burden must be decided while Setting the Stakes.

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If a character has lost some Survival or Lucidity due to conflicts, they can still defend with the opposite attribute to what they would normally use. In situations like this, the conflict proceeds normally. The difficulty for defending is set by the relative strength or intelligence of the aggressor (either an NPC or situation), and the player is throwing the coins based on that difficulty. For instance, someone who has lost all the coins in their Lucidity Exhaust Stack couldn’t engage someone in a debate, but if someone started berating them they would be so weary their only recourse would be to push their way out of the conversation or even take a swing at the person offending them. Conversely, someone who’d been beaten with a lead pipe until they were out of coins in their Survival Exhaust Stack wouldn’t be able to attack anyone, but using their Lucidity Exhaust Stack they would be able to stand up to further beatings through willpower or maybe devise a way out of the situation.

4. ANY POSITIVE MODIFIERS ARE DETERMINED AND APPLIED Now that things seem pretty bleak for the character, it’s time to even the odds a bit. There are a few ways to affect the Difficulty before the throw, making it easier to win.

Skills Having an appropriate skill will allow a character to toss their nickel into the cup. If the nickel is heads up, it adds two successes to the total.

Echoes If the other people at the table think that a character’s Echo is in any way aiding to this conflict, a player can throw their dime into the cup. If the dime is heads up, one success is added to the total.

Stuff If something from the character’s gear can help in the conflict, no extra coins are put into the cup, but it gives the player one automatic success. Only one success can be attained in this way.

Sniping the Odds When a player Snipes the Odds they can invest an amount of coins equal to their Permanent Hope into the Conflict, in addition to the coins they already

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invested. These are pennies and come from the appropriate Exhaust Stack for the conflict, Survival or Lucidity, provided you have some left. Each coin invested in this way is added to the cup. Furthermore, if you win the throw you get double the amount of coins you put in for Sniping the Odds. For example, A player makes an initial investment of one (1) coin, then chooses to Snipe the Odds and put another one (1) coin in. If that player wins the throw, they win three coins (one for the initial investment and double what they put down for Sniping the Odds, which is two). If they lose the throw however, all the coins they put down will be lost. See below for winning and losing.

Sparing Some Change Before a player throws their coins, they can ask their friends to Spare Some Change. This can be in or out of character. At this point, players not personally involved in the conflict have the option of investing in the player’s conflict from their Survival or Lucidity Exhaust stack, an amount up to or equal to their Hope. Players need to narrate what they’re doing to get involved in the conflict. If the player succeeds in the throw, everyone who invested gets their coins back. If the player fails, everyone loses their coins. Thus, there’s a chance for material loss with no chance for gain if players invest, but there’s always a social reward. Players who invest in other players are more likely to get help when they need it.

An Act of Desperation If a player absolutely needs to win a throw, they can put everything on the line to do so, but there are dire consequences to failure. When a player invokes an Act of Desperation, they throw the quarter into the cup. If it’s heads, they add four successes to the throw. If it’s tails, they take on a new Burden (this needs to be part of setting the stakes), but the rest of the successes and failures are determined normally. The player can not use an Act of Desperation if they have already used the Quarter as their initial Investment (see above).

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5. THE PLAYER THROWS THEIR COINS, CONSULTING THE CHART TO SEE IF THEY WON THE CONFLICT The player shakes coins in the cup a few times and puts it upside down (leaving it upside down for an extra second to increase tension is optional, but encouraged). The heads-up coins count as successes, the tails-up coins are failures. The outcome of the throw determines two things: whether the player wins or loses their coins and the narrative result of the conflict.

6. COINS ARE EITHER HANDED OUT OR LOST, THE RESULT IS NARRATED If the player loses the throw, everyone who put any coins down loses them. For example, there is a conflict involving three players to try and sneak into a wellguarded Forgotten train station. This is a Survival conflict that was Slightly Difficult, which required an initial investment of one. The other two players Spared Some Change and each put down one as well. Because the player lost the throw, everyone loses one of the coins in their Survival stack. Any coins spent Sniping the Odds are also lost. If the player succeeds in the throw, they receive double the amount of coins they spent Sniping the Odds. Coins spent in the initial Investment and in Sparing Some Change are not doubled if the player wins their throw, they are just given back to the appropriate player. Regardless of whether a player wins or loses their throw, they get their Nickel back if they put it in the cup by using a skill, and they get their dime back if their Echo helped in any way. The narration of how the conflict is resolved should take into account all of the actions taken to affect the Difficulty. In the previous example of sneaking into the train station for instance, because everyone was involved in the attempt, they all suffer the consequences of losing. If a character won by Sniping the Odds, usually it will involve some kind of lucky circumstance, or maybe the character used their wits to get the better of the situation.

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HOPE In the upper left of the character sheet there is a trait called Hope. Similar to Survival and Lucidity, characters have a permanent number of Hope Points and a temporary number that can be expended on various tasks. There is no coin stack associated with Hope, just check boxes at the top of the character sheet for keeping track of Hope Points. One point of Temporary Hope can be spent to: • Re-throw any tails-up coins. • Refresh either Survival or Lucidity Exhaust Stacks at any time. Hope refreshes after a successful or unsuccessful Revelation Scene (see Tales Told Among the Wanderers, page 50, to learn about Revelation Scenes).

THE STASH The maximum number of coins a player can have in their Exhaust Stack is the rating in the stat it pertains to. For instance, a player with Survival 4 would only be able to have 4 coins in their Survival Exhaust Stack at one time. If their Exhaust Stack goes over the limit by winning conflicts where they Sniped the Odds, the excess goes into the Stash. Players can use coins from their Stash to buy Exhaust coins foreither Survival or Lucidity, raise permanent Survival and Lucidity scores, or buy more skills.

Cost (in coins from the Stash)

Attribute One point of temporary Survival or Lucidity

2

New Skill (with Narrator approval)

3

One point of permanent Survival or Lucidity

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current attribute rating + 1

PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER CONFLICTS When players fight each other, the rules are slightly different. Attacking a member of a player’s own Gathering is often much more difficult than attacking anyone else. The Nothing had a hand in bringing a Gathering together, and it fights to keep the group together as well. The aggressor (the player who initiated the conflict) will be the one throwing the coins, and the strength of the defender (the player responding to the conflict) sets the base difficulty. The two characters compare their total Survival and Lucidity to determine who is stronger, and the Narrator consults the conflict chart to set the difficulty. Both the attacker and the defender must make the initial Investment from their appropriate Exhaust Stacks, though the defender doesn’t put their Investment into the cup, they just place it off to the side. Both players have the option of using a Quarter as the Investment only if they don’t have enough coins in either Exhaust Stack to attack or defend. If the attacker and the defender are using Skills or Stuff to aid them in the conflict, the modifiers cancel each other out. The coins are not put into the cup.

1. If the defender is NOT using Skills or Stuff and the aggressor IS, the aggressor puts their coins into the cup normally.

2.

If the aggressor is NOT using Skills and the defender IS, the defender adds one to the difficulty. The same rule applies for Stuff.

Echoes will never help with conflicts within Gatherings. Sniping the Odds works normally for the aggressor. For the defender, every coin they invest raises the difficulty by one, but they can only invest a number equal to half their Hope, rounded up. Coins invested in this way are put in a stack off to the side along with the defender’s initial Investment. If the aggressor wins their roll, the defender loses all the coins in that stack. If the aggressor loses, the defender gets their coins back, plus any extra ones they would receive from Sniping the Odds. Players not involved in the conflict have the option of influencing the outcome. If they wish to help the aggressor, they can Spare Some Change as they normally would. If they wish to help the defender, every coin they invest raises

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the difficulty by one for the aggressor. Coins spent in this way go into the pile with the defender’s initial Investment, and are lost if the aggressor wins their roll. If the aggressor loses, everyone who helped the defender gets their coins back, and everyone who helped the aggressor loses their coins.

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Compared to many traditional roleplaying games, Kingdom of Nothing is unusual in many regards. In order to get the most out of it, experienced players and Narrators must unlearn many roleplaying concepts they hold dear, the most obvious being that the character’s backstory is essential to playing a vibrant and fleshed out character. Because of the collaborative nature of the character and location creation process, the responsibility for the creation of the setting isn’t laid at the feet for the person running the game. At first glance it may seem that this would make things easier for the Narrator, but this isn’t necessarily true. The Narrator doesn’t have free reign to make up whatever they want, and instead has to think on their feet to make all of the elements that the players have introduced gel into one cohesive story, while attempting to make the setting and supporting characters come alive for the players. This chapter is about what’s involved in that process.

SCENES Each game session in Kingdom of Nothing is broken down into elastic units of time called scenes. Each scene builds until there is some conflict.

PLOT COINS Plot Coins are tokens that are used by players to purchase scenes focused on their character. At the beginning of the game, each player starts out with three Plot Coins. As the game progresses, more are given out for a variety of reasons. A player can receive Plot Coins for:

1.

Introducing a new element into the game world, like a new character or Location. There has to be some kind of conflict that goes along with it. A maximum of three Plot Coins per game session can be earned this way. The Narrator may put also put a cap on earlier if they feel that there are too many characters and Locations already.

2. Narrating another player’s Echo acting to protect or guide them. 3.

Taking steps toward achieving another character’s Light at the End of the Tunnel (see The Anatomy of a Ghost, page 22).

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4. Giving another player a Realization (after a secret has been introduced into play; see below).

When the game begins, the players decide amongst themselves who wants to have their scene first. If there’s a conflict, the Narrator decides. After the scene, the person with the most Plot Coins takes their turn. Again, if there’s a tie, the players or the Narrator decide who goes next.

REALIZATIONS Realizations are hints that players can give each other. Anything from ‘You realize that you’ve held a gun before — only last time it was a hunting rifle,’ or something that spurs them to act, like ‘You feel the need to get back to your truck.’

TYPES OF SCENES Survival Scene (0 Plot Coins) The conflict is based around one of the Locations or characters made up by the players. If the player wins, they gain back double their investment for the conflict in the appropriate Exhaust Stack.

Realization Scene (3 Plot Coins) A secret is brought into play. The conflict of the scene involves the aspect of the character sheet the secret was based on.

Burden Scene (5 Plot Coins) When a player receives a new Burden past the original two, or they resolve a Revelation Scene that was based on one of their original two Burdens, they have an opportunity to buy a scene based around the resolution of that Burden. They have to face it head on and succeed in the conflict. If they do, they can get rid of the Burden. If a player chooses to have a Burden Scene that happens to be connected to one of their secrets, the Burden Scene will act as a Realization Scene, in that they can then buy a Revelation Scene. The cost in plot points for a normal Realization Scene is waived. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the Burden

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stays with the character until they have their Revelation Scene, and only goes away if they succeed in the conflict.

Revelation Scene (7 Plot Coins) This is a scene where the conflict is based on the same aspect of the sheet as the Realization Scene, but if the character wins the conflict, they learn what their secret is and raise their permanent Hope by one. If they fail the conflict, they still get the secret but they do not raise their permanent Hope and they get a new Burden. Regardless of success or failure, the character’s temporary Hope is refreshed.

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Life is a constant struggle for the Lost, and it’s the Narrator’s job to bring this across. Simple things most people take for granted, like sleeping, eating, and having shelter are never a guarantee for anyone on the street.

SLEEPING Rest is immeasurably important to survival and sanity, especially for the homeless. It’s also near impossible to get. There are laws forbidding anyone to sleep in public, on subways or pretty much anywhere else that isn’t a residence. For those without residences, the law doesn’t make many suggestions. Caffeine and stimulants are an option, but take that route too long and psychosis starts to set in. There are shelters of course, but those will be discussed. Sometimes it’s not the law that keeps the homeless awake, but the constant stress and paranoia of living in public around kids who think it’s funny to screw with you or crack addicts trying to steal your possessions. However, when everything is said and done, the homeless are left with the same choices we all have: Sleep or your body and mind will suffer. After being awake for a while, the brain has to work harder to counteract the effects of sleep deprivation which means it doesn’t react to things as quickly. Memory starts to go, tremors set in, and the sufferer becomes irritable or depressed. Lack of sleep also releases certain hormones and blocks the release of others, resulting in severe consequences for the body. The sleepless feel hungrier than ever, but nothing they eat is satisfying. All the while they keep gaining weight. The immune system isn’t able to function properly, making it more likely they will get sick, and getting sick on the street can be a death sentence. After extended periods of time, hallucinations start to take hold, and a person’s perception of reality starts to break down (something already tenuous for most of the Lost).

SHELTERS For the most part, there are two types of homeless shelters. One type is run by the government, the other by churches. Shelters seem like an obvious solution for food and a place to sleep to most people who’ve never seen one. In theory, they’re a great idea. In practice, most people would rather sleep on the sidewalk than stay in a shelter.

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To begin with, most cities’ population of homeless far outweighs the amount of space they have available in shelters. Many are turned away if the shelter is at capacity. People who volunteer at shelters usually are there because they want to help, but shelters are run not by people who share this sense of charity. Those running government shelters are doing it because it’s their job. They don’t really care about the individuals, just the number of people they were able to cram into housing so they can show it to their bosses and meet their quota. Church shelters are often run as a misguided attempt to save the souls of those who they perceive to be sinners. Occupants are forced to sit through sermons if they want to have a place to sleep and eat. After a short time, it’s easy for even the volunteers to become jaded in an environment like this. Arguably the most dangerous aspect of shelters are the other inhabitants. Many of the people staying in shelters are harboring some kind of drug problem, or are just psychotic. It’s not hard to imagine what happens when you cram too many of these people together in one place. Belongings get stolen, people get hurt, and disease spreads rampantly. If one of the Lost is desperate for a place to stay and choose a shelter as his best option, it’s more difficult for him to get into one than it would be for a normal person. He has to get noticed by the staff, which is hard to do without causing a scene which would get him thrown out anyway. Once he’s in, he’ll still have to deal with the other occupants. It’s easier for the homeless to notice the Lost, especially in cramped quarters. Though some may wish to help them out, others may wish to take advantage of them.

HEALTH AND HYGIENE The streets are a frighteningly harsh place to live. Constant exposure to the elements, overcrowded shelters and bad nutrition leave one open to a host of diseases and traumatic injuries for which there is no health care. The death rate for the homeless is about four times that of the general population. Tuberculosis, STDs and other communicable diseases are all too common. Keeping up with hygiene also becomes monumentally more difficult. Everything in the city streets is, or eventually becomes, disgustingly filthy. It’s next to impossible to keep anything clean for any extended period of time. When it’s never a certainty whether or not you can eat today, it’s not always possible to get a shower and a shave on a regular basis.

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Those who have been on the streets for a while often have to find ways around these hurdles however. If a gym locker room is available, it’s probably the best option. Nothing beats a hot shower after a few days or weeks of sleeping on cold concrete. When that’s not available, fast food and gas station restrooms will do in a pinch. It just takes a few minutes to splash some water under one’s armpits, brush one’s teeth and get a quick shave before people start knocking on the door, but the relief that comes from this makeshift shower routine is well worth it.

ALCOHOL Though not as immediately dangerous as hard drugs, alcohol still contributes to the downfall of thousands. It’s easy to get for those who are in a dark place and can’t see any way out, mainly because it’s legal. In the short term it helps them deal with their problems... or at least they think it helps. Alcohol is a depressant. All it does it helps them forget momentarily, and once that moment is over, they’re still stuck in the same place, looking for another way out. When you’re constantly trying to find a way to escape, you’re not dealing with the problems that got you there in the first place. You can’t grow, you can’t climb your way out.

DRUGS There are few things on earth that can tear an individual down like a drug habit, few things that can so neatly wrap salvation and damnation together. One can’t go for very long living on the streets without feeling the destructive influence of drugs, whether they’re using or not. Some started as a way to escape the situation they found themselves stuck in. They didn’t see any way out, save for brief excursions into senselessness. For others, drugs were the means to their current end. Once there, they couldn’t find a way out. The streets of any given city are filled with users of some kind. Time begins to wear them down until there’s nothing left in their brain but a couple of flickering synapses that drive them to fulfill the only desire they have left: to get high again. This makes them dangerous not only to themselves, but to the people around them. Plenty of people have turned up dead in the wake of grudges with addicts. Reasons range from a payment for the last deal to a bad look at the wrong time.

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Drugs is a pretty broad term covering a wide range of poisons, each with a different affect on its user, but all with a similar end result. Most street drugs are highly addictive, meaning that a user is going to spend what little money they have trying to get high.

Crack Sometime around the 80’s, dealers found that if they skipped a few of the filtration and extraction processes involved with creating cocaine, they could create more of it for cheaper. Crack-cocaine, or just “crack,” soon hit the streets, and suddenly getting high got a lot more affordable. When a user takes a hit, massive levels of dopamine are released from the brain. This creates an intense euphoria, but only lasts for about 15 minutes. They get energized, nervous, and excited. They also stop eating for a while. After the dopamine wears off, an intense depression sinks in, pushing the user to take another hit. Dopamine levels take a long time to regenerate, so a crack addict is often haunted by the pleasure of their first high, unable to get back to it, but damned to a life of trying. Crack typically comes in the form of a rock, so it can’t be snorted like cocaine. It has to be lit and smoked through a pipe. It has a high melting point and evaporates quickly, so usually the pipe is pretty short. Putting a blistering hot pipe up to one’s mouth usually causes dry, cracked, bleeding lips known as “crack lips.” Less commonly, the drug is injected through a syringe. Because of the acidity of crack prepared in this way, and the frequency a user needs to take a hit to sustain their high, their veins start to erode away.

Heroin In the early 1900s heroin was marketed as a cough medicine for children. After a little more research was done, it was found that it was essentially a highly addictive, more dangerous form of morphine. It has some of the nastiest withdrawal symptoms of pretty much any drug out there. Kids don’t use it as much anymore. There are a number of ways one can take heroin. Snorting or injecting it are probably the most popular, but it can also be smoked. This is called “Chasing the Dragon.” Once taken, euphoria rushes throughout the users body. Their limbs get heavy and their mouth gets dry. Their mind starts to slow down and they enter a dreamy, half asleep state. Feeling gets dulled down to almost nothing.

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Users who’ve been taking heroin for a long time start to build up an immunity to it, so they need more and more to keep getting high. If they go as little as a few hours without getting high, withdrawal starts to kick in. Insomnia, diarrhea, muscle spasms and vomiting, just to name a few. The first 48 to 72 hours are when the symptoms are the worst. After about a week, they begin to subside. Long term use has a lot of bad consequences. Over time, users develop infections in their heart and lungs, collapsed veins, liver disease and other health issues. A large enough dose will kill them on the spot.

Meth Meth comes in a variety of forms; powder, tablets, a crystal that resembles ice, cherry or vanilla flavored... the list goes on. It’s fairly easy to produce for those with a working knowledge of chemistry. It’s components can be found in pharmacies and supermarkets. The main ingredient is ephedrine, an over the counter cold medicine, but other chemicals like Draino, gasoline additives and battery acid are commonly used in the process as well. The drug triggers a release of norepinephrine, dopamine and seretonin. This causes a sudden increase of energy and attentiveness, and euphoria. The user become very talkative and easily agitated. The pleasure that comes out of sex and listening to music is amped up, and they become easily invested in repetitive tasks. The downsides are pretty intense however. Users stop eating, and commonly get tremors. Their teeth begin to rot away, partly because of a craving for sugar and partly because they’re always grinding their teeth (commonly known as “meth mouth”). They can’t sleep, they sweat all the time and usually have diarrhea and/or get nauseous. Using meth for a long time results in inflamation in the brain and spinal chord ultimately leading to serious brain damage, formication (a condition where the afflicted believes their skin to be crawling with bugs) and possibly death by way of a stroke or heart failure.

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This chapter lays out some of the antagonists the characters may face in their journey towards self-discovery. Some are personal demons they will have to face down before they can move on with their lives, where others have existed for hundreds of years in one form or another.

COBWEBS There are two classifications when it comes to creating Cobwebs: Personal and Endemic. Personal Cobwebs are manifestations of things that have direct intimate meaning to the character. An abusive father, a wife, a physical or mental handicap, a crime that was committed against the character; all of these things can work as a Personal Cobweb or Echo. Things that have affected the character but are a little less personal to them would qualify as an Endemic Cobweb. Addiction is a good example of this. Addiction is something that affects a multitude of people. Though it may have personal meaning to a character as it may have had a hand in destroying their life, it’s not the full cause. Other minor Echoes and Cobwebs may come from love, fear, lust, insanity, pride, etc. Endemic Echoes and Cobwebs manifest in subtler ways, so they’re usually good to introduce in the beginning and slowly build up to the more personal, more overt Personal Echoes and Cobwebs. The Narrator should take some time to create Personal Cobwebs for each character. This may seem like a daunting task, but it’s actually pretty easy. The Narrator searches through the character’s secrets and comes up with symbolic representations of the major elements in the character’s life. These elements can be anything including (but not limited to) people from the character’s past, addictions, loves, and events. There are a few common forms Cobwebs will take, depending on what tragedies they’ve manifested from. If a character’s beloved sister wasted wasted away from a terminal sickness, the character may be haunted by swarms of rats, a common symbol of disease. Often if there was a physically abusive figure in the character’s life, a Cobweb will take the shape of a vicious dog or other intimidating animal. Below are a few ideas for spinning Cobwebs from themes in the characters’ backstory. THEY ARE IN NO WAY BINDING! Narrators are encouraged to come up with their own interpretations and symbols:

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Form

Significance

rats

disease, death

cockroaches, spiders, flies and other bugs

drug abuse, insanity

vicious dog

physical violence

children and babies mangy cat

helplessness, dependency

swarms of newspapers fire

some significant current or past event destruction, physical or relationship

blood

guilt, murder

bad luck, hunger

Narrators should feel free to combine these where necessary. Anthropomorphizing some of the elements may help to make them a little more threatening as well. For instance, blood inexplicably pooling up in a room is disturbing, but when a body rises from the pool and begins trying to pull you down into it, it’s a bit more of a conflict. Be careful not to give too much away when choosing your forms, at least in the beginning. If a little girl in a hospital gown shows up to a character, it’s not to hard for them to guess that they were someone from their past who was sick. If they’re attacked by swarms of rats, it’s a little more mysterious. The Narrator has a bit more leeway for building up to a big reveal.

FIGHTING COBWEBS Cobwebs can be broken down into three categories: weak, powerful, and Named Ones. Endemic Cobwebs tend to be fairly weak, while Personal Cobwebs are usually powerful. The Named Ones are incredibly potent creatures that have lived for hundreds of years feeding on the Lost. They can be vanquished with great effort, but are all but impossible to kill for good. Named Ones are explained in more detail below. These categories come into play when the characters enter conflicts with Cobwebs. They determine the beginning difficulty of the challenge. As always, these are just guidelines. Narrators should feel free to adjust these difficulties where appropriate.

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Cobweb Category

Difficulty

weak

“slightly difficult” to escape, “difficult” to fight

powerful

“difficult” to escape, “amazing” to fight

Named Ones or Dimmer-Stiffs

“amazing” to escape, “epic” to fight

THE NAMED ONES There are some evils that saturate the lives of almost all of the Lost. Addiction, destruction, hopelessness...the list goes on. The despair that arose from the destruction of so many human beings from these evils soon coalesced into creatures so great and terrible that they could hardly be associated with even the most potent Cobwebs. They would appear in any city at any time, and wreak destruction upon any who came in contact with them. Tales spread of the them, and it wasn’t long before they were given names by those who had survived encounters with them in fearful reverence. Now, the mere mention of the Named Ones is enough to chill even the most stalwart of the Lost.

Mr. Piggy There is little that the Lost have left to hold on to. A few precious sparks of memory, some places they loved at some point and a few material possessions; anchors that keep them tied to the hope that the future may hold something better for them as their past did. These souvenirs and places are the only things they have left, however, and they are precious to them. It is for this reason Mr. Piggy is so universally feared by all the Lost. There is some debate among the Lost as to what truly brought him into existence. Most people say he is born out of the greed of the rich, consuming

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everything for their own selfish benefit. Others who have been on the street longer, some who have survived an encounter with him, say it’s not so simple as a bunch of mustache twirling villains spending their money to destroy the lives of the wretched street-dwelling scum. They say he may be the result of the city consuming itself, constantly mutating, cannibalizing itself in an effort to keep growing. The victims of this mutation are the old places, the historic buildings, the cheap housing, and anything else the city perceives to be useless. Perhaps its a combination of the two, or maybe its none. The cause, it seems, isn’t as devastating as the effect for the Lost. Piggy’s reason for existence is to consume. He’ll consume anything he can get his hands on, but he’s not a mindless force of nature. He plays at being civilized and has sickly refined tastes. He vastly prefers to destroy things of value to an individual. Homes, objects, or anything else the Lost hold dear. Like many of the Cobwebs, he can take several different forms based on what he needs to accomplish at the time. Most of the time he’ll look like a fat, smelly scrounger dressed in a ragged tweed overcoat and a red hood. His voice has an air of superiority, and he tends to over-pontificate, but he snorts when he laughs. He’ll usually try to catch one of the Lost in a conversation and try to pull information out of them as to what’s most precious to them. He’ll usually have things to trade, but they all provide immediate gratification. Drugs, food and water, porn, even money. Nothing to match the value of the object he’s trying to attain however. If he can get something from some poor sap, he’ll immediately force it into his gullet no matter the size. If it’s a place he’s managed to get from them, it will simply not be there if the Lost goes to see it later. Objects taken in this way are missed much more than if they were taken by anyone else. They’ll dream about the object, and feel it’s absence almost all the time. It takes weeks for the feeling to fade, and even then it’ll never go away completely. Legends tell of a few souls that sought out Mr. Piggy to reclaim that which he took from them. Most never returned, but a few who did described another shape he took when angered. The tweed coat and hood tore away as an impossibly large, obese, legless torso pulled itself out. It dragged itself around on long, spindly arms. It’s hands were incredibly powerful and big enough to enclose an entire body within them. It’s skin was so pale it was translucent, revealing the veins beneath. Where it’s head should be, it had a hogs head with black, empty eye sockets, though somehow it was still able to see. Most are so terrified by the sight of this thing that they are devoured, mind and body, unable to find the strength to defend themselves. Some were able to

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escape alive, but would rather deal with the loss of their precious possession than face the monster again. A brave few met it in combat, slashing it’s belly open and pulling out whatever it was that the beast ate, or decapitating it only to find that they were in the place Piggy took from them to begin with.

The Litterbug The Lost are echoes of their former selves, brought into being by some despair so terrible their reality rearranged itself in order for them not to ever know just how terrible it was. Despite this, despair is an ever present, never welcome force in their lives. For some, things get worse and worse gradually until they become Dimmer-Stiffs. Every once in a blue moon, one person has such a terrible immediate fate befall them that they become literal beacons of despair. It is to these people that the Litterbug is drawn. The Litterbug is so frightening to its victims partly because it has no real shape to speak of. It shows up at the precise moment when some unimaginable sorrow has befallen someone. Often if an individual has lost their entire Gathering, or someone else intimately important to them it’s a sure sign that the Litterbug is just around the corner, though there are a myriad of other similarly dark circumstances that could draw its attention. The wind will pick up and a few pieces of trash will blow by. Some of these will get stuck on any of the bystanders. As the wind gets more and more intense, more trash begins blowing in. Soon there is a literal tornado of newspapers, fast food containers, cans and other pieces of trash surrounding the source of the despair. It covers anyone in the immediate vicinity from head to toe. Some say that an ominous face is sometimes visible in the violent tornado of garbage. As the trash begins to blow away, the victims it covered aren’t there anymore. One of the strangest aspects about the whole situation is that the individual whose despair brought about the Litterbug is unaffected. The whole time they’re stuck in a trance-like state, unaware of anything that’s going on around them. Afterward, they can’t be convinced that anything bad happened to them, or that anyone really disappeared. They just forget. Inevitably the people who disappeared will show up later somewhere a few weeks later. No one knows what they go through in the brief time they’ve disappeared, only that they are deeply scarred by it and will never be the same again. Often they’ll be found in an alley or dumpster, covered in garbage and catatonic. Some are found washed up in a river having drowned, or dead on the street having starved themselves.

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In some rare situations, the one who brought the Litterbug around in the first place can be found and convinced to face the thing that happened to them. It first has to be ascertained what it was exactly, because they themselves will never know. This is usually done using Rag-Pennies and Glimmerjoints. It’s an extraordinarily dangerous task doing this however, as the feelings stirred up by this event will always bring the Litterbug back to claim those who are responsible for bringing the emotions back up. It is possible, in some rare situations, for the depression not to overtake the subject of the Litterbug’s interest. If they are able to face an overcome the despair, the monster disperses and those who it took appear over the next few days with no memory of where they’ve been, but with terrible, indescribable nightmares.

The White Lady They say we always hurt the ones we love. With any addiction, this is too true. Though the hell that the user’s body and mind are put through are bad, it’s worse for their loved ones to have to watch. This torment that comes out of loving an addict is what gave birth to the White Lady. ‘Lady’ is a term used loosely, because she’ll take the form of a man or woman based on what she wants to achieve, though she’ll always dress in white. She preys on Lost who’ve recently found someone who they loved at one point. She’s drawn to newfound sparks of hope. The White Lady appears at first as an attractive philanthropist looking to help out someone in need. The fact that she can actually see the Lost doesn’t even register with most of her victims, and if it’s brought to their attention most won’t care. They’re too excited that someone from the outside can interect with them. She’ll work on building up a relationship with her victims, being everything they could ever want in a companion. If they fall in love with her, she disappears immediately. After a week or so of misery and loneliness, she’ll appear again, only now every time she spends time with her victim, their loved one begins to suffer. They become inexplicably ill with symptoms that don’t seem to match any known malady. Their mind starts to slowly drift into maddness. They begin to forget who the people are around them, and whenever they fall asleep they dream about a strange woman dressed in white tormenting them. This will continue until the afflicted person is dead, at which point the White Lady leaves the Lost forever. It’s said by many that the White Lady can easily be defeated. Unlike Mr. Piggy, who takes the form of a massive grotesque monster or the Litterbug, who

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takes no form that can be concievably hurt, the White Lady has never been known to put up a fight. She’ll ignore any requests to leave however, so the only way to rid oneself of her destructive presence is to kill her. It can’t be done by anyone who doesn’t love her with all their heart and soul. Those who say it’s easy to kill her never had to strangle the life out of someone who meant the world to them. Like any addict kicking an addiction, they have to kill the one source of comfort they’ve had to rely on. After the deed is done, the afflicted loved one makes a miraculous recovery. The tragic irony is that they can’t see the Lost responsible for their sickness or recovery, and they won’t know the terrible sacrifice they had to make in order to save them.

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DIMMER-STIFFS Eater of Sins The Lost are a society within the larger society that’s rejected them. In order for any society to function, it must have laws. In order to have laws, a society must have punishments. This is how the Eater of Sins got its name. Little is known about who the Eater was in a former life. It’s assumed that he was wrongly imprisoned for decades, and when he was finally released he had nowhere to go but underground. There he stayed and festered, letting his bitterness overcome him, transforming him into a monster. This creature lurks in the bowels of the city, within the massive labyrinth of the sewer system. Like most Dimmer-Stiffs, it has a host of Dragranks at its beck and call. Unlike most Dimmer-Stiffs, it never has to leave its nest because the Lost send their own to feed it. Any time one of the Lost commits a crime against another one of their own, a tribunal is called. A glyph is scrawled in white chalk on every street corner: It disappears after the first good rain, but it means that all the Gatherings in the immediate vicinity are expected to attend and judge the accused. The facts are presented by an impartial party, and the guilty is given a chance to plead their case. In the end, everyone present gets to vote whether the accused is innocent or guilty by show of a thumbs up or down. If they are found guilty, they’re taken to a Flickerport that brings them to some undisclosed location in the sewers, the domain of the Eater of Sins. All Flickerports are one-way only, so the guilty party has little chance of finding their own way out. The Eater’s Dragranks are hideously mutated. Some have extra limbs that hang lifelessly from their body, or mishapen heads. Others crawl around on all fours, feeding on sewage. Their eyes are large, pale white orbs that are extremely sensitive to light. They skitter around in the dark, whispering and plotting, attempting to lead their victim into traps they’ve set up all throughout the tunnels. If they’re able to capture the hapless wanderer, they’ll usually spend some time torturing them and starving them before bringing them to their master.

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The Eater of Sins is aptly named. It looks like it’s done nothing but eat for decades. It’s chamber is in the deepest part of the tunnels, a cylidrical room stretching up a few hundred feet, whose walls are perforated with large drainage pipes. The pipes spout raw sewage into a pool that the Eater resides in at the bottom. The creature itself is a slimey pink mass of amorphous flesh covered in an exposed network of thick red veins. Heads and limbs push their way out and sink back in as they are needed for feeding or talking. Few have escaped the tunnels, but those who have are given pardon for their crime, whatever it was. Those who’ve heard the stories know that no one would dare risk being sent back to deal with the Eater of Sins.

The Vermin God Cities are host to a thriving ecosystem of cockroaches, rats and other unpleasant pests. For most, all they’ll see of that world is an occasional rat in the subway scrounging for food, or a few cockroaches feeding on some food that was left out overnight. For those living on the street, it’s a little more serious. Keeping food clean and safe from these unwanted intruders is almost impossible, made worse by the fact that often they carry disease with them. The Lost have more than just their food to worry about getting stolen by vermin, they have to worry about their own companions as well. They say that when the Vermin God was human, he and his friends got into a tiff with another Gathering. They laid claim over the Jitneymill the Vermin God’s Gathering had taken up residence in. The rival Gathering broke in to the mill while the resedents were sleeping and slaughtered all but the leader, who they hung upside down and left for dead. He suffered for days as his friends festered below him, drawing all manner of flies, maggots and rats to feast on their corpses. Soon his despair got the better of him and he was reborn as the monster he is known as today. The Vermin God tends to go into long periods of hibernation in abandoned places, forgotten or otherwise. Mostly it will tend to choose old industrial complexes. It will lie in wait with its Dragranks, all holed up in white hanging cocoons covered in a thick viscus ichor. It waits for some unfortunate Gathering to discover the building and trespass into its domain. It expels the interlopers with waves upon waves of rats that burst forth from the rotting walls. It then proceeds to hunt them down, using insects and rodents as it’s eyes and ears. Once it finds them, it sends its Dragranks to capture one of them and bring them back to the hive. It then sits back and waits for the rest of the party

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to come and retrieve their companion and walk into its trap. His Dragranks are rotting wraithlike creatures, swarming with flies and cockroaches. They bring with them teeming masses of rats that gnaw and bite anyone trying to get in the way of their intended prey. The Dragranks themselves bite as well, pumping a fast-acting poison into the blood of their quarry. Once they’re incapacitated, the creatures drag them away and the rats follow soon after. Should the Gathering go after their comrade, they’ll find that the once undisturbed hive is now alive and angry. At the center of the crawling chaos is the Vermin God itself. From afar, it looks like a normal man, hairless and nude, covered in the same ooze that the cocoons were. Its eyes are jet black. It jumps impossible distances, crawls around on walls like a fly and when it’s ready to feed, a massive pair of chitinous pincers emerge from it’s mouth to rend its vitcims flesh. It secretes the same paralyzing poison the Dragranks do, and spits a thick foam that hardens almost immediately as it touches the air. If its victims escape, it goes back into hibernation until the next visitors come into its domain.

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GATHERINGS Portrayed here are a few Gatherings that might take up residence in the city the characters live in. They’re all painted in pretty broad strokes, and a Narrator should feel free to modify them however they see fit.

Felix Culpa Sin’s influence is felt on every street corner, in every back alley and slum. It’s one of the only constants in a world of uncertainty and lies. The temptation of loving something one shouldn’t and the blessed release of giving into that forbidden love is enough to keep some people going. For the Felix Culpa, this love is the essence of being. It is God. Widely considered to be a cult by outsiders, the Felix Culpa rejoice in the fall from grace. They teach that any desire has the power to destroy one’s soul if it is fought. The harder one fights, the more power they give it to do harm. If that desire can be embraced, than the addictions and desires become pathways to inner peace. When one is no longer using all their energy unnecessarily fighting themselves, they can put that energy into fighting the outside world. They point to the peyote-induced vision quests of the Native Americans and the Bacchanalian cults of ancient Greece as enlightened men and women who demonstrate their ideal. The head of this Gathering is a figure shrouded in mystery. Weir they call him. Few have actually seen him in person, though pretty much everyone says they have. Ask ten people what he looks like, and you’ll get ten different answers. A few things are generally agreed upon. He’s old now, and very powerful. When he was young, soon after he became Lost, the White Lady descended upon him. Like all the others, all of Weir’s family, all of his loved ones, perished or went completely mad. When the White Lady had taken all of the people he used to care about away from him though, she didn’t leave like she’s done every time before with everyone else whose lives she destroyed. She stayed because for the first time she was actually in love herself. She gave him a gift; a beautiful crystalline drug. It could easily be mistaken for a diamond, but when smoked for the first time it’s said to be the most powerfully euphoric experience the human mind is capable of enduring. It’s also immediately addictive and can kill the user if they’re not strong enough to handle it’s effects. It’s called Aepoth. She taught him how to make it, but that’s a secret he’s not shared with anyone. He’s cooked it in abundance and given it to anyone in the

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Felix Culpa, provided they never sell it to outsiders. This is the one unforgivable sin within the Gathering, and is punishable by death. Anyone can join the Gathering, but those who do are rarely are seen or heard from again. Some outside the Gathering say that their leader is simply a Dimmer-Stiff who’s found a way to trick people into willingly come to him. Others say that Aepoth requires some kind of human sacrifice to cook, and that this is where the new recruits go. Possibly the most frightening rumor of all is that the White Lady herself is pulling the strings, leading people who otherwise could have fought their addiction and overcome it. Whatever the truth is, anyone who’s ever beaten an addiction can speak to the fact that giving in to ones vices never leads to happiness or enlightenment in the long run, only misery.

The Disciples of St. Jude Faith is one of the greatest wellsprings of hope in the human spirit. The belief that the world of the flesh is fleeting and something greater waits for those who persevere often leads to a close kinship with others who share the same creed. There are many Gatherings brought together by religion. Arguably the largest is the St. Jude’s Disciples, derisively known as the Mission Stiffs by outsiders. Their evangelical, almost medieval outlook on religion is a bit frightening to most Lost. They believe that every person living on the street is being punished for some wrong they’ve perpetrated some time in their lives, and they will inevitably be stuck there until they earn God’s forgiveness. This drives followers to preach barefoot on the street for hours in the winter wearing nothing but a monks robe, screaming to pedestrians who aren’t able to hear them. Self-inflicted flagellation is fairly commonplace among other forms of torture to strengthen the body and spirit. The Disciples will often hole up in Galway Lighthouses, healing those who’ve pushed themselves too far just enough to keep them alive. They will almost never let outsiders in, no matter how badly injured they are. Anyone not part of the Gathering is considered unholy, and will defile the place in the eyes of the Lord. They will however accept the needy if they pledge their life to the Disciples. Desertion is out of the question however. Any deserters are hunted down by the Inquisitors and brought back. The escapee is locked up without food, water or light for days or sometimes even weeks on end. The first time it’s done in a cell. The second time its a coffin or waterproof box that’s sunk to the bottom of a river. The third time they don’t retrieve them.

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Where they can, the Disciples will muscle out any Gathering holding on to a Galway Lighthouse, letting just anyone enter and be healed. They’re not above killing the inhabitants, claiming that any who they vanquish will be judged by God. The Gathering is obsessed with the Final Judgment. Most are Apocalypse scholars, and can quote by heart texts in their entirety dealing with the subject. Members are taught to look forward to the End Times, when their time of suffering will be at an end and will seem like a distant memory in the eternity of everlasting happiness to come for the truly faithful.

The Odists Before the world was civilized, unknown horror lay in wait within shadows and under nightfall. Hungry beasts, strange peoples and other threats we wouldn’t dare even think of. These were things we couldn’t possibly comprehend, let alone fight back. So it was that the story was invented. Stories were able to explain what things were and where they came from. They gave us strength to venture out and push back the shadows. Time passed and the stories changed. We learned more and more about the shadows, and so truth was introduced into the tales. This only strengthened their power, and soon we had conquered all the darkness and the light of civilization touched every corner of this once mysterious world. Though some found solace in the old stories, we didn’t rely on them as we once did. We spread out too thin however, too greedily. We were so concerned about pushing ahead, our center became weak. The places we had first brought light into started to become rotten and obscured. Shadows crept back into the forgotten corners of the city, seeking to reclaim a world that had once been rightfully theirs. Once again, the storytellers were needed to help fight back the shadows. A Gathering was formed after this tradition. They called themselves the Odists. There’s no real defining visual characteristic of any given Odist, save for a small glyph tattooed on their left hand resembling a lyre. They’re pretty jovial folk for the most part. When they begin a tale, one can always notice a passionate glint in their eye. Their voice takes on an entirely different quality from that of their normal speaking tone, as if they’re body is present but their soul is in another time and place, reliving the events in vivid detail. They won’t stay in any one place for too long. When they’re in town, they’ll make their way around trading stories for a place to sleep and a little food. They’ll never say outright that they belong to the Gathering, but if it comes

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out, most of the time the surrounding Lost show them a great deal of respect and admiration. Some con artists have taken to tattooing the glyph on their hand in order to receive the fringe benefits of being a member without taking on their responsibilities. The Odists have some unexplained way of knowing when someone’s a faker. If they catch one, they’ll promptly walk up to them and whisper something into their ear. Before the next day’s out, the faker will have lost their left hand in some freakish accident. No one knows what exactly they whisper. No one wants to ask and hear it themselves. Some say that this is pretty harsh punishment for such a small crime, but the Gathering takes their work very seriously. Few enjoy laying curses upon those already down on their luck, but it’s too important that the stories remain unmolested by amateurs. Much of what the Lost know about the shadows that threaten them come from the tales told by wandering Odists. They speak of DimmerStiffs and Dragranks, of Cobwebs and Named Ones. Sometimes their stories are about addiction or despair. The tales always revolve around one or more of the Lost, and

their attempts to vanquish the foul demons that inhabit the Nothing, mundane or not. Sometimes the heroes win, and sometimes they lose, but always the audience learns something that will inevitably keep them alive and fighting for a little longer, be it anything from a weakness they can exploit in a Cobweb to the simple lesson that despite all the bleakness around them, there is still hope for the Lost. One just needs to keep looking. An Odist will always tell a story about hope before they skip town.

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RAG-PENNIES Rag-Pennies range from common trinkets to rare and powerful magical items. Some of them are always active, while others may require activation. Players and Narrators are encouraged to come up with their own ideas for Rag-Pennies, but keep in mind there’s a subtle difference between the magic of Rag-Pennies and other magic items in fantasy literature. Rag-Pennies aren’t super powers, and shouldn’t make anything too easy for the characters. An item that makes a character fly around at super speed isn’t thematically appropriate. Try something subtler. A pair of sneakers that forms phantom steps out of pieces of paper flying around, which blow away as soon as the character’s foot leaves the step. The following are a few more examples of RagPennies. Notice that some of them require a conflict to use. Keep this in mind when creating new Rag-Pennies

Clatterpans One of the many downsides to living on the street is the complete lack of security. While someone is away from their home, anyone can go in and steal their possessions without much trouble. Clatterpans offer a small amount of protection to that end. Owners of Clatterpans can set up a simple trap, running a tripwire across the entrance to their dwelling, connected to the pans. If someone trips the wire, the pans come crashing down, and wherever the owner is, they’ll hear the alarm and get a flash of the interloper’s appearance. It requires an Easy conflict to set up Clatterpans. If the player fails the throw, it won’t be readily apparent to the character until the trap doesn’t work right.

Wound Salters More than anything, most of the Lost want to be remembered by their loved ones. Wound Salters can provide that wish, but only for a few precious hours. Sometimes that’s all someone needs to keep themselves going, but most of the time it leaves the user in a worse place than they were before. Wound Salters come in many forms, but they’re always small, fragile glass items. The bearer has to find the person who can’t remember them, and somehow get that person to take the Wound Salter willingly. This usually requires a conflict, the difficulty of which is determined by the Narrator. As long as the item is safe, the one who took it will regain all their memories of the Lost who gave it to them. Bad luck always follows an active Wound Salter however. No matter how hard one tries to keep it safe, it always happens to fall out of a hole in a pocket,

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or get crushed accidentally, or have any number of other mishaps befall upon it that end up breaking it. As soon as the Wound Salter is broken, so is the spell. The recipient no longer remembers the Lost and goes on like nothing happened. For the Lost, the memories don’t go away.

Tipper In any city around the world people who play music for tips, or “buskers,” are a pretty common sight. In the constant rush of the largely uncaring crowds, it can be hard to squeeze out a few bucks playing music. This is why Tippers are so sought after. A Tipper can be any instrument, though drums and guitars are the most common forms. They stir up deep emotions in anyone passing by who can hear the music. Most of the time these are happy emotions which inspire the listener to tip the busker generously. Every so often though, someone who’s been repressing some dark feelings deep down won’t react so positively. They could call the police or even attack the musician. Using a Tipper requires a Moderate conflict. Failure means that someone (or a few people) had a negative reaction to the music and will cause some kind of trouble.

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INDEX Act of Desperation: 41 Alcohol: 56 Burdens: 25 • Addictions: 25 • Burden Scenes: 49 • Frailties: 25 • Psychoses: 25 Burden Scenes: 49 Character Concept: 19 Character Creation: 18 • Burdens: 25 • Character Concept: 19 • Connections: 32 • Exhaust Stacks: 22 • Hope: 21 • Light at the End of the Tunnel: 22 • Locations: 30 • Lucidity: 21 • Nickname: 20 • Phase One: 18, 19 • Phase Two: 18, 26 • Phase Three: 18, 32 • Secrets: 26, 28 • Skills: 23 • Stuff: 24 • Survival: 21 Checks: 36 Cobwebs : 7, 12, 62, 63, 64 • Endemic Cobwebs: 62 • Litterbug, The: 66 • Mr. Piggy: 64 • Named Ones: 63, 64 • Personal Cobwebs: 62 • White Lady, The: 67

Conflict: 36 • Act of Desperation: 41 • Difficulty: 37, 38 • Investment: 38, 39 • Player Vs. Player: 44 • Sniping the Odds: 40 • Sparing Some Change: 41 • Stakes: 37 Connections: 32 Despair: 22 Difficulty: 37, 38 Dimmer-Stiffs: 13, 64, 69 • Eater of Sins: 69 • Vermin God, The: 69 Dragranks: 13 Drugs: 56 • Crack: 57 • Heroin: 57 • Meth: 58 Echoes: 7, 12, 23, 40, 62 Endemic Cobwebs: 62 Exhaust Stacks: 22, 39, 41 Flickerports: 10 Forgotten Places, The: 9 • Flickerports: 10 • Galway Lighthouses: 10 • Glimmerjoints: 10 • Jitneymills: 10 • Stitcher Shacks: 11 Galway Lighthouses: 10

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INDEX Gatherings: 8, 72 • Disciples of St. Jude, The: 73 • Felix Culpa: 72 • Odists, The: 74 Glimmerjoints: 10 Health and Hygiene: 55 Hope: 21, 40, 41, 43, 50 Investment: 38, 39 Jitneymills: 10 Light at the End of Tunnel: 22, 48 Locations: 30 Lost, The: 7, 8 Lucidity: 21, 39, 41 Named Ones: 63, 64 • Litterbug, The: 66 • Mr. Piggy: 64 • White Lady, The: 67

Realization Scene : 49 Revelation Scene: 43, 50 Scenes: 48 • Burden Scene: 49 • Realization Scene: 49 • Revelation Scene: 43, 50 • Survival Scene: 49 Secrets: 26, 28 Secrets Sheet: 26 Shelters: 54 Skills: 23, 40 Sleeping : 54 Sniping the Odds: 40 Sparing Some Change: 41 Stakes: 37 Stash: 43

Nickname: 20

Stitcher Shacks: 11

Nothing, The: 7

Stuff: 24, 40

Personal Cobwebs : 62

Survival: 21, 39, 41

Player Vs. Player Conflict: 44

Survival Scene: 49

Plot Coins: 48 Rag-Pennies: 10, 11, 76 • Clatterpans: 76 • Tippers: 77 • Wound Salters: 76

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RELATIONSHIP MAP

NICKNAME

CONCEPT

HOPE [ ] DESPAIR [ ] SURVIVAL [ ] LUCIDITY [ ] THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL STASH WHAT JUST HAPPENED TO YOU?

SKILLS MENTAL:

PHYSICAL:

ECHO BURDENS 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

STUFF