Paper Mario, Mario and all related properties are a trademark of Nintendo.

Nintendo does not sponsor, authorise or endorse Paper Story.

v1.6.1
Version History
• v1.0 (11/7/20)
• v1.0.1 (12/7/20)
• v1.1 (15/11/20)
• v1.2 (2/7/21)
• v1.2.1 (4/7/21)
• v1.2.2 (5/7/21)
• v1.2.3 (14/10/21)
• v1.2.4 (22/11/21)
• v1.2.5 (5/1/22)
• v1.3 (5/3/22)
• v1.4 (27/6/22)
• v1.5 (10/3/23)
• v1.6 (26/11/23)
• v1.6.1 (30/11/23)
Credit Where Credit Is Due
Paper Story owes its existence to the following people:
• Nintendo & Intelligent Systems for creating these games in the first
places. Please support the original developers.
Paper Mario, in all its forms, is © Nintendo.
Paper Mario, Mario and all related properties are a trademark of
Nintendo. Nintendo does not sponsor, authorise or endorse Paper Story.
This is just a fangame. I cannot stress that enough.
• Artistic and design credits for individual sections as provided.
• LadyLuck for their amazing Paper Mario asset packs, which Paper Story
both borrows from and leans on heavily. Credits are provided wherever
possible but their work deserves special mention.
• HammerBro101 for their work on the font Mario Font v3 Solid which
Paper Story borrows for its headers.
• All of the Wonderful @Players playing along and providing great
feedback on Discord. Special mention to:
o @afanguy for their incredible work on the Avrae dice bot we use
to represent the nudge system.
o @lucydndprincess for their exhaustive homebrew content and
consistently running excellent games for everyone to enjoy.
o @RT1337 and @tact.elive for playing along in the early days,
which helped immensely and inspired me to keep this up.
• Emily, Matt and Trent, for supporting (and putting up with) this silly little
passion of mine.

Always remember, Paper Story is a free product and 100% open source for you,
the fans, to enjoy.

-Deuce (+-Joy Games)

Our Story Begins
Paper Story is a roleplaying game rooted in the design of the classic Paper
Mario games, allowing you to take those familiar worlds and tell your own
stories within them.

If you want to talk about or play Paper Story, feel free to join us on the
Discord!
https://discord.gg/AUQJmKH5pf
And if you stumbled onto this game and don't know where to look for more
information, you can always find it in its home at Itch.
https://joy-games.itch.io/paper-story

For those of you new to roleplaying, TTRPG's are known as either tabletop or
table-talk roleplaying games. They have common roots with their digital
cousins, but are quite a bit different where it counts.

Basically, one player acts as Game Master – equal parts referee and
storyteller, this player controls the entire world of NPC's and oversees its rules.
All the other players are responsible for their own characters and their
actions.
Completely responsible. The only real constraints you have are what seems
reasonable to your game and the people you play with.

As you might expect, these games are a lot more flexible by nature. You have
the opportunity to literally play a role, and it's generally expected that you
make choices that are consistent with the role of your character – even if
they're not strictly speaking what a 'good' player would do.

There are many more write-ups that go into deeper detail than this with
respect to the big-name RPG's – Dungeons and Dragons, World of Darkness,
Savage Worlds, to name a few.
If that generally sounds like a lot of fun, I'd highly recommend you look into
some of those games, and of course have fun with Paper Story!
Table of Contents
How to Play ............................. 8 Ranged .......................................40 Clone ......................................... 84
Rolling and Nudging Dice .............. 9 Reach .........................................40 Construct................................... 86
Rolling Without A Dicepool .......... 10 Repeat ........................................40 Contact ..................................... 86
Rolling With Your Friends ............ 10 Revive .........................................40 Elevation ................................... 87
Partial Bonuses ........................... 10 Roulette .....................................41 Efficient ..................................... 87

Grades of Success ................. 11 Safe ............................................41 Fly ............................................. 88

Scaling ........................................41 Handless .................................... 88
Heart Skills ............................ 12
Secure ........................................41 Hover ......................................... 88
Spirit Skills ............................. 13
Selective .....................................42 Immune ...................................... 88
Courage Skills ........................ 14 Sequential ..................................42 Intangibility ............................... 89
Character Creation ............... 16 Shared ........................................42 Invisibility................................... 89
Species .................................. 18 Simple .........................................42 Latent ....................................... 89
Bob-Omb ..................................... 19 Snatch .......................................42 Mimicry ...................................... 90
Boo ............................................. 20 Spillover ......................................43 Resilient ..................................... 92
Dayzee ....................................... 21 Split ............................................43 Resist ......................................... 92
Goomba ...................................... 21 Strike-Through ............................43 Sinker ........................................ 92
Koopa......................................... 22 Strong ........................................43 State ......................................... 93
Squeek ....................................... 22 Stun ...........................................43 Undead ...................................... 93

Level Up! ............................... 23 Swap ..........................................43 Weakness ................................... 93

Terrain ........................................44 Statuses ................................ 94
Combat .................................. 24
Throw .........................................44 Boosted ..................................... 94
First Strikes and Initiative ..... 25
Tool ............................................44 Charmed .................................... 94
Free Actions and Reactions .. 25 Tutor ..........................................45 Confused.................................... 95
Targeting............................... 26 Underfoot ...................................45 Dazed ........................................ 95
Damage and Knockouts ........ 27 Variant .......................................45 Disarmed .................................... 95
Techniques ............................ 28 Weaken ......................................45 Disoriented ................................ 95
Damage Calculation .................... 28 Negative Technique Traits .... 46 Hustled ...................................... 95
Strikes ........................................ 29 Blowback ....................................46 Lingering .................................... 96
Technique Traits......................... 30 Commitment................................46 Provoked.................................... 96
Trait Effects ............................... 31 Conditional .................................46 Secure ....................................... 96

Positive Technique Traits ...... 32 Cooldown ....................................46 Stunned ..................................... 96

Delayed ......................................47 Tutored...................................... 97
Aerial .......................................... 32
Exhausting..................................47 Weakened .................................. 97
All ............................................... 32
Fumble ........................................47 Terrain ................................... 98
Allies........................................... 32
Harmless .....................................48 Dark ........................................... 98
Alternative ................................. 32
Lacking.......................................48 Elevated .................................... 99
Boost .......................................... 33
Others ........................................48 Gale ........................................... 99
Burst .......................................... 33
Penalty.......................................48 Goop ........................................ 100
Charm ........................................ 33
Self .............................................49 Heatwave ................................ 100
Coin Toss .................................... 34
Shorten ......................................49 Lava ........................................ 101
Counter ...................................... 34
Side-Effect ..................................49 Overgrown ............................... 101
Confuse ...................................... 35
Situational ..................................49 Rain ......................................... 102
Daze........................................... 35
Team ..........................................50 Sandstorm ............................... 102
Disarm ........................................ 35
Unwieldy.....................................50 Spikes ...................................... 103
Dismiss ........................................ 35
Weak ..........................................50 Smog ........................................ 103
Disorient ..................................... 35
Divider ........................................ 35 Star Power ............................. 52 Snow ........................................ 104
Drain .......................................... 36 Exceptional Techniques ......... 54 Static ...................................... 104
Element ...................................... 36 Example of Play ..................... 56 Underground ............................ 105
Empower..................................... 36 Underwater ............................. 106
Skills in Detail ........................ 62
Fear ........................................... 36 Inventory ............................. 108
Aim – Item Attacks ......................62
Flowery ...................................... 36 Items ........................................ 108
Athletics – Fleeing.......................62
Group ......................................... 36 Power-Ups ................................ 114
Coordination – Swapping .............62
Hearty........................................ 36 Gear ........................................ 124
Guard – Reducing Damage ..........64
Homing ....................................... 36 Badges ..................................... 130
Heal – Recovery ..........................66
Hustle......................................... 37 Tips for the Game Master .... 138
Crafts – Working from Scratch .....68
Indirect ...................................... 37 NPC Inaction ............................ 139
Crafts – Enhancing and Mixing ....70
Launch ....................................... 37 NPC Action............................... 139
Magic – Spontaneous Spells .........72
Lengthen.................................... 37 Star Power Techniques ............. 140
Trickery – Dodging ......................76
Lingering .................................... 37 Simplified Rules ......................... 142
Cheer – Cheering People On ........78
Lucky Hit.................................... 38 Travel Time .............................. 143
Perform – Appeals........................78
Minion ........................................ 39 Partner System ........................ 144
Perform – Stylish Moves ...............79
Overrun ...................................... 39 True and Honest Paper Mario ... 146
Steady – Resisting Effects ...........80
Piercing ...................................... 40 Darker and Edgier .................... 146
Personal Traits ...................... 82
Provoke ...................................... 40 Resources ............................ 147
Aquatic .......................................82
Quake......................................... 40
Carrier ........................................82
How to Play
Characters in Paper Story all follow the same general rules. They all have three
Stats, and a variety of Skills that fall under the umbrella of those stats.

• Heart – your Health Points and physical ability.

Characters have 5 HP x their Heart – to a minimum of 1 HP.
• Spirit – your Flower Points and mental/technical ability.
Characters have 5 FP x their Spirit.
• Courage – your Badge Points and spiritual/social ability.
Characters have 3 BP x their Courage.

In addition, players have some special stats used for combat, which aren't
related to the main three stats.
• Power – your raw combat skill and capacity for dealing damage to foes.
The base damage for your Techniques is determined by your Power.
You begin play with 1 Power, unless your Species modifies it.
• Attack – how hard you can hit in the heat of the moment. Under most
circumstances, your Attack is 0, but it can temporarily go up or down.
Every one of your Strikes are modified by your Attack.
• Defense – whenever you're struck in combat, you reduce the damage by
your Defense. You get your full Defense against all strikes made against
you, even if they're made by the same attacker.
For most species, your beginning Defense is 0, though this can be
improved with Gear.

Before we go any further, there's just a few more general rules to cover off:
• Players generally have one "action" per turn, representing something
they want to do with the time they have. Usually this warrants a skill
check (and thus, rolling dice).
When there's no time pressure (such as outside of battle), these actions
can be resolved in any order.
• If something is measured in "turns", outside of battle, treat 1 turn as
being about a minute.
• If a number is divided in any way, unless otherwise specified, round the
remainder down to the nearest whole number – to a minimum of 1.
Be careful, sometimes this will go down to 0! Usually when it would give
an unfair advantage for ½ of 1 to wind up the same as ½ of 2. In these
cases though the minimum is specified.

Things get a little more complicated in battle, but the following core rules are
at the heart of everything in Paper Story!

Page 8
Rolling and Nudging Dice
Paper Story uses the Nudge System, a lightweight form of conflict resolution
where you roll a pool of dice, then try to nudge the results into your favour.

For every Skill point and relevant Specialisation you have on any given check,
you can roll an additional six-sided die (1d6).
Non-player characters (NPC's) don't have Stats, Skills or Specialisations, and
they don't roll at all.
The spotlight is always on the players. No matter what, your success and
failure hinges on your own actions.

When you make a check you're using your Skill, and the Stat it falls under, to
try and make something happen, which prompts a dice roll.
Each time you roll your dice, you're hoping to roll 4 or more; the Target
Number.
When a die shows a number equal to or greater than that, it counts as a
Success. And if you roll a 6, you can add another d6 to your pool and roll it,
too!

Your Stats make you more consistent, allowing you to nudge the results into
your favour. For every point you have in the appropriate Stat, you can modify
a die result by 1. If this turns it into a 6, you can roll another d6, just the same
as if you'd rolled it naturally.
Example: Standard Checks
A Koopa with 3 Heart and 2 Coordination tries to hammer a Goomba,
making an attack roll.
He rolls two dice (2d6) for his Coordination, and rolls 4 and 1.
4 is a successful result, so this counts as 1 Success – a Nice result!
He can then spend his 3 points in Heart to increase the 1 to a 4, making 2
Successes. (A Good result!)

Be warned, though – if at any point more than half of your dice are 1's, you
suffer a Critical Failure! You lose all your Successes, and your action may fail
spectacularly.
Example: Critical Failure
A Bob-Omb with 2 Heart and 2 Guard attempts to block a spinning shell
attack from an enemy Koopa.
He rolls two dice (2d6) for his Guard, and rolls 4 and 1.
4 is a successful result, so this counts as 1 Success – a Nice result, able to
block the damage.
The Bob-Omb thinks they can do better, and nudges their 4 into a 6, giving
them another d6 to roll.
The new d6 comes up 1; and now more than half their dice are 1's! It's a
Critical Failure. They got greedy!
The Bob-Omb takes the damage full-force, and the GM decides this failure
causes the Koopa to spin around them, Disorienting them for the next turn!

Page 9
Rolling Without A Dicepool
Due to situational penalties or a lack of skill you might find yourself rolling at 0
dice – or less. In these cases you can't use your Stats at all!
Anything less than 1 die is rolled as 1d6, with negative numbers subtracting
from the number of Successes.
Example: Rolling without dice
A Boo with 1 Courage and 0 Persuade tries to talk his way out of a dire
situation. He rolls one die (1d6), with a result of 3 – he can't fix that up
with his Courage, so he has no Successes!

Rolling With Your Friends

So what do you do when your skills fall short? You turn to your teammates!
When you take an action to assist someone else's check, you take ½ the dice
you would have for the action (rounded down, to a minimum of 0) and add
them to the other character's dicepool.
Then, they can use your Stat points as well as their own to nudge the dice in
their favour.
You have to have at least 1d6 yourself to assist! Otherwise your help isn't
useful enough to provide any advantage.
Example: Working together
A Koopa, a Bandit and a Dayzee try to lift a heavy stone statue to inspect
what's underneath, using Athletics.
The Koopa volunteers to lead the job; they have 3 Heart and 3 Athletics.
The Bandit has 2 Heart and 2 Athletics, and the Dayzee has just 1 Heart
and 1 Athletics.
The Koopa can roll 3d6 from their own Athletics, and +1d6 from the Bandit
– they don't get any dice from the Dayzee, because their Athletics is too
low.
The four dice come up 2, 2, 3 and 3. Fortunately, pooling together
everyone's Heart, the group has 6 Heart to spend, enough to boost
everything to 4 for a Great result!

Partial Bonuses
In some cases you may receive a situational bonus for part – but not all – of
your check. Such as a Guard (VS Ranged) Specialisation, when you're being
attacked both in range and in melee, or a Disoriented enemy, when you're
attacking them and their healthy allies at the same time.
In these cases, you only receive the benefit if it would apply to more than half
of the check (whether that's the number of different targets you're attacking,
the number of different attacks you're blocking, or anything else).

Page 10
Grades of Success
The number of Successes needed for any action is reduced to a shorthand,
representing how impressive your actions are. These are referred to as Grades
of Success, or just Grades, and vary based on your overall Successes.

0 Successes: Nothing; unless the action can work automatically, it fails.

1 Successes: Nice! 1 Grade of Success.
2 Successes: Good! 2 Grades of Success.
4 Successes: Great! 3 Grades of Success.
6 Successes: Wonderful! 4 Grades of Success.
8 Successes: Excellent! 5 Grades of Success.
10 Successes: Unbelievable! 6 Grades of Success.

Any additional Grades of Success beyond Unbelievable require 2 more

Successes at a time.

As a general rule, Nice or Good results are still generally successful, but may
suffer other complications, such as taking longer than you'd like or forcing you
to make a difficult choice.
Great results are successes with no unforeseen drawbacks. In most
circumstances, a Great result is your target.
And Wonderful or greater results are often exceptional, possibly exceeding your
expectations.

Opposed Checks
In the event of an opposed check, success is determined by comparing all
competing players' rolls. The winner of the check is the player with the most
Successes.
In the event of a tie, compare the relevant Stat for each tied player and the
highest Stat wins. And if that's still a tie, then either the defender wins, or
nothing happens at all, at the GM's option.

Exceptional Results
High rolls are always worthwhile, as the Stars bestow their blessing on
exceptional individuals. As long as your check succeeds, Great results earn 1
SP, Wonderful results earn 2 SP, Excellent results earn 5 SP and Unbelievable
results earn a whopping 10 SP!
Be mindful though that if you spend, earn or restore any SP during the check,
you can't earn any more SP in the process.

Page 11
Heart Skills
Aim
Your ability to aim at range, useful for throwing and firing things.
For details on attacks (which sometimes use Aim), see Techniques.
For rules on aiming Items in combat, see Aim – Item Attacks.
Specialisations include: Bows, Items, Shoot

Athletics
Your ability to run, jump, swim, grapple, flex your muscles and all sorts of
maneuvers. Even things that other species can't do naturally, such as a
Koopa's shell slide, a Bob-Omb's explosions or a Hothead's static charge, can
be considered Athletic ability.
For rules on escaping from combat, see Athletics – Fleeing.
Specialisations include: Brawn, Jump, Run

Coordination
Your ability to make fine movement and hit hard, whether it's to tie a rope,
work with delicate mechanisms or line up a strike in melee.
For details on attacks, see Techniques.
For rules on swapping battle position, see Coordination – Swapping.
Specialisations include: Hammers, Lockpicking, Unarmed

Guard
Your ability to consciously defend yourself from all manner of harm.
For the specifics of resisting attacks in combat, see Guard – Reducing Damage.
Specialisations include: VS Melee, VS Ranged, VS Aerial

Heal
Your ability to perform first aid and concoct certain remedies, allowing you to
get by without stopping to rest, or to improve the Items you use.
For rules on recovering HP and Statuses, see Heal – Recovery.
Specialisations include: First Aid, Mushrooms, VS Poison

Page 12
Spirit Skills
Crafts
Your knowledge of all things crafts, whether you're building, refining or even
taking things apart. Bob-Ombs have even been known to use this Skill when
demolishing large objects and structures.
For rules on making specific Items from scratch, see Crafts – Working From
Scratch.
For rules on refining or combining consumable Items, see Crafts – Enhancing
and Mixing Items.
Specialisations include: Alchemy, Demolition, Gadgets

Knowhow
Your knowledge and studiousness, both general and specific. Your GM may
disallow you from making Knowhow checks in certain situations without an
appropriate Specialisation, or may make them more difficult, but general
knowledge about places and enemies only requires you make a check.
Specialisations include: Archaeology, Battle, Wildlife

Magic
Your knowledge of arcane secrets. This helps you to power magical effects you
encounter in your adventures (such as through Badges or Power-Ups), and can
be used to gain insight on magical effects and artifacts.
Magic can also be used for more powerful spells, such as to temporarily emulate
other abilities and skills; for more details, see Magic – Spontaneous Spells.
Specialisations include: Fire, Life, Shape-Change

Notice
Your knowledge and awareness of your surroundings, social situations, and the
people around you. Notice is especially helpful for finding treasure, or picking
up on an enemy trying to sneak attack your party.
Specialisations include: Lies, Listen, Scent

Trickery
Your knowledge of stealth, lies and deception. Trickery can help you outsmart
people and run circles around your foes.
For rules on dodging attacks in combat, see Trickery – Dodging.
Specialisations include: Bluff, Stealth, Theft

Page 13
Courage Skills
Bully
Your talent for scaring, debilitating and pushing others around. Bully is
especially useful for inflicting enemies with Statuses.
Specialisations include: Coercion, Shove, Weaken

Cheer
Your talent for inspiring others to do their best. Cheer can be used to
substitute for any other Skill when assisting another character, though if you
do, they can't use your Stats to nudge their dice.
You can also use Cheer to boost people's FP or SP; for details, see Cheer –
Cheering People On.
Specialisations include: Athletics, FP, Pump Up

Persuade
Your talent for communicating with others and convincing them of your way of
thinking. You may not necessarily change their mind, but with good use of
Persuade, you can at least help them see things your way.
Bald-faced lies are more the realm of Trickery, but you can still use Persuade
with an ulterior motive. The key difference is with Persuade, finding out that
motive is generally not a dealbreaker.
Specialisations include: Diplomacy, Sales, Smooth Talk

Perform
Your talent for performance, be it song, dance or otherwise.
The Stars shine brightly on those who can appeal to them; for details, see
Perform – Appeals and Perform – Stylish Moves.
Specialisations include: Appeal, Sing, Stylish Moves

Steady
Your talent for keeping your cool, whether it's a balancing act, not sweating
under pressure or fending off a deadly poison. Steady is especially useful for
Power-Ups and a variety of Personal Traits.
For resisting status ailments and other conditions, see Steady – Resisting
Effects.
Specialisations include: Etiquette, Poise, VS Poison

Page 14
 When you're choosing your skills, it's important to consider what the other
players in your group can and can't do. That way when they run into trouble,
you'll be ready to lend a helping hand!

Page 15
Character Creation
1. Choose a Species
Species are the types of creatures that occupy the Mushroom Kingdom.
A character's Species modifies their Stats, adds extra Skill
Specialisations, and provides many other traits.
For more options, consider looking at the Species Compendium!
2. Get Your Stats
At level 1, you begin play with a 1 in Heart, Spirit and Courage, plus the
advantages of your Species.
Then, you can choose one of those stats to receive another +1 boost,
representing your character's unique personal qualities.
3. Assign your Skills
All Skills fall under the umbrella of one Stat – for example, Athletics is a
Heart Skill, while Notice is a Spirit Skill.
During character creation, your Stats receive varying Skill Points and
Skill Specialisations to further customise your character.
a. Choose one Stat's Skills to receive +4 Skill Points and +2 Skill
Specialisations.
b. Then, choose a second Stat's Skills to receive +3 Skill Points and
+1 Skill Specialisation.
c. Finally, the remaining Stat's Skills receive +2 Skill Points and +1
Skill Specialisation.

It's okay if your character concept isn't fully formed to begin with! As you read
on you might find some interesting content that you want to work in, or during
play you might pick up a Badge you hadn't considered working with. The joy of
roleplay is finding new directions to take your character!

Page 16
 4. Define your Skill Specialisations
While Skills are broad general capabilities for your character,
Specialisations are the specific things they excel in.
Your Specialisations are up to you to define. You can even assign
Specialisations to Skills you otherwise don't have any points in!
But as a general rule, they shouldn't be so vague that they always
apply, or so specific that they rarely make a difference.
5. Design your Techniques
Your Techniques are the special moves that help your character excel in
combat. Usually these are straightforward attacks, but you can
customise them to be as complex as you wish.
You begin play with two Techniques. It is recommended that you have at
least one Technique that costs 0 FP, so that you always have a basic
attack option.
6. Fill up your pockets
Finally, you start with 100 Coins (or more or less, depending on your
campaign) to spend on Items, Power-Ups, Gear and Badges. Items, Power-
Ups and Gear of all sizes occupy one of your 10 inventory slots, while
Badges are small enough to not take up space – but the Badges you can
actually equip and use at the same time will be restricted by your BP.

Don't stress too much about getting the right Items or Badges right out of the
gate – you might find it easier to just jump in with nothing but the clothes on
your back and the Coins in your pocket. You can always go shopping once you
know what you're dealing with – or make do with what you can find!

Page 17
Species
While all the peoples of the Mushroom Kingdom are wildly different, their
advantages are roughly alike. Every Species looks something like this:
Species Stat Modifiers Base Power & Defense
Pros Cons
The Skill Specialisations and other Traits The Traits that a character of that
that make denizens of that Species more Species have to deal with that are
capable. generally less desirable.
Some Traits, like Immune, will be described in Some Traits, like Weakness, will be
more detail like this. described in more detail like this.

Other Traits
Any other qualities the species has that may not fit neatly into a Pro or a Con go
here in one large block underneath Pros and Cons.
Most often this is for Species with a State Trait, which grants them contextual
bonuses/penalties.
A description of the Species and how they fit into the Tech Defaults
world. These descriptions are simple and general, and do
Sets of Technique Traits a character
not define individual members of their Species.
of that Species can include when
they start designing a Technique,
without affecting its cost.
Multiple instances of a Trait are
listed as "Trait x2", "Trait x3", and so
on.

Each Technique can only benefit

from one set of Tech Defaults
without affecting its cost at a time.

Each set of Tech Defaults is set

apart by colour and by line.
Each Trait in a set is set apart by
commas.

Example Tech 1
Example Tech 2, 2nd part of Tech 2
Example Tech 3

Any Required or Optional effects are

listed underneath, and can (or must)
be taken in addition to Tech
Defaults.
Example Techniques
An example of a Technique a character of this Example (X FP)
Species might use, assuming they have 1 Power Primary Check
and not accounting for their level limit on Secondary Check
negative Traits. Includes potential outcomes and skills required
Includes potential outcomes and skills required for Primary and Secondary checks.
for Primary and Secondary checks. The traits used to make this Technique are
shown here.

Page 18
Some of the more commonly adventurous folk of the Mushroom Kingdom are
listed here; it is however far from all the available options, as the Mushroom
Kingdom and its surrounds are huge and incredibly diverse.
For some of the rarer Species, or those less inclined to adventure – from Toads
to Chomps to Piantas – refer to the Species Compendium.

Bob-Omb +1 Heart, +1 Spirit 1 Power, 1 Defense

Pros Cons
+Athletics (Explode) Weakness (Blast, Fire)
+Crafts (Demolition) You take +2 damage and detonate
or +Crafts (Explosives) harmlessly, leaving you completely
Stunned (6) for the next 2 turns.
+Crafts (Repairs)
Handless
Immune (Poison)
1 Resist (Ice)
Construct (Lifelike)
Bob-Ombs are demolitions experts. As much as it confuses Tech Defaults
people, Bob-Ombs suffer no ill effects from blowing
Burst
themselves up, and many seem to relish the act. Despite
Indirect
this they are rarely violent and often even-tempered.
Ranged
Scaling
Optional: Element (Blast) on attacks,
or Element (Blast) and Variant (Athletics –
Primary Only) on Indirect attacks

Example Techniques
Quick Blast (0 FP) Bob-Ombast (8 FP)
Quickly detonates to blast foes away. A powerful explosion that blasts everything
Athletics (+Explode): away – including your allies.
Nice!: 4 DMG Athletics (+Explode):
Element (Blast), Indirect, Variant (Athletics), Strong, Auto: 2 DMG
Commitment Nice!: 4 DMG
Good!: 6 DMG
Great!: 8 DMG
Wonderful!: 10 DMG
Excellent!: 12 DMG
Element (Blast), Scaling x2, Variant (Athletics), All
(Indirect), Strong

Page 19
Boo +2 Spirit 1 Power, 0 Defense

Pros Cons
+Trickery (Dodge) Weakness (Life Magic, Sudden Light,
+Knowhow (Lore) Stars)
+Bully (Surprises) Any HP you would normally recover is
Immune (Fear, Poison) treated as damage instead; then, you
take double damage.
Immune (Shadow)
If this Technique wouldn't usually deal
You recover HP equal to the attack's
damage, it deals 2 Piercing damage.
damage (minimum 1 HP).
You're left Dazed (1) for a number of
If there's any excess HP, your Attack is
turns equal to the damage taken.
Boosted (1) for a number of turns equal to
the excess HP.
Clone (Illusions)
Hover
Fly
Intangibility
Invisibility
Undead (Lifelike)
The origins of Boos are shrouded in mystery. What is Tech Defaults
known for sure though is they're ghosts with a penchant
Boost (Dodge)
for trickery. While most are reclusive, few Boos can resist
Element (Shadow)
a good scare.
Fear x2
Secure (Intangible)
Optional: Element (Shadow) on Indirect or
Ranged Techniques

Example Techniques
Frightening Smack (0 FP) Outta Sight (0 FP)
A spooky backhand terrifies the foe, causing Hides you and your allies away from attacks.
them to either flee or cower in fear. Trickery (+Evade):
Coordination: Nice!: Become Secure for one turn.
Nice!: 1 DMG Secure, Allies, Harmless
Good!: 2 DMG
Bully (+Surprises):
Nice!: Stun (1) for 4 turns
Good!: Stun (2) for 4 turns
Great!: Stun (3) for 4 turns
Wonderful!: Stun (4) for 4 turns
Fear x4, Unwieldy

Page 20
Dayzee +2 Courage 1 Power, 0 Defense
or +1 Spirit, +1 Courage
Pros Cons
+Athletics (Run) Weakness (Fear)
+Cheer (FP) The Level and Duration of all Statuses
+Perform (Sing) you suffer associated with fear are
doubled.
Immune (Water)
You heal +5 HP instead.
Weakness (Fire)
You take +2 damage and suffer from a
1 Resist (Earth, Shock)
Lingering (1) burn, lasting a number of
turns equal to the damage taken.
Dayzees are quiet and soft-spoken sorts, which is fitting Tech Defaults
given their soothing lullabies. While they may be quick to
Charm
flee, their strength of character is undeniable, and their
Daze x2
voices are breathtaking.
Flowery
Variant (Perform)
Optional: Split on Flowery Techniques
Optional: Element (Earth) on melee attacks

Example Techniques
Pollen Pounder (0 FP) Lullaby (3 FP)
An aggressive headbutt rife with pollen puts Targeted singing puts the target to sleep while
foes to sleep. dealing damage.
Coordination: Perform (+Sing):
Auto: 1 Earth DMG Good!: 4 DMG
Nice!: 2 Earth DMG Perform (+Sing):
Bully: Nice!: Daze (1) for 3 turn
Nice!: Daze (1) for 2 turns Good!: Daze (2) for 3 turns
Good!: Daze (2) for 2 turns Great!: Daze (3) for 3 turns
Daze x2, Element (Earth) Daze x3, Ranged, Strong, Variant (Perform) x2,
Commitment (Primary), Unwieldy

Goomba +1 Heart, +1 Courage 1 Power, 0 Defense

Pros Cons
+Athletics (Jump) Weakness (Aerial, Crushing)
+Knowhow (Battle) The Level and Duration of all Statuses
+Cheer (Aggression) you suffer from these attacks are
doubled.
Handless
Underdogs by nature, Goombas have a lot of guts and a Tech Defaults
lot to prove. Whether it's bonking heads or hitting the
Aerial
books, Goombas strive to better themselves constantly.
Boost (Any)
Repeat
Sequential
Example Techniques
Headbonk (0 FP) Charge (2 FP)
A double-tapping aerial strike, made with the Focus your power for 4 turns.
head. Cheer (+Aggression):
Athletics (+Jump): Nice!: +1 Attack for 4 turns
Auto: 1 DMG Good!: +2 Attack for 4 turns
Nice!: 1 DMG x2 Great!: +3 Attack for 4 turns
Aerial Wonderful!: +4 Attack for 4 turns
Boost (Attack) x4, Self, Harmless

Page 21
Koopa +2 Heart 1 Power, 1 Defense

Pros Cons
+Athletics (Shells) Weakness (Aerial, Blast, Quake)
or +Athletics (Swim) You are flipped over; you retain your
+Guard (Melee) Defense against Aerial and Blast attacks
initially, but otherwise your Defense is
+Steady (VS Weaken)
negated for the duration.
1 Resist (Water)
This leaves you completely Stunned (6)
for the next 2 turns.
Koopas are fit and easygoing. Though cowardice is often Tech Defaults
in their nature, they can be quite formidable when push
Boost (Defense)
comes to shove.
Disorient
Often associated with Bowser's armies in the past, these
Indirect
days there are many peace-loving Koopas in the
Overrun
Mushroom Kingdom. Optional: Variant (Athletics – Primary Only)
on Indirect attacks

Example Techniques
Shell Toss (0 FP) Shell Shield (3 FP)
Hits one target in melee with your shell. Bolsters the target's Defense with a borrowed
Athletics (+Shells): shell.
Auto: 1 DMG Guard:
Nice!: 2 DMG Nice!: +1 Defense for 4 turns
Indirect, Variant (Athletics) Good!: +2 Defense for 4 turns
Great!: +3 Defense for 4 turns
Wonderful!: +4 Defense for 4 turns
Boost (Defense) x4, Harmless (Indirect)

Squeek +1 Spirit, +1 Courage 1 Power, 0 Defense

Pros Cons
+Notice (Scent) Weakness (Scent)
+Trickery (Stealth or Theft) The Level and Duration of all Statuses
+Persuade (Smooth Talk) you suffer from scent-based sources are
doubled.
Immune (Charm)
Squeeks are crafty little mice. Their keen noses and Tech Defaults
beady little eyes lead many to lives of crime, but their
Confuse x2
small stature and their potent senses keep them from
Piercing
getting into any serious trouble.
Snatch
Variant (Trickery)
Example Techniques
Tricky Slap (0 FP) Tricky Thief (0 FP)
Slaps an enemy, ignoring defense. Steals an item from the target.
Coordination: Trickery (+Theft):
Auto: 1 Piercing DMG Choose one option based on your Grades of
Nice!: 1 Piercing DMG x2 Success.
Piercing Nice!: 1d6 Coins, +1d6 per Grade of Success
Nice!: A small Item
Good!: A large Item
Great!: An equipped Item
Snatch, Empower, Harmless

Page 22
Level Up!
When you win a fight or achieve something else notable, you receive
Experience Points (otherwise known as Star Points).

Your GM may choose to roll dice to decide on your reward, calculate it in some
way, or just choose arbitrarily – but in any case, you're rewarded for your
effort, with more difficult challenges earning more Experience Points.
As a general rule, overcoming anything noteworthy may earn you about 5-20
Experience Points, and truly gruelling challenges like boss fights around 20-40.

Whenever you receive 100 or more Experience Points, you immediately level up!

When you level up, take away 100 Experience Points; you immediately recover
all HP and FP, and you receive the following:
• +1 to a Stat
• +1 to a Skill relating to that Stat (e.g. Heart and Coordination)
• Either +1 to a different Skill relating to that Stat, or a Skill Specialisation
for any Skill
• The option to tweak one of your existing Techniques; you can add a
positive trait, add a negative trait, remove a positive trait and/or
remove a negative trait.
If your GM agrees, you can make more drastic changes, but you should
always try to keep the spirit of the original Technique.
• At every 5th level, the ability to learn a new Technique, and increase
your Power by +1!

It's recommended that Paper Story campaigns are played within the range of
levels 1 to 20, and with a hard limit on 4 known Techniques, in line with the
power level of the original games – but that's just a suggestion. Do whatever
works best for your game!

Page 23
Combat
Combat in Paper Story is largely abstract; allied characters act as a single
group, arranging themselves in a front-to-back formation at the start of
combat (either arranged as they wish, or dictated based on circumstance).

Typically combats are between two groups, players and enemies. If players are
fighting it out or enemies are split between factions, though, it can get more
complicated and require more groups.

During each round of combat, each player has a turn where they can take one
action. Turns proceed through the group one-by-one, going from front to back.
At the end of the players' turns, each enemy group takes their actions in
sequence, until there are no more enemies and the next round of combat
begins.

Page 24
First Strikes and Initiative
Before most combats, all players have to roll Initiative to see how quickly they
react – in other words, who gets a First Strike.

Typically this check depends on Athletics, but Trickery, Notice or other checks
may be more appropriate, depending on how the fight begins.
Usually, all players act in the same group, but sometimes you might have
multiple players working independently – or fighting it out.
Whichever group of players gets the most Grades of Success collectively goes
first; if all player groups are tied, then the GM has to make a decision. In any
case, enemies never move ahead of the players.

If a player gets a Great result, they can act in the Surprise Round, allowing
them to use one Technique before turns are declared.
Generally this free attack cannot target more than one enemy and cannot
cost FP, but can target foes that would normally be out of range.

On the other hand if a player fails their Initiative check, an enemy can make
an attack against them in the Surprise Round, even if they would normally be
out of range. However, the same enemy cannot make multiple attacks in the
Surprise Round.

The Surprise Round isn't counted as a full round, and while players can act
during it and get to react to damage, this isn't considered a "turn" in the
traditional sense. So Statuses and other durations aren't affected by the
Surprise Round.

Free Actions and Reactions

When the chips are down, players generally can't carry out more than one
action on their turn. But there are cases where taking action is so
straightforward, they don't have to think about it.
Whenever something calls for a reaction (such as Blocking), or a free action
(such as Charming foes), players can carry it out and make any rolls necessary
without using up their own actions.

Page 25
Targeting
When targeting someone with a Technique or an Item, the first thing you need
to consider is if they're an eligible target.
Generally, attacks are made in melee range. Line up your groups and imagine a
line between yourself and the target – if there are no enemies in between you,
you're in melee range and good to go!

If however a target is Flying or otherwise out of reach, they can't be targeted

in melee and will generally require Ranged, Reach or Aerial Techniques. The
good news is they're not able to block you off from other targets.

The same general rules apply to players – if you want to protect your
teammates, you usually want to be standing in front of them, but it becomes
harder to stop ranged or airborne attackers. If you need to get in front of your
teammates, try Swapping positions.

Melee

Blocked

Page 26
Damage and Knockouts
Eventually, you're bound to take damage in a fight – you may even drop down
to 0 HP and be knocked out!

While you're at 0 HP you're KO'd, and you can't really do anything; you can't
block attackers from targeting allies behind you in melee, and you can't take
actions on your turn.

Healing effects work like normal, but even if you restore your HP, you're still
KO'd. But Life Shrooms, Revive and similar effects can perk you up and get you
back into the fight, immediately!
If your turn would have passed by the time you get revived, you can take your
turn immediately after revival.

Otherwise, you need a decent rest before you can get back up – or at least a
10 minute power nap. Typically these rests fully restore HP and FP.

You're bound to run into some terrifying beasts on your adventure. But don't
be afraid! Be brave! Even if your Game is Over, you can always pick yourself
back up and try again.

Page 27
Techniques
Techniques are the myriad ways a character acts in combat, most often by
attacking.

By default, all Techniques start from the same template:

Basic Attack (0 FP)
An ordinary melee attack.
Coordination:
Auto: [Power] DMG
Nice!: [2 x Power] DMG
(No Traits)

Techniques require the user to pass a Primary Check in order to deal damage,
which defaults to their Coordination. The results vary depending on their
overall success.

As in the above example, Techniques can still function with no Grades of

Success, but improve with better results – though this threshold for success
can be increased, making it harder to hit the minimum and maximum results.

If a Technique doesn't earn enough Grades to achieve any result, though, it

fails outright!

Damage Calculation
Whenever a Primary Check would deal damage as part of a Strike, each Strike
is modified by the user's Attack to get the Raw Damage.
Then, that damage value is reduced by the defender's Defense and any
applicable Resistances they have, and that amount of damage is taken from
the target's HP.

Importantly, your Attack can be negative too! In this case, the Attack value is
taken out of the Raw Damage, and may reduce it right down to 0!

Page 28
Strikes
A Technique can divide its potential damage up into any number of strikes.

• Single-Strike
Single-Strike attacks can hit one target solidly, dealing [Power] in DMG
at a minimum, or [2 x Power] with an additional Grade of Success.
Single-Strike attacks hit with more force up-front; as long as they score
that additional Grade of Success, and the overall attack would only
damage one target, they treat the user's positive Attack modifiers as
doubled, and always treat their base damage before Attack as at least
1 (regardless of the user's Power).
While Single-Strike attacks can be made to hit additional targets with
Traits like Burst or Strike-Through, this gives up some of the raw power.

• Multi-Strike
Multi-Strike attacks split some of the force up between their hits, dealing
a portion of the attack's damage potential with each hit; as a general
rule, each strike should deal no more than [Power] in damage.
They strike once if successful, then can make one more strike for each
additional Grade of Success earned, but the total base damage of the
split strikes can't be more than [2 x Power].

Taking damage at any point during an attack (such as from a Contact Trait)
interrupts and cancels the Technique, but doesn't prevent the strike's
damage.

Multi-Strike attacks take a bit more work than Single-Strike attacks, but the
more strikes you make, the more damage you can get from Attack boosts!

Page 29
Technique Traits
When defining your Techniques you have a wide variety of Traits to modify
them with, which either increase or decrease the Technique's final FP cost. If
this reduces your FP cost to 0 or less, the Technique doesn't cost any FP.

Your Species' Tech Defaults are especially useful here – you can add on one of
your Tech Default sets without modifying the FP cost at all!
Any Optional Tech Defaults which would apply can be added on as well
without FP.
Required Tech Defaults must be added where they would apply, and don't
modify FP.

Generally you can only take a Trait once, with different forms of the Trait (e.g.
different elements) counting as separate distinct Traits.
While you can stack as many Traits on a Technique as you please, there are
limits to how much FP you can save with negative Traits. You can only save FP
from a number of Traits equal to your level.
Any other negative Traits you add contribute to the overall Technique's effect,
but don't modify FP at all.
Example: Negative Traits
A level 1 Buzzy Beetle wants to begin play with a powerful 0 FP attack.
They could add Strong for 2 FP, and offset it with Unwieldy, for a powerful
– but inaccurate – melee attack.
They could add more negative Traits, but since they can only save FP from
one Trait at a time, they decide to leave it there to start with.

While you can describe a Technique in shorthand by referring to its Traits, in

practice it's better to write out the full effect for your own reference – you
may not always remember that a Piercing attack ignores Defense, or you may
need to record how your Boost Technique works at different Grades of
Success.

While the mechanics of building a Technique can be complicated, it's best to

work within this system until you have a good idea of how Techniques work
and what effects should cost.

If you find that you just can't make the Technique of your dreams, or your
Technique isn't as effective as it should be, try discussing alternatives with
your GM. You should consider this system to be a starting point for your own
exciting ideas!

Page 30
Trait Effects
Some Traits have similar functions which are referred to in shorthand,
explained here.

[X]
This Trait can be chosen multiple times to strengthen its effects; additional
instances are treated as the same singular Trait, but with effects varying
based on how many times the Trait has been taken, [X].
If there's a limit on how many times it can be taken, this is referred to as the
Cap.
Note that multiple instances of these values are added together, not
multiplied. If [X] is 3, then [XX] would be 6 (3 + 3), and [XXXX] would be 12 (3 +
3 + 3 + 3).

[Secondary]
After the Primary Check is resolved, as long as it didn't fail and there's still a
valid target, some Techniques have follow-up effects which require a
Secondary Check. The Skill required for this is defined by the Trait it's acquired
from – if the Trait lists multiple Skills, choose one of them when you first define
the Technique, and if the Technique has multiple [Secondary] Traits, choose
one skill to represent all Secondary effects.
In any case, you only roll one Secondary Check for all relevant effects. If
multiple targets would be affected, they all suffer the consequences of the
same Secondary Check.

[Approach]
This Trait modifies the way the user approaches their target(s). Generally,
multiple [Approach] Traits can't be taken at once.

[Target]
This Trait modifies the available targets for this Technique in some way.
Generally, multiple [Target] Traits can't be taken at once.

[Strikes]
This Trait modifies the way Strikes and damage are allocated in some way,
making it fundamentally different from a Single-Strike or Multi-Strike Technique.
Generally, multiple Strikes Traits can't be taken at once.

[Random]
This Trait features a random element. Multiple [Random] Traits can't be taken
at once, unless otherwise specified.

Page 31
Positive Technique Traits
Aerial (+2 FP) [Approach]
At the user's option, this Technique's Primary Check can use Athletics instead.
The user flies through the air to deliver this attack, striking from above. This
allows them to hit targets from anywhere in the fight, though they may
struggle to hit targets who are blocked in some way (e.g. under a low ceiling).
If the user is flying when they make an Aerial attack, they can Plummet as
they make this attack.
Plummeting attacks are made at +1 Power, but require one more Grade of
Success on their Primary Check.
Regardless of the outcome, the user becomes grounded after a Plummeting
attack.

All (+3 FP) [Target]

This Technique affects all available targets, be they friend or foe, besides the
user. At the user's option this can also include the Indirect Trait for no
additional cost.

Allies (+2 FP) [Target]

This Technique affects all of the user's allies, but not themselves. At the user's
option this can also include the Indirect Trait for no additional cost.

Alternative (+2 FP)

Choose HP, SP or Coins:
• HP: This Technique spends HP instead of FP. It can't recover HP, and
can't be combined with Blowback or varieties of Self that deal damage
to the user.
• SP: This Technique spends SP instead of FP. It can't recover SP, even
through Exceptional Results (though Exceptional Techniques are still
possible).
• Coins: This Technique spends 5 Coins for every 1 FP it would cost. It
can't steal Coins through Snatch, and can't cover an equivalent cost of
more than 10 FP (for 50 Coins).
The effective FP cost can't be reduced lower than 1 FP by negative Traits
while using Alternative.

Page 32
Boost (+2 FP) [Secondary – Cheer/Magic] [X]
The target's abilities are Boosted for [X] turns – the exact abilities affected by
the Boost are decided when this Trait is bought.
For every additional Grade of Success, increase the Status Level by 1, to a
maximum of [X].
This Technique can also use the following skills for Secondary Checks,
depending on the ability being Boosted:
• Attack: Athletics or Coordination
• Defense: Guard
• Dodge: Trickery
• Skill (e.g. Steady): The same Skill being Boosted
If this Boost Technique has an element, it also has the following effects
depending on the ability Boosted:
• Attack: The target's attacks have the same element for the duration.
• Defense: The target's Resist for that element is Boosted, too.

Burst (+2 FP) [Strikes] [Target] [X]

This Technique acts as a Single-Strike Technique on the initial target, then
repeats on up to [X] valid targets in front of them, and up to [X] valid targets
behind them, ignoring elevation.
Each subsequent attack deals -1 damage (to a minimum of 1), calculated for
each direction separately.

Charm (+2 FP) [Secondary – Magic/Persuade/Trickery] [X]

The target is Charmed, causing them to be easily persuaded, for [X] turns.
For every additional Grade of Success, increase the Status Level by 1, to a
maximum of [X].

An enemy Charmed is an enemy you don't have to deal with, and an asset to
fight your enemies! Even outside of combat, Charm can be incredibly useful.

Page 33
Coin Toss (+? FP) [Random]
This Technique has 2 different Coin Slots made up of Technique Traits, each
assigned either Heads or Tails.
When you use this Technique, flip a coin. Only the Slot whose side comes up is
active for this use of the Technique, and the other Slot's Traits are ignored.
Each Coin Slot can include any number of Technique Traits, with their FP cost
calculated separately from your own Technique, including all of their negative
Traits.
The two Coin Slots must be different from one another in some way.
The overall FP cost Coin Toss adds to your Technique is equal to the sum of the
following:
• ½ of the highest positive FP cost in both Coin Slots.
• +1 FP for each Trait included in the Coin Slot with the most Traits.
• -1 FP if one of the Coin Slots is empty.
• If either Coin Slot has a negative FP cost, include ½ of it in Coin Toss' FP
cost.
If after this Coin Toss would have a negative FP cost, you can treat it as a
negative Trait instead.
Example: Heads or Tails
A gambling Shy Guy spins into a wild, uncontrolled kick!
Essentially, they flip a coin; if it comes up Heads, they can add Strong to
their kick! If it comes up Tails, though, they Exhaust themselves instead.
On the Heads side, Strong would normally cost 2 FP, so they add ½ that for
+1 FP to the cost.
Looking at Tails though, Exhausting would save -4 FP; so they take ½ that
away, for -2 FP.
Both sides have the same number of Traits, so they add +1 FP for 1 Trait.
The gambler's kick is so risky, it would actually work out to 0 FP overall!

Counter (+3 FP)

This Technique's Primary Check defaults to either Athletics or Steady.
Instead of the usual effect of this Technique, the target gains the qualities of
this Technique (excluding Counter, [Approach] and [Target] traits) as a
Contact Trait, either through some direct hazard or a counter-attack from the
original user.
This Contact Trait lasts for 1 turn for each Grade of Success.
When the Contact Trait is triggered, it automatically succeeds and targets the
attacker (ignoring their own Contact traits) with the same number of Grades of
Success as the original user's Primary Check.
Secondary Checks are made as required when their Contact trait is triggered;
depending on the nature of the trait, either the target or the original user
make the check.

Page 34
Confuse (+1 FP) [X] [Secondary – Bully/Magic/Trickery]
The target is Confused, causing them to behave unpredictably, for [X] turns.
For every additional Grade of Success, increase the Status Level by 1, to a
maximum of [X].

Daze (+1 FP) [X] [Secondary – Bully/Magic/Trickery]

The target is Dazed for [X] turns, preventing them from fighting back.
For every additional Grade of Success, increase the Status Level by 1, to a
maximum of [X].

Disarm (+1 FP) [X] [Secondary – Bully/Magic/Trickery]

The target is Disarmed for [X] turns, preventing them from using the targeted
attack or Trait – the exact Traits (e.g. Tool) or manner of attack (e.g. jump
attacks) affected by this status are decided when this Trait is chosen.
For every additional Grade of Success, increase the Status Level by 1, to a
maximum of [X].

Dismiss (+2 FP) [Secondary – Bully/Heal/Magic/Trickery]

For each Grade of Success, the user can choose one of the target's Statuses,
their current Power-Up or a temporary Terrain affecting them.
• Statuses or Terrain: Reduce duration by -1 for each Grade of Success
this Technique earned overall.
• Power-Up: The target must try to hold onto their Power-Up, as if they
took damage; their check requires an additional Grade of Success for
each Grade of Success this Secondary Check earned overall.

Disorient (+2 FP) [X] [Secondary – Bully/Magic/Trickery]

The target is Disoriented for [X] turns, reducing the effectiveness of all actions
requiring their senses.
For every additional Grade of Success, increase the Status Level by 1, to a
maximum of [X].

Divider (+3 FP) [X] [Secondary – Bully/Magic/Trickery]

The target is cut off from their allies, separating into another distinct group for
at least [X] turns – or until they can reasonably reconnect with the original
group.
If there are multiple targets, they can be divided into separate groups,
creating up to 1 other group for each additional Grade of Success and a
maximum of [X] new groups.
If multiple targets are divided into the same group, they maintain their relative
position and turn order in the new group.

Page 35
Drain (+1 FP) [X]
This attack heals the user an amount equal to the total damage dealt, up to a
maximum of [XX] HP.

Element (+1 FP) [X]

This attack carries up to [X] different elemental qualities, such as Fire, Ice or
Shock. If it has multiple elements, they all apply at the same time.
Elements don't do anything on their own, but they can be useful in different
situations.
Note that Immunities apply before Weaknesses, and Immunities and
Weaknesses each overrule Resistances. So if one element would trigger an
enemy's Immunity, the whole Technique does.

Empower (+2 FP) [X]

As long as this Technique's Secondary Check succeeds, it functions as if it had
[X] additional Grades of Success.

Fear (+1 FP) [Secondary – Bully/Trickery] [X]

The target either flees the fight or becomes Stunned (their choice) for [X]
turns.
For every additional Grade of Success, increase the Status Level by 1, to a
maximum of [X].

Flowery (+2 FP) [Secondary – Cheer/Magic] [X]

This Technique restores +1 FP to the target for every Grade of Success, to a
maximum of [X] FP.

Group (+4 FP) [Target]

This Technique affects all targets in the chosen group. If targeting their own
group, the user can choose whether or not it affects them too. At the user's
option this can include the Indirect Trait.

Hearty (+1 FP) [Secondary – Heal/Magic] [X]

This Technique heals the target 1 HP for every Grade of Success, to a maximum
of [XX] HP.

Homing (+1 FP)

This Technique can't be Dodged and ignores the Secure Status. It can still be
Blocked.
If a target has any clones in battle (illusory or otherwise), this Technique can
ignore them to strike the target instead.

Page 36
Hustle (+6 FP) [X – Cap 5]
The target begins to Hustle, giving them additional actions, for the next [X]
turns. If you target yourself with this Technique, you don't receive the benefit
until after this turn.
For every additional Grade of Success, increase the Status Level by 1, to a
maximum of [X].

Indirect (+2 FP)

This attack doesn't strike the target directly. The user is generally shielded
from the consequences of the target's Contact Traits, though depending on
the attack and the Contact trait there are exceptions.

Launch (+2 FP) [Secondary – Athletics/Bully] [X]

The target is launched across the battlefield after being attacked, flying
through one valid target in the same group behind them (at the same
elevation) for each Grade of Success. If they collide with a target with a
relevant Contact trait, they stop flying and suffer the consequences of that
Contact.
Each additional target hit during this launch is struck with base damage equal
to this Technique's Power, unmodified by the user's Attack; if the launched
target has a relevant Contact trait, each new target suffers the consequences
of that Contact.
A maximum of [X] targets can be launched by this Technique at once, with all
launches being resolved simultaneously.
Afterwards, all targets return to their original position, if able – although in
precarious fights, a solid enough launcher could shift the battlefield
completely, or bring the fight to an early close.

Lengthen (+1 FP) [X]

The effects of this Technique which have a duration last [X] more turns.

Lingering (+1 FP) [Secondary – Bully/Magic] [X]

The target suffers a Lingering burn, poison or other degenerative effect, for [X]
turns.
For every additional Grade of Success, increase the Status Level by 1, to a
maximum of [X].

Page 37
Lucky Hit (+? FP) [Random]
This Technique has a rare special effect! It contains a Lucky Slot made up of
Technique Traits.
When you use this Technique, roll 1d6; the Lucky Slot's Traits are only active if
you roll a 6.
The Lucky Slot can contain any number of Technique Traits, with their FP cost
calculated separately from your own Technique, including all of their negative
Traits; the Lucky Slot's overall FP cost must be positive.
The overall FP cost Lucky Hit adds to your Technique is equal to the sum of
the following:
• 1/3 of the overall FP cost.
• +1 FP for each pair of Traits included, including copies of the same Trait.
Example: Lucky Critical
A roguish Swooper strikes from the shadows! Their attack has a 1 in 6
chance to land a devastating Lucky Hit!
The Lucky Slot contains 4 instances of Strong, which would normally cost 8
FP.
This cost is divided by 3 and rounded down, for 2 FP. Since it contains 4
Traits (two pairs), another +2 FP is added.
Overall, this Lucky Hit costs 4 FP – half the usual cost!

You can combine Lucky Hit with Fumble. If the Technique has both traits, roll
the same die once for both effects.

You know what they say; better lucky than good.

Page 38
Minion (+3 FP) [Secondary – Bully/Cheer/Magic/Persuade] [Target] [X]
This Technique generates one or more minions in any location in your group,
and then targets them with any other effects of this Technique, including
damage.
These minions are all functionally identical to one another, though they might
look superficially different, and the number of minions summoned and their
qualities are defined separately for each possible result when you buy this
Trait.
These minions don't act during the round they're summoned, and persist for up
to [X] rounds after that round. If they would have the Elevation or Fly traits,
they can enter the battle with these active with no further action required.
Minions follow your orders, acting in turn order as usual. They have one
Technique, and can reliably use their Personal Traits, but besides that they
can't take on complicated tasks which would normally require a skill check
(e.g. Crafts, Guard, Notice).
For those actions they can carry out, minions automatically score Grades of
Success on their Primary and Secondary checks equal to this Technique's
Grades of Success (to a maximum of [X] Grades), with -1 for each minion
summoned besides themselves.
For each Grade of Success, you can assign up to 5 points to their qualities in
the following combinations, to a maximum of [XXXXX] points split across up to
[X] minions:
• HP, receiving 2x the points assigned to this quality in HP. Just like
regular characters, minions can't restore HP beyond their maximum.
They begin with just 1 HP.
• Power or Defense, receiving 1 point in either for every 2 points assigned
to this quality. Minions begin with 0 Power and 0 Defense.
• Up to [X] positive Traits and up to [X] negative Traits for their Technique.
The Technique's final FP cost must be 0 for the minion to use it; you can
reduce it by a further 1 FP for every 1 point assigned to this quality.
• Up to [X] positive Personal Traits (e.g. Fly) and up to [X] negative
Personal Traits (e.g. Weakness), at a cost of 2 points for every positive
Trait added, and earning a free positive Trait (ignoring the maximum
Trait count) for every negative Trait added.
Distinct copies of the same Trait (e.g. Weakness (Blast) and Weakness
(Fire)) must be added separately.
Distinct effects of Immunities and Weaknesses (such as recovering HP or
causing Daze) can be tailored to suit the minion, though they should be
in line with existing Traits.

Overrun (+2 FP) [Target]

This Technique affects all targets in the target group at the same elevation, as
long as the user can reach that height.

Page 39
Piercing (+3 FP)
This attack ignores Defense, Resistances and Immunities. It can still be Blocked.

Provoke (+1 FP) [Secondary – Bully/Magic/Trickery/Persuade] [X]

The target becomes Provoked, causing them to focus their attention on a
particular valid target (specified by you), for [X] turns.
For every additional Grade of Success, increase the Status Level by 1, to a
maximum of [XX].

Quake (+3 FP) [Approach] [Target]

At the user's option, this Technique's Primary Check can use Athletics instead.
This attack affects all targets in the chosen group, besides the user, in
contact with the ground, wall or ceiling. As a result, it also functions as the
Indirect Trait and, if it has no other element, has Element (Earth, Quake).

Ranged (+2 FP) [Approach]

This Technique's Primary Check defaults to Aim.
This Technique can affect its targets in battle without making contact,
regardless of their relative position or other targets in the way.

Reach (+1 FP) [Approach]

This Technique can target flying and grounded enemies that aren't blocked by
another target, as if the user was at their elevation. It still makes contact
unless paired with Indirect.

Repeat (+3 FP) [Strikes]

The user repeatedly attacks with single strikes, hitting once for each Grade of
Success; each strike deals damage equal to this Technique's Power, -1 for each
successive attack made (to a minimum of 1 damage).
There's no limit to how many strikes can be made.

Revive (+10 FP) [Secondary – Heal/Magic]

The target is revived from their KO with 1 HP (in addition to any HP they would
gain from this Technique), and are able to act in the same round; if their turn
would have already passed for the round, they're able to act immediately
after this turn.
If for whatever reason this Technique would deal damage, it's dealt after
they're revived and healed, and the target can resist as normal.

Page 40
Roulette (+? FP) [Random]
This Technique has 6 different Roulette Slots of Technique Traits, each with a
different number between 1 and 6 assigned to them.
When you use this Technique, roll 1d6. Only the Slot whose number is rolled is
active for this use of the Technique, and all other Roulette Slot Traits are
ignored.
Each Roulette Slot can include any number of Technique Traits, with their FP
cost calculated separately from your own Technique, including all of their
negative Traits.
Each Roulette Slot must be different from the others in some way.
The overall FP cost Roulette adds to your Technique is equal to the sum of the
following:
• The highest FP cost in all your Roulette Slots (to a minimum of 0 FP); you
don't pay the FP cost for any other Slots.
• +1 FP for each Trait included in the Roulette Slot with the most Traits.
• -2 FP for each Roulette Slot with a negative cost.
If after this Roulette would have a negative FP cost, you can treat it as a
negative Trait instead.
Otherwise, if Roulette would cost 0 FP, increase the cost to 1 FP.
Example: Elemental Roulette
A Magikoopa conjures a blast of prismatic energy, shifting between 6
different elements at random.
Each Roulette Slot has a different Element Trait, but no other Traits.
The magician only has to pay for one of those Roulette Slots (costing 1 FP),
then +1 FP for the one Trait used.
Thus, Roulette would add +2 FP, instead of the +6 FP normally paid for
each Element added together.

Safe (+2 FP)

This Trait can only be applied to multi-target attacks. This Technique doesn't
affect the user or their allies.

Scaling (+3 FP) [X]

This Technique acts as if the user had +1 Power for each additional Grade of
Success achieved on the Primary Check beyond its maximum, up to a maximum
of +[XX] Power.

Secure (+4 FP) [Secondary – Guard/Magic/Trickery]

The target becomes Secure, rendering them completely immune to most
Techniques targeting them for 1 turn; if this Technique would deal damage to
or inflict status on the target, those effects take priority first.

Page 41
Selective (+1 FP) [Target]
This Technique can target any one foe at the same elevation as the user,
regardless of blocking or their relative position.

Sequential (+2 FP) [Strikes] [Target]

The user attacks their target, then for each additional Grade of Success
earned beyond the maximum result, moves to and attacks the next available
target.
Each target is struck one after another, and must be a valid target – though
the additional targets can be attacked in melee even if they would normally
be blocked by their allies.
Each strike acts as a Single-Strike, dealing twice the user's Power in raw
damage.

Shared (+1 FP)

The user can share in all the effects of this Technique's Secondary Check, as if
they were targeted. If the Technique would have targeted them anyway, they
don't receive any additional benefit; they're only added as a target.

Simple (+2 FP) [X]

This Technique is easier to use, acting as if it scored [X] additional Grades of
Success on the Primary Check; if the maximum effectiveness can be reached
with only those Grades, then the user can choose to forego their roll for the
Primary Check.

Snatch (+2 FP) [Secondary – Bully/Trickery]

This check can be opposed by Athletics, Coordination or Steady.
Based on the number of Grades of Success, you can choose to take one of the
following from the target (if they have something to take):
• Nice!: 1d6 Coins for each Grade of Success.
• Good!: A small Item
• Great!: A large Item
• Wonderful!: An equipped Item, such as a Tool or a Badge
If multiple targets would be affected by this Technique, you can attempt to
steal from each of them by dividing the total Grades of Success between all
applicable targets.
Example: Multi-Snatch
An Overrun Snatch that affected three targets with a Wonderful result
could assign two Grades of Success to one target (stealing a small Item),
and split up the remaining two Grades of Success to steal from the other
targets (stealing 1d6 Coins from each).

Page 42
Spillover (+1 FP) [Target]
This Technique targets a single valid target. However, if it deals enough
damage to KO its initial target, you can target another valid target and
attack them with the excess raw damage, continuing on until all the raw
damage has been allocated.
Note that since each new target is attacked separately, Attack and other
modifiers to damage are calculated separately for each target.

Split (+1 FP)

The user can divide this Technique's effects between any valid targets,
including themselves, such as to heal themselves with Hearty instead of the
target, or to use different Element traits against different enemies.
It can't be used to redirect damage, and the new targets must have been valid
choices at the time the Technique was used.

Strike-Through (+1 FP) [Strikes] [Target] [X]

This Technique acts as a Single-Strike Technique on the initial target, then
repeats on up to [X] valid targets behind them (at the same elevation).
Each subsequent attack deals -1 damage (to a minimum of 1).

Strong (+2 FP) [X]

This Technique has +[X] Power.

Stun (+2 FP) [X] [Secondary – Bully/Magic/Trickery]

The target is Stunned for [X] turns, stopped dead in their tracks.
For every additional Grade of Success, increase the Status Level by 1, to a
maximum of [XX].

Swap (+1 FP) [X] [Secondary – Bully/Coordination/Magic/Trickery]

The target swaps position with another target in the same group, maintaining
their current elevation where possible. The second target can't be further
away in group order than 1 space for each Grade of Success, to a maximum of
[X] spaces away.
If this Technique affects multiple targets, each target can only be swapped
once.

Page 43
Terrain (+3 FP) [Secondary – Crafts/Magic] [X]
The environment around the target shifts for [X] turns, causing a Terrain to
form around them. The exact Terrain this Technique causes is chosen when
this Trait is bought.
For every additional Grade of Success, increase the Terrain Level by 1, to a
maximum of [X].
If the target is already in a similar Terrain (e.g. both Terrains are Weathers),
the new Terrain overrides the old one.
If the target is able to change position (e.g. by Swapping), the Terrain stays in
the same place, and may affect different targets.

Throw (+2 FP) [Target] [Strikes] [X – Cap 2]

At the user's option, this Technique's Primary Check can use Athletics instead.
The target is bodily hurled into the next available target. Both targets are
struck as a single Strike, and trigger any Contact Traits the other target has,
though only the original target suffers any secondary effects of the attack.
If [X] is 2, you can aim the target as if with the Ranged Trait, and can use Aim
as the Primary Check.

Tool (+1 FP)

This Technique relies on a hand-held tool, such as a hammer or staff, and
can't be used if the appropriate equipment isn't available. As a result it also
has Indirect or Ranged, at the user's option.
The Basic Gear used for these Techniques don't cost anything during
character creation, but they take up an inventory slot, and replacements may
cost Coins. Ammunition isn't tracked; if a Tool is represented by a large number
of disposable equipment (such as throwing weapons), one Tool is enough to
represent the user's supply.
Built-In Tools (used by Constructs) are functionally the same as Tools, but are
built into the user's body. They still take up an inventory slot.

Page 44
Tutor (+2 FP) [X] [Secondary – Bully/Cheer/Magic]
Choose up to [X] of this Technique's Traits; multiple instances of a Technique
(e.g. Lingering x2) must be selected individually (requiring you to select both
instances of Lingering).
Those Traits have no effect on this Technique, and the target instead becomes
Tutored in their use for [X] turns; for each additional Grade of Success,
increase the Status Level by 1, to a maximum of [X].
Depending on the exact nature of the Traits being Tutored and how the
tutelage is carried out, you may also be Disarmed when trying to use relevant
Techniques for the same duration (e.g. if you Tutor someone in Tool by handing
them your equipment).
If the Tutored Traits are negative, any FP that would be saved by them
instead becomes a positive value (e.g. Unwieldy goes from -2 FP to +2 FP).
If this Secondary Check uses Cheer, you must include at least one positive
Trait, and if it uses Bully, you can't include any positive Traits.

Underfoot (+2 FP) [Approach] [Target]

At the user's option, this Technique's Primary Check can use Athletics instead.
This Technique comes from the ground, affecting all targets in the target group
in contact with the ground, besides the user. As a result, it also functions as
the Indirect Trait and, if it has no other element, has Element (Earth, Quake).

Variant (+1 FP) [X – Cap 2]

You may choose a different skill to use for either your Primary or Secondary
check for this Technique.

Weaken (+2 FP) [X] [Secondary – Bully/Magic/Trickery]

The target's abilities are Weakened for [X] turns – the exact abilities affected
by the Weakening are decided when this Trait is chosen.
For every additional Grade of Success, increase the Status Level by 1, to a
maximum of [X].

Page 45
Negative Technique Traits
Blowback (-4 FP)
After finishing this attack, the user loses HP equal to half this attack's Raw
Damage.
If this attack would affect the target with a Secondary Check, the user is
affected as well, though they can resist with Steady as normal.
The user's HP loss can't be resisted in any way (including Defense, Safe or
Secure) and ignores the user's Weaknesses, Resistances or Immunities.
The Technique must deal damage, and this Trait cannot be combined with Self.

Commitment (-2 FP) [X – Cap 2]

Choose Primary Check or Secondary Check:
• Primary: This Technique's Primary Check fails unless its maximum possible
effectiveness is achieved, and no higher roll is possible.
Can't be combined with Traits that have no functional maximum (e.g.
Repeat, Sequential), or Techniques without a useable reduced state (e.g.
0 Power).
• Secondary: This Technique's Secondary Check only works if the
maximum possible result is achieved.
You can't combine this effect with a Secondary Check that only has one
potential outcome, (e.g. Nice! with no benefits for a Good! result), or a
Team effect which has no additional benefit for extra successes.
The Technique must have a Primary or a Secondary Check in order for
Commitment to be applied to either.

Conditional (-1 FP) [X]

Choose up to [X] of this Technique's distinct Positive Traits; they only function
in specific circumstances (e.g. midair, underwater), or against specific targets
(e.g. Goombas, sleeping targets). If the Trait has multiple instances, this
condition applies to all instances of that trait, and the specific circumstances
are defined for each Trait separately.
Otherwise, the Technique continues to function.
The circumstances don't need to be extremely rare but they can't be so
common as to almost always be applicable for the user (e.g. "enemies that can
breathe").
Can't be combined with Situational effects involving the same circumstance.

Cooldown (-1 FP) [X – Cap 5]

This Technique can't be used again until [X] turns have passed, counting from
the next turn.

Page 46
Delayed (-2 FP) [X – Cap 5]
This Technique doesn't take effect immediately, instead being executed [X]
rounds after it was used as a free action at the end of the round.
Targets are declared, FP is spent and checks are rolled when this Technique is
first used.
If the target is invalid when the Technique is executed, it either targets the
same area (if a valid target has taken the initial target's place), or fails.
Instead of swapping with their allies, if a targeted character would swap under
their own power, they can move the targeted space for this Technique the
same distance – and can even move it outside of their group to completely
dodge it.

Exhausting (-4 FP) [X]

The user can't take any more actions for [X] turns. They can still talk, move
around (without changing position), take part in other characters' actions
(such as Team Techniques and swapping with Coordination) and react freely.

Fumble (-? FP) [Random]

This Technique has a rare chance to backfire.
It contains a Fumble Slot of Technique Traits. When you use this Technique, roll
1d6; the Fumble Slot's Traits are suppressed, as long as you don't roll a 1.
The Fumble Slot can contain any number of Technique Traits, with their FP
cost calculated separately from your own Technique, including all of their
negative Traits.
The Fumble Slot can have any number of Traits, but its overall FP cost must be
negative.
The amount of FP Fumble takes off of your Technique is equal to 1/3 of the
Fumble Slot's FP cost.
Example: Fumbled Attack
A Hammer Bro swings with a devastating melee attack – but their hammer
is so heavy, it has a 1 in 6 chance to Fumble!
The Fumble Slot contains Harmless, and 6 instances of Penalty (Disarm
(Tool)), which would normally save -9 FP.
This cost is divided by 3, for -3 FP.
When the Hammer Bro fumbles, they're unable to swing – and worse, they
lose their grip on their hammer!

You can combine Lucky Hit with Fumble. If the Technique has both traits, roll
the same die once for both effects.

Page 47
Harmless (-3 FP) [Strikes]
This Technique doesn't deal damage at all; it includes no Strikes, isn't affected
by Attack and has no Primary Check, instead skipping to the Secondary Check
(if applicable).
Since it has no need to physically strike at the target, it can also include the
Indirect Trait at the user's option for no added cost.
This Trait can't be combined with Weak.

Lacking (-1 FP) [X]

Choose one of this Technique's distinct Positive Traits; it needs [X] additional
Grades of Success in order to function, and is inactive if that threshold isn't
met. If that Trait has multiple instances, this Lacking effect applies to all
instances of that trait.
If you have multiple instances of Lacking targeting different traits, you can
split the additional [X] Grades of Success between them freely.
This Trait can't save more FP than the target Trait's total FP cost.
This Trait can't be added if it would raise the minimum floor for the overall
success of relevant checks.
Example: Lacking Status
If a Technique had both Lingering x3 and Daze x2, you could add Lacking
(Daze) to require a Good result or higher for Daze to function. You couldn't
then add Lacking (Lingering), because then the Secondary Check would
require a Good result at minimum.

Others (-1 FP) [Target]

This Technique can only be used on one other willing target (e.g. allies), and
not the user or their enemies.

Penalty (-2 FP) [X – Cap 3]

Choose up to [X] negative Statuses when you add this Trait (e.g. Confused,
Dazed, Disarmed, Disoriented, Lingering, Provoked, Stunned or Weakened).
After this Technique resolves, you receive those Statuses with no opportunity
to resist. The Status Level and duration of each Status added must add up to
at least [XXXX], and their duration is unaffected by Shorten.
If you choose a Status you have an Immunity to, this effect bypasses that
Immunity.
You can reduce this Status with Steady in later turns, as normal for any
Status.

Page 48
Self (-? FP) [Target]
This Technique can only be used on the user.
If this Technique has Counter or Harmless, this trait is worth -1 FP.
Otherwise, this trait is worth -2 FP for each point of Power in this Technique
(after applying other Traits), and the user can't bypass or otherwise resist its
damage through Immunities, Resistances, Secure or any other effect.

Shorten (-1 FP) [X]

The effects of this Technique last for [X] less turns, to a minimum of 1.
This Trait can't be taken more than the maximum number of turns all of its
effects can last.

Side-Effect (-2 FP) [X – Cap 3]

Choose up to [X] positive Statuses when you add this Trait (e.g. Boosted,
Hustled or Secure).
Before this Technique resolves, regardless of its check result, all targeted
enemies receive that Status. The Status Level and duration of each Status
added must add up to at least [XXXX], their duration is unaffected by Shorten,
and the Status Level can't exceed the maximum allowed for the Status (e.g.
Secure can't go beyond Status Level 1).
Any Status added with this Trait must be impactful and useful to a general
enemy; Boost (Attack) would be fine for most cases, but something like Boost
(Knowhow) would generally be too niche and require GM approval.

Situational (-? FP)

Choose one:
• For -2 FP, this Technique can't be used while in a specific situation, such
as while in a specific State or while using a Power-Up.
• For -4 FP, this Technique can't be used at all outside of a specific
situation, such as while underwater, while the target is at full health, or
while in midair.
In either case, the situation doesn't need to be extremely rare but it must be
reasonably plausible for the user (e.g. a Goomba couldn't have "while flipped
over"), and it can't be so common as to always be applicable (e.g. a Goomba
couldn't have "while able to breathe").
Can't be combined with Conditional effects involving the same circumstances.

Page 49
Team (-2 FP) [X] [Secondary – Coordination/Cheer]
This Technique requires the user and [X] other allies to roll for this Technique's
Secondary Check first, before the Primary Check is rolled; if any participant's
roll fails to meet the Secondary Check's minimum requirements, the Technique
fails.
Otherwise, you can use the result of any other participant's Secondary Check
in place of your Primary Check and/or your Secondary Check.
If you replace your Primary Check in this way, don't roll for your own Primary
Check.
For the purposes of rewarding Exceptional Results and Exceptional Technique
boosts, the user makes all decisions, but SP earned goes to the character who
made the check, and only the checks used for the final Technique can earn
SP.

Unwieldy (-2 FP) [X]

This Technique requires [X] more Grades of Success to function; you can apply
these additional requirements to either its Primary or Secondary checks freely.

Weak (-2 FP) [X – Cap by Power]

This Technique has –[X] Power. This Trait cannot be combined with Harmless,
and cannot reduce Power lower than 0.

Page 50
If you're confident you can hit your targets, Scaling and Strong combo well
with Unwieldy to make your attacks much more powerful! Consider adding
these traits on as you level up and get better at making checks.

Page 51
Star Power
Players can call on the favour of the Stars to get one up on the competition.
By default, all players can have up to 10 SP at a time, but they begin each
session with 0. Players can share their SP with one another at-will, as long as
they're nearby.

In addition to fuelling certain rare and powerful artifacts, SP can be used on

the following special abilities:

• Try Again
By spending 5 SP during a check, the Stars can smile on you and give
you a second chance! When you do this, you can pick up and re-roll any
of your dice, as you see fit.
You can even use this ability before Critical Failures trigger!
You can use this ability as often as you like during a check.

• Exceptional Effort
By spending 5 SP after making a check, you can use exceptional effort!
You receive an additional Grade of Success on this check.
You can boost the same check multiple times, as long as you have
enough SP to spend.

• Second Wind
By spending 5 SP as an action, you can get a second wind! You can roll
2d6; then you can convert each die into HP or FP (your choice on each
die) and recover that amount.
You can make multiple recovery attempts in the same action, as long as
you have enough SP to spend.

Page 52
 • Improvise
By spending SP as an action, you can improvise a Technique on the fly!
Spend 5 SP or more and specify the Technique you want to use.
It can include:
o 1 of your Tech Default sets; as per usual, this doesn't affect the
effective FP cost.
o Any applicable Optional and Required Tech Defaults you have;
Required Tech Defaults must be included, as per usual, and
neither affect the effective FP cost.
o Up to one unique positive and up to one unique negative
Technique Trait for every 5 SP you spent.
You can add on Traits already included as a Tech Default, but
otherwise can't repeat Traits.
If the Trait can be taken multiple times and was added here, you
can include up to one copy for every 5 SP spent.
The final effective FP cost can't be worth more than ½ the SP spent, so
you may have to take on some negative Traits too!
Keep in mind when using Technique Traits that include other Traits in
their cost (such as Coin Toss), all the included Traits must be accounted
for through SP.
Finally, you use and resolve the Technique! You don't spend any FP or
even roll for it. The improvised Technique's effectiveness depends
entirely on how much SP you spend, with its Primary and Secondary
Checks automatically earning a Grade of Success each for every 5 SP
you spent.
Example: A Dash of Inspriation
A Pianta is confronted by a gang of flying Lakitus! With their Goomba ally
KO'd, and no Aerial or Ranged Techniques, he has no choice but to run – or
so it would seem.
By spending 10 SP, the Pianta can improvise a truly impressive Technique!
They include Strong as a Tech Default, then add two additional Traits from
their SP – Ranged, and Strike-Through.
The end result is a Technique with Strong, Ranged and Strike-Through x2
(which is added twice, because of the SP spent). This would normally have
an effective FP cost of 4 FP, barely less than the 5 FP limit they had to
work with!
With a mighty shotput hurl, they launch the Goomba through as many
Lakitus as possible!

Finally, no matter what, your improvised Technique can't restore HP, FP

or SP.
Whatever you improvise, it has to make sense and be something your
character could reasonably accomplish; but other than that, the sky's
the limit!

Page 53
Exceptional Techniques
While Techniques start out simple, Exceptional Results are rewarded here too.
When your Primary or Secondary Check rolls high enough, instead of earning
SP, you can take some of that SP and spend it on the following options at-will.
Critically, you can make Exceptional Techniques even when you wouldn't be
able to recover SP (such as after a Second Wind) – all that matters is if your
check is good enough to qualify.
Primary Checks
• 1 SP: Add +1 DMG to one of this Technique's Strikes.
• 1 SP: Increase the duration and Status Level of one of this Technique's
existing Statuses by 1 each.
• 1 SP: This Technique gains one of the following traits, if appropriate:
o Aerial
o Element
o Homing
o Indirect
o Ranged
o Reach
o Selective
• 2 SP: This Technique inflicts a new Status on the enemy with no check
required, lasting 1 turn at Status Level 1.
• 2 SP: This Technique gains one of the following traits, if appropriate:
o Launch
o Piercing
o Sequential
o Throw
• 4 SP: This Technique gains one of the following traits, if appropriate:
o All
o Group
Secondary Checks
• 1 SP: Increase the duration or Status Level of one of this Technique's
existing Statuses by 1.
• 2 SP: This Technique adds on another Status with no check required,
lasting 1 turn at Status Level 1.
Example: Exceptional Techniques
A Goomba attacks with an Excellent headbonk against a mighty dragon!
Ordinarily, they'd land two Strikes for 1 DMG each, but they decide to use
some of the 5 SP they'd normally gain to pump it up a little.
They choose to deal more damage across their strikes, paying 3 SP to
boost damage by +3.
Then, they inflict a light Stun for 2 SP.
The end result is a headbonk that deals 2 DMG, then 3 DMG, and Stuns
the enemy for 1 turn at Status Level 1.

Page 54
 Don't forget about your Star Power! Unspent Star Power won't do you any
good. The blessings of the Stars keep all adventurers safe, and are an excellent
way to get past troublesome foes.

Page 55
Example of Play
Now if we put it all together, we can present an example of how a session
works in Paper Story. For this example we'll be following the adventures of a
group of three – Kelly the Koopa, Buster the Bob-Omb and Squinch the Squeek.

GM: Okay gang, when we last left off you were lost in the wild jungle
of Keelhaul Key. The sun is starting to set and your rations are just
about gone. Any bright ideas?

SQUINCH: I remember I tried sniffing out the shore last time... that
didn't work out.

BUSTER: If we follow the sun we'll eventually reach the shore, right?

GM: That would work, but the jungle is very thick. You'd need some
way to blitz through the underbrush.

KELLY: Well my claws are pretty sharp, can't I just hack through?

GM: That would work, it'd be a messy job though. It sounds like an
Athletics check to me.

KELLY: Can I add my specialisation in Brute Force?

GM: Yeah, I can see that working, go for it.

The rest of the team sit back and wait to see how Kelly handles things.
Kelly rolls 2d6 for her Athletics, plus 1d6 for her Brute Force specialisation. She
rolls a 5, a 3 and a 2; one Grade of Success.

KELLY: Okay that's a Nice... I have three Heart, so I'll nudge my 3 into a 4
for another Success... I can nudge the 2 into a 4 as well but that would
still only be Good, right?

GM: Yeah, Good is good though. So Kelly starts ripping and tearing, and
pretty quickly you've established a path. She's making quite a bit of noise
in the process.

KELLY: Woo!

BUSTER: That noise is probably going to attract some trouble, though. Do

we notice anything?

Page 56
 GM: Kelly's a little too into it to hear much of anything right now, but
yeah, maybe you guys should make a Notice check.

Buster and Squinch make their checks. Squinch includes his specialisation in
Scent – normally he'd ask the GM, like Kelly did, but they've been doing this for
a while and he pretty much always follows his nose. It's easier in this case for
the GM to say when he can't use it instead.

BUSTER: I've got a 4, and two 5's... If I nudge a 5 up to a 6 I can roll one
more, that's a 2... I've got 2 Spirit left though so I can just nudge that up
to a 4. All together that's 4 Successes, Great!

SQUINCH: 5 Successes for me, so Great too.

GM: Very nice. Buster, you can hear something rustling around in the
jungle that's not coming from Kelly's work... sounds like it's behind you.
Squinch, you can smell the putrid too-ripe scent of poison plants.

SQUINCH: Piranha Plants, maybe?

BUSTER: I'll quietly get Kelly's attention, we need some muscle.

SQUINCH: I'm going to go ahead and hide myself if that's okay, I have a
Stealth specialisation.

GM: Yeah, we'll count that for your Initiative. A trio of slithering Putrid
Piranhas burst out from the bushes behind you! Buster and Kelly I'll need
Athletics from you, Squinch you can use your Trickery.

The GM adds three small figurines to the table to represent the enemies. While
the team rolls their Initiative checks, the GM looks over his notes on Putrid
Piranhas.

KELLY: Easy, I've got 2 for a... Good! Right?

SQUINCH: Yeah that's right. I've got 4, so Great!

BUSTER: Uhh, this isn't good. No successes from me.

GM: Okay, so Squinch bursts out from another, smaller bush and gets his
surprise attack!

Page 57
Squinch attacks the lead plant with his basic attack, Sneak Attack. It has
Piercing, Strong and Unwieldy, so it deals 2 DMG on a Nice result, and 4 DMG
on a Good result. If the plants had Defense, he'd be able to bypass that with
Piercing, too.

SQUINCH: Alright, my Coordination was 3 Successes – so Good, for 4

damage.

GM: That's a respectable hit, the plant reels in shock! However his buddy
sees an opportunity to bite down, hard, on Buster!

BUSTER: Oh jeez, I'm really not the athletic type huh? I'll just try to block
it with a Guard check I guess... 1, so just Nice. Plus my 1 Defense.

The GM checks his notes, and sees that he's given Putrid Piranha's a 3 DMG
attack with a three-turn Lingering (3) poison. If Buster suffers this poison he'll
take another 3 damage at the end of the turn – but he knows Buster has a
chance to respond.

GM: Not quite enough, sorry Buster. You're able to deflect the bulk of it
but you still take 1 damage, and its vile breath afflicts you with a
Lingering poison!

BUSTER: I do have Steady at least, so I'm going to try and reduce it...
wait, hold on, I'm a Bob-Omb. Aren't I immune to poison?

GM: Yeah sorry, you're right. Alright, that's First Strikes over, who's
moving first?

KELLY: I'm the muscle here! I'll get in front. I dunno if it'll make much of a
difference though if the plants can burrow past me. I'm not too distracted
to go first, right?

GM: No you're fine, Buster got your attention before things got too
heated.

BUSTER: Do you still have that Power Punch, Squinch?

SQUINCH: Oh yeah! I'll go after Kelly then so I can use it on Buster.

BUSTER: Great! I'll bring up the rear. Hopefully I can get a big enough
boom to end the fight quickly.

Page 58
The players arrange their own figurines in a row on the table, and the GM
moves the three Putrid Piranha figurines in front of them.

GM: Okay then, Kelly to act.

KELLY: Rip and tear! I'm going to claw that front guy with my Savage
Slicer!

Kelly moves her figurine up in front of the enemy while she rolls to act out an
attack – this isn't really necessary, but it helps her visualise the action.
Savage Slicer is Kelly's strongest attack, costing 4 FP, which Kelly marks off her
sheet before she rolls. The Technique has Indirect (representing Kelly's scaly
armoured claws), Strong x2, Weaken (Defense) x2, Commitment (Primary) and
Unwieldy.
Adding it all together with Kelly's 1 Power, this gives her a Technique with 3
Power, that requires a Good Coordination check to deal damage, and can
shake up enemy defenses with a secondary Bully check. Kelly's chosen to split
the damage into two 3 DMG strikes, for 6 in total.

KELLY: Oh yeah! That's Good!

The GM quickly checks his notes again and confirms the Putrid Piranhas have
8 HP; including the damage Squinch already dealt, Kelly's attack will easily
finish off the first enemy.

KELLY: Okay so, for the Bully check –

GM: No that's okay Kelly, you've torn through him just fine. With two
mighty claw sweeps you scatter the plant's leaves to ribbon, and it slumps
onto the ground, defeated.

KELLY: Oh, okay. Woo!

The GM takes the figurine for the defeated plant off the table.

GM: Squinch to act.

SQUINCH: So Kelly obviously wasn't listening, but that's okay, we'll just go
ahead with our plan.

KELLY: Oh, sorry guys. Fights get me so heated!

BUSTER: Haha, we get it, you're fine. And now we know they've got
something like 10 HP, and I can save some FP on my turn.

Page 59
 SQUINCH: Yeah it's all good, we appreciate your moxie. So anyway, I'm
going to hand Buster my Power Punch and boost him up.

GM: Did you want to make a Heal check to improve that at all?

SQUINCH: On no dice? No I'll give that a miss, thanks.

GM: Okay, that's fine. So you hand it off to Buster and he's able to chug
it down, then suddenly doubles in size. Buster, your move.

BUSTER: Fee, fi, fo, fum... Heh heh, I think the basic Boombast should do it
here.

Boombast is Buster's basic explosive attack, with Scaling, Indirect, Element

(Blast), Variant (Athletics), Burst, Strong and Exhausting, Unwieldy. Because
most of the FP cost is covered by his Bob-Omb Tech Defaults, he's able to
reduce it down to 0 FP, but can't act during the next turn.
The end result is an explosive attack that can hit both plants, dealing 4 DMG
with a Nice, 6 DMG with a Good and 8 DMG with a Great.

BUSTER: Come on, Athletics... No! That's just a Good. So 6 DMG.

SQUINCH: +1 from your Attack.

BUSTER: Yeah, thanks, that wasn't including the Attack boost, but I don't
think 7 damage is going to cut it... I'd boost that up to a Great with SP, if
I had any.

GM: Yeah, unfortunately not – it's quite a powerful attack, though. The
super-sized Buster explodes right in front of them! You deal 7 damage to
the front plant, then 6 to the one behind it.

BUSTER: Ah, I forgot about the Burst penalty too.

GM: That's okay. So, the Putrid Piranhas are covered in soot and badly
shaken up, but they're still aggressive and can see that Buster hasn't got
another attack in him. So while the front one lashes out at Kelly in melee,
the other burrows under and pops out behind her, chomping down on
Buster! That's 3 damage to both of you – plus the poison, for Kelly.

KELLY: I've got Defense too, so I'll Guard. That's a Great! So it goes down
to 2 from my Defense, then I reduce it twice with blocking, so I won't take
any poison. And I have an extra Grade of Success. Oh! I can Superguard,
right?

Page 60
 GM: Yep, you're able to defend and pirouette into a shell strike. Their
fangs bounce off your tough shell and they recoil in pain! You deal 1 more
damage to the Putrid Piranha, and it slumps over, KO'd!

The GM takes another figurine off the table, leaving just one enemy.

KELLY: Guys, they've got 8 HP! So the last one is barely standing.

BUSTER: Yeah, I can't do much about it now though. I Guarded as well,

but got nothing.

GM: So your metal hide is a bit tougher, but the Piranha's desperate bite
crunches down with force, dealing 2 damage to you. So, there's just one
more enemy to fight, but it's looking pretty frightened. Next round, it's
Kelly from the top, what do you do?

And that's the basics of play in Paper Story!

Now you're ready to get out there and explore the world yourself! The rest of
the book goes into a lot more detail on specific skills and Items you might need
to know about, but if you're eager to start, you can jump right into a game
and look it up as you go!

Page 61
Skills in Detail
Typically, Skills have simple applications, and the outcome of any one check
will depend on the Techniques used or the situation it's made in.
Sometimes though it's useful to have hard-and-fast rules for more complicated
effects. The Skills suggested here should be considered the default, though
depending on the situation, other Skills may be appropriate.

Aim – Item Attacks

Usually, using consumable Items is fairly straightforward; you take an action to
use an Item's effect, and no check is required.
However, if you put in some extra effort, you can get a little more out of your
Items.
Make an Aim check (or other appropriate Skill) alongside your Item action.
Each Grade of Success earns a point you can spend on any of the following
bonus effects; however, be warned that any result lower than Great has a risk
of backfiring as you throw caution to the wind. It's up to the GM exactly what
that risk looks like or how likely it is.
• 1: This action is safe, and suffers no risk of backfiring. Has no effect on
Great or higher results.
• 1: The Item adds ¼ of its damage onto its total damage; the Item must
deal damage in order to choose this effect.
• 1: Increase the Status Level of one of this Item's Statuses by 1.
• 1: Increase the duration of one of this Item's Statuses by 1 turn.
• 2: Add an appropriate Status onto this Item's effect, starting at Status
Level 1 and lasting for 3 turns.
• 2: The Item isn't consumed during this action; it either remains useable
or is in some fashion recoverable, but you may have to wait for a spare
moment to retrieve it.

Athletics – Fleeing
Sometimes you need to get away from a fight – but it's never easy.
To make a clean getaway, you need a Grade of Success for each combatant
trying to stay on your tail or otherwise keeping you in the fight. Regardless,
you always need at least a Great result.
Keep in mind that just getting away from a turn-based battle doesn't mean
you're in the clear – you might just be turning a fight scene into a chase
scene!

Coordination – Swapping
In battle, you sometimes want – or need – to swap places with an ally. This
action doesn't require any checks, but if both players make a Coordination
check with at least a Great result, this becomes a free action!

Page 62
 Aiming your Items may be risky without proper training, but sometimes that
little bit of extra damage is worth the risk. Besides, it's satisfying to really nail
a bad guy with whatever you can throw at them.

Page 63
Guard – Reducing Damage
In battle, you can use Guard to reduce damage from incoming attacks. Either
on your turn (as an action) or at the end of the round (as a reaction, in
response to incoming attacks), make a Guard check.
If you choose to Block, you can't Dodge incoming attacks in the same round,
unless an Item or other effect would allow it.
• Blocking
For each Grade of Success, you can ignore 1 point of damage this turn.
You can choose which attacks have their damage reduced at-will.
If you Guarded as an action, you also receive +1 Defense for each Grade
of Success until next round.
If you reduce an attack's damage to 0 by blocking, and no Weaknesses
apply, you can't suffer any Status effects from it, which might otherwise
apply if you're simply tanking it with Defense.
Bear in mind though that the effects of your Weaknesses still apply,
even if you reduced the initial damage to 0.
Example: Blocking
A Bob-Omb is attacked by a Fire Bro's fireball, dealing 2 damage, and a
Paragoomba's dive, dealing 1 damage.
The Bob-Omb reacts by blocking, and gets a Good result, allowing them to
block 2 points of damage.
The Bob-Omb can block the Fire Bro's initial attack completely, but they
still have a Weakness to Fire, so they have to take an extra +2 damage
from their Weakness, and then 1 damage from the Paragoomba.

Blocking helps protect you from all manner of attacks – even if they would
pierce through your Defense. Keep in mind though that you get one Guard
check to resist all attacks for the round – the more pressure you're under, the
harder it'll be to shrug off the damage!

Page 64
 • Superguard
If you've reduced an attack's damage to 0 in any way (such as by
blocking or through your Defense), blocking it with one more point of
damage reduction allows you to make a Superguard against that attack.
Superguards are more potent blocks, allowing you to completely ignore
all damage and Statuses from the attack and even ignore your own
Weakness!
Better still, you can interrupt your attacker by dealing damage, stopping
them from making more attacks. If the attacker struck you in melee, you
interrupt any more attacks they would have made and deal 1 Piercing
damage back at them. And if they attacked at range, you can reflect
the full attack's damage back at them!
Example: Superguard
A Koopa is attacked by a Goomba's leaping headbonk, dealing 1 damage,
and a Clubba's melee attack, dealing 3 damage.
The Koopa has 1 Defense, and blocks as a reaction with a Good result; in
between their Defense and their Guard result they could block all damage,
but they have a Weakness to Aerial attacks. The Goomba could flip them
over and completely expose them to the Clubba's attack!
Instead, the Koopa Superguards the Goomba's attack with one Grade of
Success, interrupting it and letting them ignore their Weakness. Then they
can keep their Defense and block the Clubba's attack, reducing damage to
1.

When you're especially confident in your Guard checks, Superguarding lets you
turn the tables! Sometimes it's actually more valuable than just Blocking or
Dodging an attack, so be sure to consider your options!

Page 65
Heal – Recovery
Recovering in Paper Story is generally very simple; most of the time, getting
some rest is enough to fully restore HP and FP and recover from Status effects.
However, if you need to recover in the field, or want to use a healing Item more
effectively, you can make a Heal check.
• First Aid
As an action, make a Heal check; each Grade of Success restores 2 HP
to the target and/or reduces a Status' duration by 1 turn.
However, First Aid is only really useful as an initial response – each time
you perform First Aid on a target, the required Grades of Success
increase by 1 until they get some rest.
If you fail a Heal check like this, you instead cause them to lose HP
equal to ½ your Power. Or worse, if you fail spectacularly.
Example: Recovery
After a tough fight, a Dayzee's ally is injured and still suffering from a
poison for 4 more turns.
The Dayzee makes a Heal check to administer First Aid, with a Good result.
They're able to restore 4 HP and reduce the poison to 2 turns.
In the time it takes to perform First Aid, their ally suffers from another turn
of poison (reducing the duration to 1 turn) – the Dayzee makes another
Heal check, but only gets a Nice result. Because they've already
administered First Aid once, this isn't enough, and they end up hurting
their ally instead.

• Administering Medicine
When using an Item to restore a target's HP or FP, you can make a Heal
check alongside your Item action; each Grade of Success adds a quarter
of the HP/FP restoring properties of the Item to the target. This includes
all healing applications, including healing over time like Slow Shrooms or
Gradual Syrups, but the Item has to already restore HP or FP
respectively.
If you fail a Heal check like this, you just waste the Item; if you fail
spectacularly there might be worse consequences, too.
Example: Medicinal Aid
In the middle of a tough battle, a Boo wizard is seriously injured and low on
energy. Their Squeek ally pulls out a Honey Mushroom for them, which
would heal 5 HP and 5 FP.
They use the Honey Mushroom on their Boo ally, and try to boost it with a
Heal check, earning a Good result. For each Grade of Success, they add ¼
of 5 to HP and FP, which rounded down would be 1.
So for 3 Grades of Success, they add +3 HP and +3 FP, for a total of 8 HP
and 8 FP.

Page 66
 It's difficult to find the time in battle to heal. Usually it's better to prevent
damage by focusing on your attacks, and to worry about healing afterwards;
but if you neglect your health, you'll be sure to regret it further down the line.

Page 67
Crafts – Working from Scratch
Crafts (and other appropriate Skills) can be used to develop useable products
from raw materials, which may otherwise be useless.
First, choose an Item, Power-Up, Badge or Gear you want to make and have
the materials for.
A Nice result is enough to make something with an equivalent value of 5 Coins;
for each Grade of Success earned, you can double the value range of the Items
you can make, as follows:
• Nice!: 5 Coins • Wonderful!: 40 Coins
• Good!: 10 Coins • Excellent!: 80 Coins
• Great!: 20 Coins • Unbelievable!: 160 Coins

Failure consumes all materials involved and produces a Mistake; a useless Item
that may provide only a severely restricted form of the intended effect, or
something much worse. Critical Failure is bound to create even worse Mistakes.

Example: Crafting Gear

A Koopa smithy wants to smith a Super Hammer. Super Gear costs a
whopping 400 Coins, so this is a tall order, but it's well worth the effort.
They earn a Wonderful result, for an equivalent of 40 Coins; an impressive
outcome but only a fifth of the way there.
They try to push themselves to keep working, and earn a Great result on
the second check; this only adds on 10 Coins, for a total of 50.
They decide to set the project aside before they make a Mistake, but take
pride that their new Gear is 1/8 complete.

Once you've created something or otherwise know how it's made, it becomes
easier to craft, with value starting from 10 Coins on a Nice result.

In any case, one attempt to Craft can only produce one Item, Gear or Power-
Up at a time, and can't produce enhanced or mixed Items.

Page 68
Depending on the quality of the materials you use, you may be able to craft
Items with less Grades of Success than normal; however, appropriate materials
must always be sourced and used up.

As a general rule, when it comes to materials:

• Items can be made with common materials which can be sourced on the
cheap in most settlements, costing no more than half the Item's value.
• Badges and Gear require more valuable and rarer materials, which may
take more work to find on the market, or require the crafter to seek
them out in the field.
• Power-Ups require some form of magical charge, either taken from rare
materials, or crafted with Magic assistance (as a Skill Substitution or Skill
Enhancement; if you have an ally assisting, you don't necessarily have
to do the magic yourself).

If you don't achieve a high enough result, you can either settle for a similar
product you could have made with the materials you used instead (such as
settling for a Mushroom over a Super Mushroom), accept failure and make a
Mistake, or take the time to make another check; each additional check made
in this way takes more time, and successive checks without rest require a
higher Grade of Success.

Tracking down the materials for crafting can be an adventure in and of itself,
taking you to far away places with all sorts of exotic goods.

Page 69
Crafts – Enhancing and Mixing
In addition to creating things from scratch, Crafts (and other appropriate
Skills) can be used to enhance or combine consumable Items.
For each Grade of Success, you can choose one of the following effects to
apply to the new Item:
• Consume another Item, adding all of its effects (HP, FP, gradual
recovery, damage, Status, etc.) to the new Item, using the first Item's
targets.
No matter what, you can't combine more than two Items at once.
• Increase an existing HP and/or FP recovery effect by 2.
• Increase the Item's damage by 1 (if it would deal damage).
• Add an Element or replace an existing Element, changing the type of
damage dealt.
• Add a Status, or increase an existing Status Level by 1.
New Statuses have the same duration as the original Item's Statuses (if
applicable), lasting up to a minimum of 1 turn.
• Increase the duration of all the Item's Statuses and other effects by 1
turn.

Failure instead consumes all Items involved and produces a Mistake; a useless
Item that may provide only a severely restricted form of the intended effect,
or something much worse. Critical Failure is bound to create even worse
Mistakes.

Cooking can be a costly exercise, but well worth it! Stronger attacks, better
healing, and simply condensing multiple Items into one Inventory slot are all
good reasons to top up when you're in town.

Page 70
Once you've created an Item or otherwise know its recipe, it becomes easier to
make it again, requiring half as many Grades of Success (to a minimum of Nice).
However, you have to use the same method when following a recipe – a chef
sweetening an Ice Storm to make an Icicle Pop is very different to an alchemist
strengthening it to make a Blizzard Storm, for instance.

Treat the new Item's Coin value as equivalent to ½ of its component Items'
values, +5 more Coins for each Grade of Success required to make it (not
accounting for the halved Grades of a known recipe).

Including a previously enhanced or mixed Item in your crafting adds one more
Grade of Success to the recipe's difficulty for each time an ingredient was
previously enhanced or mixed, as it becomes a more volatile ingredient.

Example: Mixing Items

A Dayzee wants to combine some delicious Honey Syrup with their own
special recipe, a Fried Sparkshroom (combining a Super Shroom and a Volt
Shroom). They make a Crafts roll, and earn a Good result.
Since the Fried Sparkshroom was previously mixed together, they need one
more Grade of Success to go ahead with this recipe.
They have just enough Grades to finish off the recipe, slathering the
mushroom to make a Glazed Sparkshroom, which restores 10 HP, 5 FP and
bestows the same Contact Trait as a Volt Shroom.
If they wanted to sell this invention, it would have an equivalent value of
27 Coins (15 from the Fried Sparkshroom, 2 from the Honey Syrup and 10
from their Good result).

Just be careful you don't take things too far. You wouldn't want that powerful
Superbombomb you've been working on to backfire once you take it into the
field, would you?

Page 71
Magic – Spontaneous Spells
Magic's most powerful quality is its versatility – the ability to do anything!
These rules apply whenever you would cast a spell that's not already a key
part of your repertoire, like a Technique, representing the challenging art of
spontaneous casting.

Whatever kind of spell you cast, you choose beforehand how much of your
Magic dicepool to use; this includes dice you receive from your Skill, your
relevant Specialisations and Boosts to your Magic skill.
It doesn't include situational bonuses, though, like the extra dice you'd get for
someone's assistance.

For each die included in your pool, you pay 3 FP.

If you have a relevant Specialisation, you pay 2 FP per die instead, and if you
have a relevant Efficient trait, you only pay 1 FP per die.
No matter the circumstances, you always pay at least as much FP as one die
would cost.
Regardless, the final roll is modified by your Spirit as normal for a Magic check.

Keep in mind though that no matter what, Magic spells can't be used to gain
or bestow FP or SP (Exceptional Results aside).

• Skill Substitution
Magic can be used to emulate other skills, such as Athletics, Notice or
Bully, by making a Magic check instead – completely replacing the check
you'd make with your Magic pool.

• Skill Enhancement
As long as you would normally have dice for the check, you can enhance
it with Magic; this works as if you made the check, and were also
assisted by yourself using your Magic.
You pay FP to access your Magic dicepool as normal, then add ½ of that
dicepool (to a minimum of 0) and your Spirit onto the main Skill check.
Even if the main check used Spirit, you can still add your Spirit again!
Example: Enhanced Skills
A Koopa sorcerer comes under attack! While they have 2 Heart and 1
Guard, they're much better at spellcasting, with 3 Spirit and 2 Magic.
They can pay 6 FP to use their two Magic dice; as they're assisting
themselves, they add half of that onto their main Guard dicepool, for +1d6
and a total of 2d6.
The dice come up 1 and 2; since they can use both their Heart and their
Spirit, this is enough to boost both dice to 4's for a Good result.

Page 72
 • Enchantments
Magic can be used to temporarily enchant targets with Personal Traits,
such as Fly, Invisibility or Mimicry.
Make a Magic check and choose a Personal Trait; if you succeed, the
target receives the chosen Trait, lasting for 1 turn for each Magic die
you used.
Numerical values of the Trait (e.g. Resist, Contact damage, Status Level)
are all set to 1, even if they would normally be higher.
For each Grade of Success you earn, you can choose one:
o The Enchantment lasts for one more turn.
o The Enchantment includes another Trait.
o A numerical value of one of the Traits increases by +1.
o One of the Traits includes one more element (if applicable).
o The Enchantment affects one more valid target.
If the target already has a Trait they would receive from this
enchantment, the enchantment temporarily overrides their Trait; this
can be used to substitute existing Immunities and Resistances.

You have to specify any particulars of the Trait, such as the elements
affected or the exact Contact effect, when you cast the enchantment;
these effects should be based on existing Personal Traits, with the GM
having final say on what's possible.

Any FP costs associated with the Trait cost double FP; however, you can
substitute that with whatever FP you spent casting the enchantment,
for as long as the enchantment lasts.
As an added bonus, any action taken or checks made to initiate the
Trait (such as starting to fly or transforming with Mimicry) use the action
and Magic check of the enchantment instead. Trying to take these
actions after being enchanted requires the target roll as normal,
though.
Example: Enchanting Traits
A Goomba enchanter is sneaking along behind their Boo ally; their friend is
able to fly and turn invisible, and not wanting to get left behind, the
Goomba decides they should too.
They decide to be conservative and pay 6 FP for two of their Magic dice.
They get a Good result, and choose to give themselves the Invisibility Trait;
they also add in the Fly Trait, and make it last an extra turn, for a total of
3 turns. They immediately turn invisible and start flying.
Ordinarily it would cost 2 FP to turn invisible for a turn, and 2 FP for each
turn after that; but because they've already spent 6 FP, they're already
covered for as long as the enchantment lasts!

Page 73
 • Curses
Similarly, Magic can be used to temporarily neutralise the target's
qualities and other Personal Traits.
Make a Magic check and choose a quality the target has (e.g. a
Personal Trait, a Status delivered by their attack, or an elemental
affinity of their attack); if you succeed, the target suffers a Curse as if it
was a Status, temporarily neutralising their ability to use that quality in
some fashion. They can recover as normal, such as with Items or Steady,
and players can make a Steady check to resist as a reaction, just like
any other Status.
The Curse lasts for 1 turn for each Magic die you used.
For each Grade of Success you earn, you can choose one:
o The Curse lasts for one more turn.
o The Curse includes another quality.
o The Curse affects one more valid target.
Example: A Curse on Ye
A Squeek wizard is beset on all sides by a storm of 4 Paratroopas – and
their allies are firmly set on the ground.
They attempt to bring the enemy down to earth, spending 8 FP to use
their full 4 dice from 3 Magic and a Specialisation in Curses, earning a
Great result.
They choose to remove the Paratroopas' ability to fly, equivalent to the
Fly Trait. With their Grades of Success, they're able to ground each of
their enemies for 4 turns.

Curses come in many forms, but usually, they're a horrible time. There's not
much you can do besides tough it out.

Page 74
 • Technique Spells
Magic can even be used to improvise Techniques on the fly! Instead of
making any Technique checks, you make one Magic check to conjure up
an effect; as long as you succeed, this Technique begins with 1 Grade of
Success in any of its Primary or Secondary checks, and an effective FP
cost of 0.
For each Grade of Success you earn, you can choose one:
o Add 3 FP to the final Technique's effective cost.
o Add a Grade of Success to the outcome of the Technique's
Primary and/or Secondary Checks.
You can select up to your dicepool in positive Traits, and up to your
dicepool in negative Traits, as long as the FP cost for the combined
Traits doesn't exceed the effective cost.

Finally, you can add Indirect, Ranged and/or Harmless as bonus Traits
for no additional cost; this is simply the nature of Magic.

You don't pay the effective cost, or make any further checks – the
Technique simply resolves with whatever Traits and Grades of Success
you chose to give it based on your Magic check. Since it doesn't make
its own check, you can't benefit from its results on top of your own
check (such as for Exceptional Results).
Example: Improvised Spells
A Dayzee witch wants to cast a hex on their enemies, but doesn't have the
right Techniques for the job. Instead, they improvise.
They spend 8 FP to use their full 4 dice from 3 Magic with a Specialisation
in Hexes, and earn a Great result.
They can add up to 4 positive Traits, and up to 4 negative Traits. They
want the hex to stop all their enemies in their tracks, so they add Group,
Lengthen and Daze x3, giving the hex an effective cost of 8 FP.
They don't need it to deal any damage though, and they're sure it will
work without a hitch; so they give it the negative traits Harmless and
Commitment, reducing the effective cost to just 3 FP.
Finally, they take their 3 Grades of Success; 1 is spent increasing the FP
pool for the Technique to 3, which is enough to pay the effective cost. The
last 2 are spent to give the Technique a Great Grade of Success.
The end result is a Technique that Dazes (3) their enemies for 4 turns,
giving them plenty of time to act.

Page 75
Trickery – Dodging
In battle, you can use Trickery to completely side-step attacks.
If you attempt to Dodge, you can't also Guard against attacks in the same
round, unless an Item or other effect would specifically allow it.
A Great result allows you to dodge all attacks from one target. For each
additional Grade of Success, you can dodge attacks from another target.
Example: Dodging
A Squeek is attacked by a gang of three Hammer Bros! They can't handle
their powerful hammer throws, and decide to Dodge instead.
They make a Trickery check and earn a Wonderful result. They're able to
completely dodge the attacks of the first two Hammer Bros, but have to
take the last Hammer Bro's attacks head-on.

Page 76
 You don't need to Dodge attacks if you can prevent them! Invisibility effects
and Secure Techniques are great for getting around attacks, if used carefully.
And if you can avoid a fight in the first place, even better!

Page 77
Cheer – Cheering People On
You can use Cheer as an action to replenish an ally's FP or SP.
Choose FP or SP – if you succeed the target restores +2 points, and an extra
+2 for every additional Grade of Success you achieve. Keep in mind though
that if you restore any SP during this check, you can't get any more SP from
Exceptional Results.
Repetitive cheering gets to be a bore, with each follow-up check requiring a
higher Grade of Success. After you get some rest, or the session ends, the
difficulty reverts back to normal.

Perform – Appeals
The Stars watch over everything, like an audience watching the stage. Heroes,
villains and all creatures in between can count on their favour if they play to
the crowd. Whether it's through prayer, focus or showboating, the Stars
reward you for great showmanship.
Make a Perform check; you don't receive any extra SP for Exceptional
Successes, but if you succeed you receive 2 SP, plus an extra +2 SP per
additional Grade of Success.
Repetitive Appeals get to be a bore, with each follow-up check requiring a
higher Grade of Success. After you get some rest, or the session ends, the
difficulty reverts back to normal.

All the world's a stage, so smile for the crowd! SP is always useful to have, so it
can be worth investing in your appeals. You can even appeal outside of battle
to prepare for the future!

Page 78
Perform – Stylish Moves
Stylish Moves are risky gambits and fancy flourishes for little to no gain – but
the crowd goes wild when you nail them, and the Stars reward such great
showmanship.
When making a Stylish Move, once per round you can use Perform in place of
your ordinary check – this can be any kind of check, as long as it doesn't
normally use Perform. You can even make a Stylish Move when using Magic,
though you still pay FP as normal.

Your effective Perform Skill is limited by your value in the Skill being
substituted, including any of its relevant Specialisations.
Any extra dice you'd receive for Perform, such as from your Badges or your
Perform Specialisations, is added on after your Perform is limited.

Nailing a Stylish Move is harder than usual, requiring one more Grade of
Success than usual.
If you succeed you earn 2 SP on the spot, and double the SP you would have
received from an Exceptional Result!

Bear in mind though that if you commit to a Stylish Move, you can't spend the
SP you would gain on Exceptional Techniques.
Example: Stylish Moves
A Dayzee with 1 Coordination and 3 Perform makes a flashy melee attack.
Since their Perform is higher than their Coordination, they can only use 1
of their Perform dice, but can add +1d6 for their Perform Specialisation in
Stylish Moves, and have access to their full 3 Courage.
Ordinarily they'd need a Nice result to deal their full damage, but due to
the difficulty of a Stylish Move, they need a Good result instead.
They earn a Wonderful result, much more than they needed!
In addition to the effects of their attack, they earn 2 SP for pulling off
their Stylish Move, and double the SP they'd normally get from a Wonderful
result – another 4 SP, for a total of 6.

Page 79
Steady – Resisting Effects
Whether you're affected by a Status or resisting some other effect, Steady
allows you to grit your teeth and bear it.

You can resist with Steady as a reaction the first time you're affected by a
Status, with your result affecting that Status alone.
For each Grade of Success, reduce its Status Level and duration by 1 – Status
Level can't be reduced lower than 1, but duration can be dropped to 0,
negating the status!

As an action you can attempt to remedy as many of your active Statuses as

you want, affecting them all at the same time.
If your Steady check manages to lower all your negative Status' durations to
0, any excess Grades of Success instead make this check into a free action.
Example: Steadying Yourself
A Squeek is bitten by a particularly deadly variety of Piranha Plant, which
normally afflicts its prey with Lingering (5) for 5 turns.
When the Squeek is bitten, they get to make a Steady check as a
reaction, and achieve a Good result – reducing it to Lingering (3) for 3
turns. At the end of the round, they take 3 damage, and the poison
downgrades to Lingering (2) for 2 turns.
On their turn, the Squeek tries to get the poison under control. They take
an action to Steady themselves, and achieve a Great result. They're able
to reduce the duration down to 0 turns and negate the Status entirely. In
fact, they have a spare Grade of Success, allowing them to make this into
a free action!

Page 80
 Don't neglect your Steady, brave warriors! It's tempting to focus on your
combat skills, but Steady is the only way to avoid a lot of Statuses. You can
always make up for the experience you invest into Courage with more powerful
Badges, and you'll get to look cool in the face of pressure like a zen warrior!

Page 81
Personal Traits
A character's Personal Traits are all their special qualities which are passively
active, with a wide variety of effects.
Generally speaking, if multiple instances of a Trait would apply – such as
multiple Contact Traits – only one is active at a time. Typically this applies to
the stronger Trait, or in the case of a negative Trait like Weakness, the more
troublesome Weakness.
This can be subjective though, and in some cases up to the character to
decide, so make sure to check with your GM.

Aquatic
A character with this Trait is comfortable underwater. They treat movement
through the water like it's as simple as walking, and typically don't need to
make checks to do so, unless they need to move quickly or through
particularly hazardous waters. They're never at risk of drowning, and can
spend any amount of time underwater comfortably.

Carrier
A character with this Trait can carry one other character easily; usually they
carry them around on their back, but the specifics will vary depending on the
character.
As an action, a character can either pick up an adjacent ally or climb aboard
an adjacent ally with Carrier – similarly to Swapping, both characters can
make a Coordination check to speed this up. With a Great result from both
characters, this becomes a free action.
During either character's turn, they can split back up as a free action, with
the carried character taking up a space adjacent to the carrier. If the carrier
is Dazed, Stunned or KO'd, both characters split up immediately.
While a character is being carried they move with the carrier, occupy the same
space in combat and take their turn after the carrier. They can't be targeted
if the carrier is in the way, and likewise, the carrier can't be targeted by
attacks if their passenger would block them.
If an attack would affect both characters at the same time (e.g. Group,
Quake), it hits them as normal.

Page 82
 The combination of Aquatic and Carrier can be a huge help to land-bound
allies. Bloopers and Cheep Cheeps are great at this, giving you a chance to
shine whenever the water calls to your adventure. You can even ferry people
around during battle!

Page 83
Clone
You are able to split your mind and body into two or more like-minded
individuals. You retain control of all your clones.
Clones can be either Copies or Illusions. Regardless of the style of cloning, the
character activating a split retains all their Items, and the clone is left with
none; likewise if two or more clones re-combine, the resulting character takes
all of their Items.
• Copies
Your split characters are perfect copies of yourself, requiring you to
make a Steady check as an action to split into two or for any two clones
to re-combine. With a Great result this becomes a free action, but
otherwise both clones lose their action for the turn.
When split apart, each copy is weaker than the sum of its parts; both
the original character and the clone each have their max HP, max FP,
BP, Stats and Skills effectively halved.
You all retain your existing HP and FP, up to the limit of your new
maximums, and all clones share access to the same SP pool, as long as
they're under your control.
When re-combining, any HP or FP loss is carried over from the clones, and
your overall abilities are recalculated as appropriate; you never risk
losing stats to a rounding error.
Example: Fuzzy Splits
A Fuzzy with 15 HP splits into two Fuzzies, who each have 7 HP. One of the
clones then takes 1 damage, going down to 6/7 HP.
When re-combining, the Fuzzy goes back to having 15 HP at maximum.
Since one of the clones took 1 damage, the re-combined Fuzzy has 14/15
HP.

Each clone is able to split into another pair of clones as an action,

though you can only split into more clones if you have enough HP to
split.
As long as you retain control of the clones, they each have the
combined knowledge and awareness of every other clone.
It's difficult to divide your consciousness up like this; for every 10 turns
that passes with your clones split apart, you must make a Steady check
using your original stats and skills, requiring a Grade of Success for every
10 turns that's already passed.
If you fail, you lose control of all active clones and are completely
Stunned (6) for a turn.
Resting can restore your lost abilities after losing control, but all your
clones will remain active – and most likely, hostile.

Page 84
 • Illusions
Your split clones are illusory, requiring you to make a Magic or Trickery
check as an action to conjure them.
You pay 1 FP for every clone created, and can create up to 1 clone for
each Grade of Success. If you attempt to create more with another
action, the existing clones dissipate immediately.
Each of the illusions are functionally lifeless imitations of the original,
with no ability to take actions of their own. On your turn you can direct
them to fly around like ghosts and act out actions, and you can
perceive things as they would, but they are completely intangible and
pass straight through solid matter. Despite their intangible nature, if
they would be attacked or otherwise lose HP, they immediately
dissipate.
You can use the clones to effortlessly disguise your own actions as long
as you have at least one near you. While doing so, you can Dodge as if
Boosted by a Status Level equal to the number of clones near you –
however when you do this, each successfully dodged attack causes one
of the clones to be hit instead, destroying them.
Maintaining the illusion requires constant concentration; for every turn
that passes with your illusory clones active you must choose and
attempt one of the following:
o Pay 1 FP for every clone still active, and 1 FP for every turn that's
already passed.
o Make a Steady check with a Grade of Success for every turn
that's already passed.
If you fail to do either of the above your illusory clones disappear,
though you suffer no other consequences.

In the thick of battle, it doesn't matter if your illusions are unconvincing – they
just need to distract the enemy for a split second.

Page 85
Construct
A character with this Trait has an artificial body. They may still have the
spark of life, but they're fundamentally different from organic life.
• Constructs can equip Built-In Gear, which are functionally identical to
Gear, but occupy a part of their body as well as their inventory. This
Gear is harder to disarm (granting +1d6 to checks to hold onto them),
but losing them is bound to cause more problems than normal.
• Constructs don't need to breathe, and may not even have a mouth,
granting them a number of passive immunities in addition to their listed
Traits (such as immunity to scent-based effects).
• Lifelike Constructs (such as Bob-Ombs or Puppets) can, and often need
to, eat. However, True Constructs (such as Mechas) can't, preventing
them from using Mushrooms, Syrups and other Items. They may still be
able to use Power-Ups, though it might take some effort.
• Constructs can't be healed through conventional means; Crafts and
appropriate tools are required in place of Heal. They otherwise follow all
the standard rules for recovering HP.
Lifelike Constructs can still rest and be healed with Magic, though other
Constructs need more specific methods (like recharging their batteries) –
typically, they can't even recover from resting.

Contact
An attacker making contact with this character is harmed in some way, and
may suffer more debilitating effects. Typically, anyone harmed by Contact
during an attack is interrupted, unable to finish their action.

Don't feel like you have to play Constructs as soulless automatons if you don't
want to. Many Constructs still think – and feel – for themselves.

Page 86
Elevation
A character with this Trait is able to lift themselves above the battlefield,
though they are themselves unable to fly and can't move much at all while
elevated.
Elevated targets sit somewhere above the battlefield, though not entirely out
of reach. If a character with this Trait is on the ground, they can make an
Athletics check as an action to elevate themselves – with a Great result, it
becomes a free action.
It's possible, though difficult, for elevated characters to lift other creatures.
This generally requires an Athletics check in and of itself, and the elevated
character is often restricted by the height they can gain and the distance
they can climb before resting.
Only Aerial, Reach or Ranged attacks can strike an elevated target.
Unlike a flying character, an elevated character receives no special benefits
on their melee attacks, and making a melee attack without Reach causes their
elevated state to end immediately.
An elevated character struck by an Aerial, Launch or otherwise powerful
attack may have to make a Steady check or be knocked to the ground.

Efficient
A character with an Efficient ability is better at managing their FP under
specific circumstances. This doesn't affect their standard Techniques in battle,
but makes their other uses more cost-effective – especially Magic checks.
• When paying for the cost of an ongoing ability (such as Invisibility), the
ability lasts twice as long for each FP payment.
• When casting spells on the fly with Magic, they pay less FP – for more
details, see Magic – Spontaneous Spells.
• When activating the effects of a Power-Up, they pay ½ as much FP.

Page 87
Fly
Flying targets sit somewhere above the battlefield, though not entirely out of
reach. A character with this Trait is generally assumed to be flying unless they
specifically choose not to. If they're on the ground, they can make an
Athletics check as an action to start flying – with a Great result, it becomes a
free action.
It's possible, though difficult, for flying characters to carry other creatures.
This generally requires an Athletics check, and the flying character is often
restricted by the height they can gain and the distance they can fly before
resting.
Only Aerial, Reach or Ranged attacks can strike a flying target.
Flying characters can make melee attacks against targets anywhere in battle.
These function similarly to Aerial attacks, although Plummeting and triggering
Weakness (Aerial) still requires the Aerial trait.
A flying character struck by an Aerial, Launch or otherwise powerful attack
must make a Steady check or be knocked to the ground.

Handless
This character has no hands. Typically this isn't an impediment to their life,
and they can manipulate objects with the appendages they have or a small
intangible force of will, but any check that requires fine motor skills or upper
body strength requires a higher Grade of Success than normal.
If a character has a relevant specialisation for an action, ignore their Handless
penalty; they're generally good enough at this that they can work around
their shortcomings.

Hover
A hovering character sits slightly above ground level, floating in the air, and
can even fly through the air for short bursts of time. They can make melee
attacks against targets anywhere in battle, although these are not true Aerial
attacks and can't force airborne targets to the ground.
Despite their hovering above the ground, melee attacks can still reach them
just fine, though they're safe from Quake or Underfoot attacks.

Immune
A character with this Trait is completely immune to some kind of Technique or
attack, taking no damage or adverse effects from it. They usually even benefit
from the attack!
Where applicable, Immune applies before Weakness. If the effect would
otherwise be positive, the affected character can choose to take on part of
the Technique's effect in addition to any effects their Immune Trait would
provide.

Page 88
Intangibility
A character with Intangibility can become solid or intangible as an action.
While intangible they appear translucent and are virtually untouchable,
effectively making them Secure, though certain methods may affect them or
bring them back to a solid state.
This intangibility can usually be shared with another target, too, though in
this case neither character can move or act while intangible.
Characters with Intangibility and Invisibility can use them as the same ability,
activating and paying for both as if they were one Trait.
Generally this ability takes an action to activate, costs 1 FP per turn, and
can't be used under serious stress (such as during combat). Each turn after
the first requires more FP and a Steady check, requiring a Grade of Success for
each turn that's already passed. If you fail, you become Dazed for 1 turn.
If you otherwise take damage or become Dazed or Stunned, you become
tangible immediately.

Invisibility
A character with Invisibility can become visible or invisible as an action. While
invisible they are virtually undetectable, effectively making them Secure,
though certain methods may reveal their presence.
This invisibility can usually be shared with another target, too, though in this
case neither character can move or act while invisible.
Characters with Invisibility and Intangibility can use them as the same ability,
activating and paying for both as if they were one Trait.
Generally this ability takes an action to activate, costs 1 FP per turn, and
can't be used under serious stress (such as during combat). Each minute after
the first requires more FP and a Steady check, requiring a Grade of Success for
each minute that's already passed. If you fail, you become Dazed for 1 turn.
If you otherwise take damage or become Dazed or Stunned, you become visible
immediately.

Latent
Characters with this trait have untapped power within them, allowing them to
quickly and easily use the effects of a specific Item or Power-Up on themselves.
This requires an action and functions exactly as if they used that Item or
Power-Up on themselves, and doesn't require any check on their part to
activate.
Typically this effect costs 5 FP, though the exact cost and duration depends
on the source of this power.

Page 89
Mimicry
The ancient art of the Duplighosts is similar to Magic, but its tighter focus
allows it to reach greater heights.
A character with this ability can make a Magic or Trickery check as an action
to transform completely into another creature. This transformation is a
complete physical transformation with an effect on the user's psyche, giving
them all the Traits, Techniques and other physical qualities of their new form –
even their Skill Specialisations!
You can revert back to your own form during your turn as a free action,
requiring no check.
While transformed, you lose your own Techniques and Traits, but you retain
your own Stats, Skills, Power and Skill Specialisations. If your Power is more or
less than the new form's, your new Techniques are modified accordingly.
Transformations become harder and more expensive to maintain the less
familiar you are with the intended form. For each Grade of Success achieved
beyond the requirements, you can pay 1 less FP per turn – potentially negating
the FP cost altogether.
• Nice!: A familiar, ordinary creature that you can see, such as a Goomba,
Koopa or Boo. Costs 1 FP per turn.
• Good!: An ordinary creature. Costs 2 FP per turn.
• Great!: An unusual or large target that you can see, such as a Piranha
Plant, Chomp or Hothead, or an ordinary creature with copies of their
equipment. Costs 3 FP per turn.
• Wonderful!: An unusual or large target, or an ordinary creature with
copies of their equipment. Costs 4 FP per turn.
• Excellent!: An extremely unusual or large target that you can see, such
as a dragon or giant Blooper. Costs 5 FP per turn.
• Unbelievable!: A creature that you have no visual reference for, which
may not even exist; it can even be extremely unusual or large. Costs 6 FP
per turn.
Naturally, these transformations are unstable; if you lose focus while
transformed (such as by taking damage), you must make a Steady check,
requiring the same Grade of Success as if you were transforming into your
current form. On failure, you revert forms on the spot.

Page 90
Mimicry is an incredibly powerful Trait. Even investing in it a little bit will allow
you to transform into your enemies and allies, expanding your options in and
out of battle. And if you get really good at it, you can essentially do anything!
It's as open-ended as Magic itself, if you get creative.

Page 91
Resilient
A character with this Trait is hard to keep down. After being KO'd, they can
make a Steady check as an action.
With a Nice result, they can get back up, and if they have less than 5 HP they
recover back up to 5 HP; with an extra Grade of Success, they can act
immediately, too!
Each successful Resilient check increases the required Grades of Success for
future checks in that scene or encounter. If this would force the minimum
required above Unbelievable, then that result becomes impossible.
If a Resilient character is KO'd by one of their Weaknesses, their Resilient Trait
is rendered inactive until they can naturally recover.

Resist
A character with this Trait has some measure of Defense versus certain effects,
even protecting them from Piercing attacks; however this Defense bonus only
applies to the specified kind of attack.
If an attack or other effect of their resisted type would inflict a Status, this
character receives +1d6 to checks to resist or overcome that Status for each
point of Resist they have.
They may also take on a side-effect of the attack, similar to Immune, which
applies even if the damage would be negated.
Where applicable, Immune and Weakness overrule Resist.

Sinker
A character with this Trait cannot swim in water, at all, though they can walk
around at the bottom of the water.
If they're Aquatic, they don't risk drowning, and can move comfortably as if
they were on dry land.
Otherwise, their ability to move (e.g. Athletics) is hampered, as if they were
Weakened (1), and if they need to breathe they may risk drowning.
See the rules on Underwater Terrain for more information.

Page 92
State
You are able to enter a different State, either at-will or in response to other
actions, which provides its own benefits and drawbacks. The details vary from
State to State.

Undead
A character with this Trait isn't, technically speaking, alive. They may still
have the spark of "life", but they're fundamentally different from their living
counterparts.
• Undead can never truly be ended; even if they aren't Resilient, their
spirit will linger on in some fashion.
• Undead don't need to breathe, granting them a number of passive
immunities in addition to their listed Traits (such as immunity to scent-
based effects).
• Lifelike Undead (such as Boos or Broozers) can, and often need to, eat –
though they may have different preferences to the living.
However, True Undead (such as Dry Bones) can't eat at all, preventing
them from using Mushrooms, Syrups and other curatives.
• Undead can't be healed through conventional means; typically, only
Magic substitution or appropriate Magic-based Techniques will work,
which may even need to be a particular element. True Undead can't
even recover HP when they rest!
Undead otherwise follow all the standard rules for recovering HP.

Weakness
You are vulnerable to a specific type of Technique or attack. You can still
Guard against them, but you don't receive any Defense unless otherwise
specified, and are often affected in some other fashion. Usually, this means
extra damage, which can't be Guarded against and gets added onto all
Strikes that trigger your Weakness; other effects (such as Statuses) only apply
once per attack.
If the Technique would bestow a status effect on its own, that still applies
even if you prevent the damage – and depending on your Weakness, it might
even be worse than usual.
In any case, you can't protect against statuses added by the triggering
Technique or by your Weakness with Steady, but you can still reduce their
duration through Steady actions as normal.
If you can Superguard the initial damage, though, you can ignore the
Weakness altogether!
Where applicable, Immune applies before Weakness.

Page 93
Statuses
A number of different Statuses can be dealt out to characters over the course
of a battle or adventure, both positive and negative.
A Status' duration is measured in turns; for each full turn that passes for the
character with that Status (not including Surprise Rounds), its duration is
reduced by 1, until it ends at 0.

No matter where a character receives their Status, the same Statuses never
stack – you can't be poisoned twice, and you can't Boost Attack twice in a
row, so only the highest level of that Status is treated as active.
In the thick of combat statuses are more volatile and tend to be measured in
turns, but outside of battle, you can generally treat each minute of game time
as a turn.

The severity of each Status is based on its Status Level, which can be
shortened to a number in brackets next to it, like (1).
If an effect would require you to roll under the Status Level, but success isn't
possible (i.e. the Status Level is 6 or more), you don't have to roll.
And if a Status is mentioned without specifying its Level, assume it's Level 1.

Boosted
Your abilities are Boosted, increasing them by the Status Level for the duration
of this status.
You can Boost Attack, Defense, Resists, a Stat or a Skill, though your HP, FP
and BP are never affected by this.
Boosts can be even more specific, targeting specific uses of a Skill (such as
Dodging or attacking).
When an enemy has their Stats or Skills Boosted, players suffer an equivalent
dice penalty against Boosted actions; for example, an enemy's Boosted
Coordination could take dice away from players when they Guard against their
attacks.

Charmed
You're easier to convince, allowing people to manipulate you to do things
against your best interests.
Once during your turn the person who Charmed you can make a Persuade
check as a free action, opposed by Steady, to direct your actions. For each
Status Level, they receive a +1d6 bonus on this check.
If an enemy Charmed you they don't make a Persuade check, but they can
still direct you during your turn. You still react with a Steady check, but you
need a Grade of Success for each Status Level to resist it instead.

Page 94
Confused
Your senses are addled, causing you to act irrationally. At the start of your
turn roll 1d6; if the result is greater than the Status Level, you act as normal.
Otherwise, you act against your best interests (as dictated by the GM).

Dazed
You're temporarily unable to act, though not completely powerless – you may
be asleep, staggered, tied up or even frozen!
You can't defend yourself or resist enemy actions at all, and the only action
you can take on your turn is to try and Steady yourself.
Whenever you're dealt damage, you can make a Steady check as a reaction; if
you earn at least as many Grades of Success as the Status Level, you recover
and this Status ends immediately!
Enemies affected by Daze instead shake it off when they're dealt damage
equal to or greater than the Status Level.

Disarmed
Your abilities have been Disarmed in some way, such as by mental
befuddlement or physically stealing your equipment, preventing you from using
a specific kind of attack or Trait (e.g. jump attacks, hammer attacks, group-
target attacks).
When you attempt to make a check with a Disarmed ability, roll 1d6; if you roll
over the Status Level, you're still able to take the action, and may be able to
recover on the spot!
If you can improvise a solution, you may be able to negate this Status entirely
– but on the other hand, it might last longer if you can't reasonably recover.

Disoriented
When making a check that requires the use of your eyes, or other senses as
appropriate, you suffer a -1d6 penalty per Status Level.
Enemies affected by Disorientation instead make player's checks easier,
granting a +1d6 bonus per Status Level.

Hustled
Whenever you could take an action on your turn, you can take up to 1
additional action for each Status Level; however, each Hustled action you
take requires 1 more Grade of Success for each action taken before it. Your
reactions and free actions suffer no penalty, as usual.

Page 95
Lingering
You suffer from a continuous damaging effect, such as a persistent burn or a
poison.
At the end of each of your turns you take damage equal to the Status Level,
and the Status Level is downgraded by 1 (to a minimum of 1).

Provoked
You're berserk, and your anger is directed towards one target in particular.
Your target must seem legitimate; you couldn't be Provoked to attack an ally,
for instance.
At the start of your turn roll 1d6; if the result is greater than the Status Level,
you can keep a cool head and act as normal.
Otherwise, you must make the subject of this Status your primary target, and
can't use attacks that affect other targets, use non-damaging Techniques, or
take any other action.
If an attack would primarily target them, but have consequences for other
characters (such as a Burst, Launch or Strike-Through attack), that can still
be used.
If an attack on the target isn't possible, you can act freely, but you're still
Provoked; if in the future it's possible to attack the target, you'll have to resist
this Status as normal.

Secure
You've turned invincible! You're completely immune to attacks and virtually all
other Techniques; they either glance off harmlessly or fail to even touch you.
Note though that your enemies may be able to bypass you and attack your
allies in melee – depending on how you become Secure.
This kind of security takes a lot of concentration; if you attack or otherwise
target someone with a debilitating effect, this status ends immediately.
On top of this, if an effect would trigger one of your Weaknesses, it ignores
your Secure Status and immediately neutralises it – in addition to the effects
of the Weakness.
Regardless, the Status Level is always 1.

Stunned
You've been staggered, and though you can try to resist, you may be unable
to act or fight back! You could be paralysed or frozen in time.
At the start of your turn, roll 1d6; if you roll over the Status Level, you're able
to act as normal, but are otherwise helpless to act. You can't defend yourself,
and the only action you can take on your turn is to try and Steady yourself.

Page 96
Tutored
You've learned how to make use of new Technique Traits – or maybe you can't
get them out of your head.
When you use a Technique, you can include one positive tutored Trait for each
Status Level at-will without spending additional FP.
However, for the duration of the Status, you must include one negative
tutored Trait (if applicable) for each Status Level whenever you use a
Technique, without affecting the FP spent.
For the purposes of this Status, count multiple instances of the same
Technique Trait (e.g. Lingering x2) as separate Traits (requiring a Status Level
of 2 to use both Lingering Traits).

Weakened
Your abilities are Weakened, reducing them by the Status Level for the
duration of this status. Stats and Defenses can be reduced to 0, though
Attack and Skills can be reduced even further to give them negative values!
You can suffer from Weakened Attack, Defense, Resists, Stats or Skills, though
your HP, FP and BP are never affected by this. Weakening can be even more
specific than this, targeting specific uses of a Skill (such as Dodging or
attacking).
When an enemy has their Stats or Skills Weakened, players receive an
equivalent dice bonus against Weakened actions; for example, an enemy's
Weakened Steady could give players extra dice when dealing status effects to
them.

Weakening an enemy's abilities is a great way to support your team, and can
often be just as impactful as Boosting your allies!

Page 97
Terrain
Adventures and battles can take place in a wide variety of locations, under
any number of conditions. Some of the common varieties are listed here, but
this list and the effects attributed to each Terrain are by no means
exhaustive.

Usually, all parties in battle are impacted by the Terrain, but it's possible
through circumstance or Techniques for just a small area to be impacted.
In this case, whenever characters affected would move or swap spaces under
their own power, they can choose to move the Terrain instead, even moving it
out of their group entirely – in which case it's no longer involved in the battle.

Multiple Terrains may even be considered active at once in the same area, as
long as they don't contradict each other; for instance, the weather in an area
can't be both a Gale and a Heatwave.

Just like Status Effects, Terrain can appear in a variety of different levels. If
the level of a Terrain isn't specified, assume it's at Terrain Level 1.
Replace references to [X] in Terrain effects with the Terrain Level.

Finally, note that if both a Pro and a Con of a Terrain would apply in a given
situation, the Con takes priority.

Dark
Lighting
It's too dark for most characters to see.
Characters with appropriate Notice specialisations (e.g. Dark Places, Scent)
ignore the dark's effects on their skill checks.
Characters can negate the effects of darkness on themselves (and on
attacks targeting them) by keeping a light source close at hand, though the
darker it gets, the stronger a light they'll need. Strong enough light can
negate the effects of darkness entirely, effectively dismissing the Terrain.
Pros Cons
Light Techniques used from here have +[X] Primary Checks for all Techniques used from
Attack, and Statuses caused by them have here or against characters here require [X]
+[X] level and duration. additional Grades of Success.

Trickery checks to hide in the shadows receive Notice checks to look around in the dark
+[X]d6, as if Boosted. require [X] additional Grades of Success;
without an appropriate light source, they may
even be impossible.

Page 98
Elevated
Environment
You're positioned somewhere comfortably above the battle, just out of
reach. This is typically higher up than standard Elevation or Flying will get
you, with more space to stand and cover yourself.
Characters are able to climb up with Athletics as an action, as long as their
surroundings would allow it and they achieve at least [X] Grades of Success.
Otherwise, characters may only be able to reach with appropriate
Techniques, or by using their surroundings wisely.
Pros Cons
Characters here are treated as if they're Failing a Steady check to stay elevated
elevated, as with the Elevation Trait. causes you to take [X] damage when you fall
back down.
Aerial Techniques on targets down below have
+[X] Attack on the first strike, though as
normal the attacker forfeits their elevation.

Air and Quake attacks used against

characters here receive +[X] Attack, and
Statuses caused by them have +[X] level and
duration.

Guard and Trickery checks to resist attacks

from below (besides Air and Quake) receive
+[X]d6, as if Boosted.
Melee attacks may even be impossible,
depending on the surroundings.

Gale
Weather
The wind whips around you relentlessly, threatening to carry light targets
up, up and away.
Pros Cons
Air, Ice and Shock Techniques used from here Fire and Water Techniques used from here or
have +[X] Attack, and Statuses caused by against characters here have -[X] Attack, and
them have +[X] level and duration. Statuses caused by them have -[X] level and
duration (to a minimum of 1).
Characters here who would recover HP from Air
attacks (e.g. Aeromental creatures) recover 1 Steady checks to keep your footing here
HP at the start of each turn. require [X] additional Grades of Success.

Characters with Weakness (Air) must hold their

ground against the gale at the end of each
turn, requiring a Steady check versus
Disorientation at Status Level [X], lasting for
[X] turns. This suffers the same penalty as
other Steady checks.

Page 99
Goop
Hazard
A mess of toxic goop coats the floor.
Aquatic characters and characters who would recover HP from Poison
attacks (e.g. Piranha Plants) ignore penalties to their skill checks from the
sludge.
Pros Cons
Poison and Water Techniques used from here Earth and Fire Techniques used from here or
have +[X] Attack, and Statuses caused by against characters here have -[X] Attack, and
them have +[X] level and duration. Statuses caused by them have -[X] level and
duration (to a minimum of 1).
Characters here who would recover HP from
Poison attacks (e.g. Piranha Plants) recover 1 Characters vulnerable to poison in contact
HP at the start of each turn. with it suffer a Lingering Poison while in
contact with the goop, at Status Level [X].
This Status lasts as long as the character
remains in contact with the goop, can't have
its duration lowered with Steady, and its
Status Level doesn't decrease over time;
instead, it increases each turn the character
stays in contact with the goop.
It continues to last for [X] turns after they
leave the goop, but the Status Level will
decrease as normal.

Athletics and Coordination checks to run or

move around on the ground require [X]
additional Grades of Success.

Steady checks to keep your footing require [X]

additional Grades of Success.

Heatwave
Weather
The heat in the area is overwhelming.
Characters with Immune (Fire) or Resist (Fire) ignore penalties to their skill
checks from the heat.
Pros Cons
Blast and Fire Techniques used from here have Ice and Water Techniques used from here or
+[X] Attack, and Statuses caused by them against characters here have -[X] Attack, and
have +[X] level and duration. Statuses caused by them have -[X] level and
duration (to a minimum of 1).
Characters here who would recover HP from
Fire attacks (e.g. Bubbles) recover 1 HP at the Characters here who would particularly suffer
start of each turn. from the heat (e.g. Blizzards, Dayzees) lose [X]
HP at the end of each turn, with no chance to
resist.

Athletics checks here require [X] additional

Grades of Success due to the sweltering heat.

Page 100
Lava
Environment
A pool of molten lava stands in your way!
Airborne or Elevated characters, or characters with Immune (Fire), suffer no
penalty here.
Pros Cons
Successfully dodging a melee attack here Ice and Water Techniques used from here or
causes the attacker to contact the lava, against characters here have -[X] Attack, and
taking [X] Piercing Fire damage from the lava Statuses caused by them have -[X] level and
immediately. duration (to a minimum of 1).

Blast and Fire Techniques used from here have Characters take [X] Piercing Fire damage at
+[X] Attack, and Statuses caused by them the end of each turn, with no chance to resist.
have +[X] level and duration. Each continuous turn they stay in the lava,
the damage per turn increases by 1.
Characters here who would recover HP from
Fire attacks (e.g. Bubbles) recover 1 HP at the
start of each turn.

Overgrown
Environment
The plant life in the area grows thickly all around.
Pros Cons
Earth Techniques used from here have +[X] Quake and Shock Techniques used from here
Attack, and Statuses caused by them have or against characters here have –[X] Attack,
+[X] level and duration. and Statuses caused by them have –[X] level
and duration (to a minimum of 1).
Fire Techniques used on characters here have
+[X] Attack, and Statuses caused by them Water Techniques used against characters
have +[X] level and duration. here have –[X] Attack, and Statuses caused by
them have –[X] level and duration (to a
Athletics checks to climb around on the plant minimum of 1)
life receive +[X]d6, as if Boosted.

Trickery checks to hide in the foliage receive

+[X]d6, as if Boosted.

Page 101
Rain
Weather
Heavy rainfall falls from the sky, affecting everyone in the rain. Typically,
the rain affects everyone in a battle.
Characters with Aquatic, Immune (Water) or Resist (Water) ignore penalties
to their skill checks from the rain.
Pros Cons
Air, Shock and Water Techniques used from Blast and Fire Techniques used from here or
here have +[X] Attack, and Statuses caused against characters here have -[X] Attack, and
by them have +[X] level and duration. Statuses caused by them have -[X] level and
duration (to a minimum of 1).
Characters here who would recover HP from
Water attacks (e.g. Dayzees) recover 1 HP at Characters here who would particularly suffer
the start of each turn. from the water (e.g. Bubbles) lose [X] HP at the
end of each turn, with no chance to resist.
Trickery checks to quietly sneak around in the
rain receive +[X]d6, as if Boosted. Steady checks to keep your footing in the rain
require [X] additional Grades of Success.

Sandstorm
Weather
The wind carries an endless stream of sand and dust around you.
Characters with Immune (Earth), Resist (Earth), Immune (Air) or Resist (Air)
ignore penalties to their skill checks from the sand.
Pros Cons
Air and Earth Techniques used from here have Fire and Shock Techniques used from here or
+[X] Attack, and Statuses caused by them against characters here have -[X] Attack, and
have +[X] level and duration. Statuses caused by them have -[X] level and
duration (to a minimum of 1).
Trickery checks to hide yourself amongst the
dust clouds receive +[X]d6, as if Boosted. Magic checks here require [X] additional
Grades of Success due to the floating dust
impeding your concentration and speech.

Notice checks to look around in the storm

require [X] additional Grades of Success;
without an appropriate means to pierce
through the storm, they may even be
impossible.

Characters with Weakness (Earth) or

Weakness (Air) lose [X] HP at the end of each
turn, with no chance to resist.
All other characters without Immune (Earth),
Resist (Earth), Immune (Air) or Resist (Air) lose 1
HP at the end of each turn.

Page 102
Spikes
Hazard
Perilous pointy spikes impede your progress!
Characters with Immune (Spikes) suffer no penalty here.
Pros Cons
Grounded characters making Trickery checks Melee attacks made from here by grounded
to dodge incoming attacks receive +[X]d6, as if characters (without Aerial or Reach), or
Boosted, and successfully dodging a melee against grounded characters here (without
attack (without Reach) causes the attacker Reach), require [X] additional Grades of
to take ½ [X] damage from the spikes. Success; on failure, the attacker takes ½ [X]
damage from the spikes.

Smog
Weather
Thick clouds of smoke, fog or other gas blanket the area, making it difficult
to see.
Characters with appropriate Notice specialisations (e.g. Fog, Scent) ignore
the smog's effects on their skill checks.
Depending on the nature of the smog, strong gusts of wind, scorching hot
flame or other effects can dismiss the smog altogether.
Pros Cons
Statuses caused by Air Techniques or Lingering Primary Checks for all Techniques from here or
Poisons used from here have +[X] level and used on characters here require [X] additional
duration. Grades of Success.

Trickery checks to hide in the smog receive Notice checks to look around in the smog
+[X]d6, as if Boosted. require [X] additional Grades of Success;
without an appropriate means to pierce
through the smog, they may even be
impossible.

Page 103
Snow
Weather
A thick blanket of ice and snow covers the ground, and a chill carries
through the air.
Characters with Immune (Ice) or Resist (Ice) ignore penalties to their skill
checks from the snow.
Pros Cons
Ice Techniques used from here have +[X] Fire Techniques used from here or against
Attack, and Statuses caused by them have characters here have -[X] Attack, and
+[X] level and duration. Statuses caused by them have -[X] level and
duration (to a minimum of 1).
Water Techniques used from here gain the Ice
Element, but don't gain further benefits from Characters here who would particularly suffer
the snow. from the cold (e.g. Bubbles) lose [X] HP at the
end of each turn, with no chance to resist.
Characters here who would recover HP from
Ice attacks (e.g. Blizzards) recover 1 HP at the Athletics and Coordination checks to run or
start of each turn. move around on the ground require [X]
additional Grades of Success.

Steady checks to keep your footing require [X]

additional Grades of Success.

Static
Hazard
A dangerous electrical field surrounds the battlefield.
Characters with Immune (Shock) or Resist (Shock) ignore penalties to their
skill checks from the static.
Pros Cons
Shock and Water Techniques used from here or Air Techniques used from here or against
against characters here have +[X] Attack, and characters here have -[X] Attack, and
Statuses caused by them have +[X] level and Statuses caused by them have -[X] level and
duration. duration (to a minimum of 1).

Characters here who benefit from electricity Characters without Immune (Shock) or Resist
(e.g. robots) recover 1 HP at the start of each (Shock) treat their Water Techniques as if
turn, even if they would normally be affected they have Blowback.
by Shock Techniques.
Characters here who are particularly
vulnerable to electricity, and don't otherwise
benefit from it (e.g. Cheep Cheeps), lose [X] HP
at the end of each turn, with no chance to
resist.
All other characters without Immune (Shock) or
Resist (Shock) lose 1 HP at the end of each
turn.

Heal and Cheer checks to assist yourself or

your allies require [X] additional Grades of
Success.

Page 104
Underground
Environment
Way down below – further down even than ordinary burrowing can get you.
Traveling underground isn't inherently much more dangerous than any other
Terrain, but travellers have to be mindful of tremors all around, and there's
less movement in the air.
An Underground environment often overlaps with Dark lighting, though
that's not necessarily always the case.
Pros Cons
Quake Techniques used from here or against Air Techniques used from here have -[X]
characters here have +[X] Attack, and Attack, and Statuses caused by them have
Statuses caused by them have +[X] level and –[X] level and duration (to a minimum of 1).
duration.

Page 105
Underwater
Environment
Diving under the water is like a whole new world, allowing characters to float
around freely, though they must take care to avoid drowning.
These effects still apply to characters treading water near the water's
surface, though they don't have to hold their breath unless forced under.
Pros Cons
Aquatic characters act as if they have the Blast and Fire Techniques used from here, and
Hover Trait. Water Techniques used against characters
here, have -[X] Attack, and Statuses caused
Non-Aquatic characters can swim as if they by them have -[X] level and duration (to a
have the Fly Trait, but their Primary Checks minimum of 1).
require [X] additional Grades of Success while
swimming. Characters with the Sinker Trait sink to the
Otherwise, they don't necessarily sink to the bottom of the water, and are unable to swim.
bottom of the water, but they're not mobile
enough to keep up with swimming combatants. Characters can't use their own Fly or Hover
Traits while underwater.
Water Techniques used from here have +[X]
Attack, and Statuses caused by them have Characters who need to breathe air (e.g. non-
+[X] level and duration. Aquatic species) can only hold their breath for
1 turn for each point of Heart they have;
Shock Techniques used against characters afterwards, at the end of each round, they
here have +[X] Attack, and Statuses caused must make an Athletics or Steady check to
by them have +[X] level and duration. hold their breath and resist a Lingering (1)
Status.
Aquatic characters who would recover HP from This Status lasts as long as the character
Water attacks (e.g. Aqua creatures) recover 1 remains underwater, can't have its duration
HP at the start of each turn. lowered with Steady, and its Status Level
Non-Aquatic characters don't receive this doesn't decrease over time; instead, it
benefit, regardless of their interaction with increases each turn the character is
Water. underwater.
Once the character surfaces, this Status ends
completely.

Characters with Weakness (Water) lose [X] HP

at the end of each turn, with no chance to
resist.
In addition, they can't hold their breath at all
without making checks.

Page 106
 Different Terrains call for different strategies! Think carefully about how to
take advantage of your environment, and how to get around problems in the
field. Even if it's not codified in the Terrain rules, you can find innovative
solutions to most any problem.

Page 107
Inventory
Players can carry around a wide variety of Items, Power-Ups, Gear and Badges.
Regardless of the size or number of things being carried, all players begin play
with 10 Inventory slots, which can each fit an Item, Power-Up, piece of Gear or
similarly-sized handheld object.

Items
Items are single-use consumables with a wide variety of effects. Generally,
Items require an action to use and are consumed immediately. You don't need
to make any special checks, though you can get more out of your Items using
Aim, Heal and Crafts.

Item Type Value Effect

Mushroom Curative 5 Coins Restores 5 HP to a willing target.

Super Shroom Curative 15 Coins Restores 10 HP to a willing target.

Ultra Shroom Curative 200 Restores 50 HP to a willing target.

Coins

Slow Shroom Curative 15 Coins Restores 2 HP a turn for 10 turns to a willing

target.

Life Shroom Curative 50 Coins Restores 10 HP and revives a willing target

from KO.
If a character is KO'd while holding a Life
Shroom, it is automatically consumed and
heals them back to 10 HP.
Dried Shroom Curative 2 Coins Restores 1 HP to a willing target.

Honey Syrup Curative 5 Coins Restores 5 FP to a willing target.

Maple Syrup Curative 20 Coins Restores 10 FP to a willing target.

Jammin' Jelly Curative 200 Restores 50 FP to a willing target.

Coins

Page 108
 Item Type Value Effect
Gradual Syrup Curative 15 Coins Restores 2 FP a turn for 10 turns to a willing
target.

Tasty Tonic Curative 3 Coins Cures status ailments (e.g. Lingering, Stun) for
a willing target.

Hustle Drink Curative 40 Coins Cures Status ailments (e.g. Lingering, Stun)
for a willing target, and allows them to Hustle
(1) for the next turn.

Whacka Bump Curative 200 Restores 25 HP and 25 FP to a willing target.

Coins

Dusty Hammer Attack 2 Coins Deals 1 Piercing damage to target enemy.

Dusty Boomerang Attack 5 Coins Deals 1 Piercing damage, twice, to all enemies
in target group in a straight line.

POW Block Attack 5 Coins Deals 2 Piercing Earth/Quake damage to all

enemies outside the user's group in contact
with a solid surface.

Reflect Cape Attack / 10 Coins Deals 2 Piercing damage to a target in melee,

then equips the user with a cape; until the
Booster
end of the round, they receive +1d6 to Guard
checks against ranged attacks, as if Boosted.
Fire Burst Attack 10 Coins Deals 3 Piercing Fire damage to all enemies in
target group and leaves a Lingering (1) burn
for 3 turns.

Ice Storm Attack 15 Coins Deals 3 Piercing Ice damage to all enemies in
target group – targets are frozen, Dazing (1)
them for 1 turn.

Bubble Wave Attack 15 Coins Deals 3 Piercing Water damage to all enemies
in target group – targets are encased in
bubbles, Dazing (1) them for 1 turn.

HP Drain Attack 10 Coins Deals 5 Piercing Shadow damage to target,

then restores the damage dealt as HP for the
user.

Thunder Bolt Attack 10 Coins Deals 5 Piercing Shock damage to target.

Thunder Rage Attack 20 Coins Deals 5 Piercing Shock damage to all enemies
outside the user's group.

Page 109
 Item Type Value Effect
Earth Quake Attack 15 Coins Deals 5 Piercing Earth/Quake damage to all
enemies outside the user's group in contact
with a solid surface.

Shooting Star Attack 30 Coins Deals 6 Piercing Star damage to all enemies
outside the user's group.

Fright Mask Hazard 5 Coins All enemies in target group are terrified,
either fleeing or leaving them Stunned (3) for
3 turns (their choice).

Sleepy Sheep Hazard 8 Coins All enemies in target group are put to sleep,
Dazing (1) them for 3 turns.

Mini Mr. Mini Hazard 8 Coins All enemies in target group are shrunken,
Weakening (1) Attack for 3 turns.

Mr. Softener Hazard 8 Coins All enemies in target group are softened up,
Weakening (1) Defense for 3 turns.

Dizzy Dial Hazard 12 Coins All enemies in target group are dizzied,
Disorienting (1) them for 3 turns.

Stopwatch Hazard 25 Coins All enemies in target group are partially

frozen in time, leaving them Stunned (3) for 3
turns.

Ruin Powder Hazard 15 Coins All enemies in target group have their senses
addled, Confusing (1) them for 3 turns.

Power Punch Booster 15 Coins Enlarges a willing target, Boosting (1) Attack
for 3 turns.

Courage Shell Booster 5 Coins Toughens a willing target's body, Boosting (1)
Defense for 3 turns.

Volt Shroom Booster 10 Coins Electrifies a willing target, bestowing the

following Contact trait for 3 turns:
Contact
The attacker takes 1 Piercing Shock DMG,
and you make a Steady check; the attacker
is Dazed for 1 turn for each Grade of
Success.

Spite Pouch Booster 10 Coins Protects a willing target with a vengeful

curse, bestowing the following Contact trait
for 3 turns:
Contact
The attacker takes Piercing damage equal to
half the damage dealt to you, with no
chance to resist.

Page 110
 Item Type Value Effect
Repel Cape Booster 15 Coins Makes a willing target dodgier; for the next 3
turns, their Dodge checks are Boosted (1).
While this Boost lasts, they can attempt to
Dodge before they Block.
Boo's Sheet Booster 25 Coins Turns a willing target invisible like a Boo for 1
turn, making them invisible, intangible and
bestowing the following Weakness:
Weakness (Sudden Light)
This weakness overrules any existing
immunity or resistance.
You are stunned by the light, ending your
invisibility and Dazing (1) you for a turn for
each point of damage taken (minimum 1
turn).

Stone Cap Booster 30 Coins Turns a willing target into a solid stone
statue for 3 turns, preventing them from
taking any action, but making them immune
to all attacks, hazards, Statuses and similar
effects.
If used while airborne, the user can crash into
a single target from above, dealing 6 Earth
DMG with an Aerial attack!
In any case, the user is grounded for the
duration, ignoring their Fly or Hover Traits.
Also bestows the following Weakness:
Weakness (Blast, Quake)
This weakness overrules any existing
immunity or resistance.
Your stone form is chipped, ending your
invulnerability and Dazing (1) you for a turn
for each point of damage taken (minimum 1
turn).

Carry Cloud Booster 30 Coins Gives a willing target a cloud to ride in for 3
turns, bestowing the Hover and Fly Traits;
checks made to Fly with the cloud can use
either Coordination or Magic instead of
Athletics.
The cloud becomes intangible and floats
away afterwards.

Page 111
 Item Type Value Effect
Mystery Box Quirk 3 Coins When used, roll 2d6 to determine this Item's
effect.
If the user would receive an Item after use, it
must either be used on themselves
immediately (as part of the same action) or
be wasted as the magic of the Mystery Box
fades away.
• 2: The user is struck by a Dusty
Hammer, with no chance to resist.
• 3: The user briefly receives a Repel
Cape.
• 4: The user briefly receives an Ultra
Shroom.
• 5: The user briefly receives a Slow
Shroom.
• 6: The user briefly receives a
Mushroom.
• 7: Target enemy group is affected by
a Fire Burst.
• 8: The user briefly receives a Honey
Syrup.
• 9: The user briefly receives a Gradual
Syrup.
• 10: The user briefly receives a
Jammin' Jelly.
• 11: Target enemy group is affected
by a Stopwatch.
• 12: All enemies outside the user's
group are affected by a Shooting
Star.
If a Mystery Box would be crafted into
another Item, roll 2d6 as above, and treat
the Mystery Box as that Item. Its value stays
the same.
Point Swap Quirk 5 Coins Swaps any target's current HP and FP totals,
without exceeding their maximum values.
Effectiveness on enemies can vary depending
on their effective FP.
Poison Shroom Quirk 50 Coins When fed to a willing target, they roll 1d6:
• On 1-5, if the user is immune to poison
or similar statuses, they heal 10 HP.
Otherwise they're afflicted with a
Lingering (1) poison for 3 turns; if
they're unable to shrug it off with
Steady outright, their current HP is
also halved.
• On 6, their HP is completely restored,
and their status ailments (e.g.
Lingering, Stun) are cured.

Page 112
 Why would you want to eat a Poison Shroom? The risk far outweighs the
reward. Although, if you get creative, you can find all sorts of uses for weird
Items like these.

Page 113
Power-Ups
Power-Ups are particularly special kinds of consumable Items which provide
ongoing effects for a single willing target, similar to Statuses caused by Booster
Items.
A character can have one Power-Up active at a time, with new Power-Ups
replacing existing Power-Ups immediately.

Power-Ups provide a variety of passive benefits, and can grant modifiers to

Techniques or give the user access to entirely new Techniques.
These Technique benefits can't be used simultaneously; you can't use a Power-
Up Technique while the Power-Up enhances it, and you can't enhance your
Techniques with more than one Power-Up effect.

The magic of a Power-Up doesn't last long! It takes special care to preserve
them for future use, requiring a Crafts, Magic or similar check to keep them
safe. Typically this requires at least a Great result, though as always, you may
be able to get by with less.
Otherwise if they aren't used, a Power-Up will wilt or expire within a few
minutes of acquiring it. Some of their magic will last, though, allowing them to
be used as ordinary Items.
When purchased in stores, Power-Ups come pre-preserved in special containers
– accounting for their higher cost.

Once a Power-Up is used, its Power-Up state lasts as long as its user is able to
concentrate, typically ending on its own outside of combat or during breaks
between adventure.
Whenever the user takes damage from an attack or is otherwise shaken up,
they have to make a Steady check to hold on; on failure, the Power-Up is lost.
Each Steady check made requires a higher Grade of Success than the last
check, until the Power-Up is lost.
No matter what, the effects of the Power-Up don't impact this Steady check,
either to make it easier or harder.

Page 114
 Item Type Value Effect
Fire Flower Power-Up 50 Coins Bestows the power to generate fire.
When wilted, the petals can be scattered to
produce a similar effect to a Fire Burst.
For 5 FP:
Adds +1 Attack, Lingering x2 and Element (Fire)
to an attack.
For 5 FP:
Fireball
Launches a volley of fireballs at a single enemy.
Aim or Magic:
Deals 1 Piercing Fire DMG to the target,
repeating with another strike for each Grade of
Success, hitting up to [2 x (Power + 1)] times.
Excess damage spills over to new targets.
Each target may be burnt.
Bully or Magic:
Nice!: Lingering (1) for 3 turns
Good!: Lingering (2) for 3 turns
Great!: Lingering (3) for 3 turns
Adds:
+1 Resist (Fire)
Removes:
Immunities and Resistances to Ice and Water

Ice Flower Power-Up 50 Coins Bestows the power to generate ice.

When wilted, the petals can be scattered to
produce a similar effect to an Ice Storm.
For 5 FP:
Adds +1 Attack, Daze x2 and Element (Ice) to an
attack.
For 5 FP:
Iceball
Launches a barrage of ice at a single enemy.
Aim or Magic:
Deals 1 Piercing Ice DMG to the target, repeating
with another strike for each Grade of Success,
hitting up to [2 x (Power + 1)] times.
Excess damage spills over to new targets.
Each target may be frozen in place.
Bully or Magic:
Nice!: Daze (1) for 3 turns
Good!: Daze (2) for 3 turns
Great!: Daze (3) for 3 turns
Adds:
+1 Resist (Ice)
Removes:
Immunities and Resistances to Fire

Page 115
 Item Type Value Effect
Bubble Flower Power-Up 50 Coins Bestows the power to generate bubbles of
water.
When wilted, the petals can be scattered to
produce a similar effect to a Bubble Wave.
For 5 FP:
Adds +1 Attack, Indirect and Element (Water) to
an attack.
For 5 FP:
Bubble Blower
Launches a cloud of bubbles at a foe at range,
which breeze past them to strike enemies behind
them. Each new target causes the cloud to grow
weaker, dealing 1 less damage (to a minimum of
1).
Each target may be encased in bubbles.
Aim or Magic:
Good!: [2 x (Power + 1)] Piercing Water DMG
Bully or Magic:
Nice!: Daze (1) for 3 turns
Good!: Daze (2) for 3 turns
Great!: Daze (3) for 3 turns
Adds:
+1 Resist (Water)
Removes:
Immunities and Resistances to Shock

Gold Flower Power-Up 100 Bestows the power to generate radiant orbs
of golden light.
Coins
Even when wilted, the petals can be
scattered to produce a burst of light,
producing a similar effect to a Dizzy Dial –
which also causes (roughly) 1d6 Coins to be
scattered around.
For 5 FP:
Adds +1 Attack, Burst and Element (Light) to an
attack.
For 5 FP:
Gold Burst
Hurls an orb of golden light at the enemy, which
explodes to strike a target in front of and behind
them; the additional targets take 1 less damage
(to a minimum of 1).
Each target may be blinded by the light.
Aim or Magic:
Good!: [2 x (Power + 1)] Piercing Light DMG
Bully or Magic:
Nice!: Disorient (1) for 3 turns
Good!: Disorient (2) for 3 turns
Great!: Disorient (3) for 3 turns
Adds:
Immune (Light)
Removes:
Immunities and Resistances to Shadow
Coins scatter around the battlefield when
successfully attacking with a Gold Flower,
leaving (roughly) 1d6 Coins for each attack
made.

Page 116
 Item Type Value Effect
Cloud Flower Power-Up 50 Coins Surrounds the target with a fluffy coat of
clouds, allowing them to sculpt similar clouds
from thin air.
When wilted, the head of the flower can
expand to function similarly to a Carry Cloud.
For 5 FP:
Adds +1 Attack, Indirect and Element (Air) to an
attack.
For 5 FP:
Cloud Blast
Conjures a thick wall of clouds and blasts it at
the target indirectly, which then breeze past to
strike enemies behind them. The size of the
cloud allows it to hit enemies regardless of their
elevation.
Each new target causes the clouds to thin out,
dealing 1 less damage (to a minimum of 1).
Each target may be entangled in clouds, making
it harder for them to fight back.
Crafts or Magic:
Good!: [2 x (Power + 1)] Air DMG
Bully or Magic:
Nice!: -1 Attack for 3 turns
Good!: -2 Attack for 3 turns
Great!: -3 Attack for 3 turns
Adds:
+1 Resist (Air)
Elevation
Spend 2 FP for each use. Elevation can be provided
for yourself or for another willing character, and
lasts as long as your Power-Up state.
When used on yourself, you can use Athletics, Crafts
or Magic.
When used on other characters, either they use
Athletics, or you use Crafts or Magic.
Removes:
Immunities and Resistances to Water

Page 117
 Item Type Value Effect
Amp Shroom Power-Up 50 Coins Bestows the power to generate electricity.
When wilted, can be eaten to produce a
similar effect to a Volt Shroom.
For 5 FP:
Adds +1 Attack, Piercing and Element (Shock) to
an attack.
For 5 FP:
Lightning Bolt
Launches a blast of electricity at the enemy,
arcing from them to strike enemies behind them.
Each new target causes the bolt to lose some
charge, dealing 1 less damage (to a minimum of
1).
Each target may be temporarily paralysed by
the shock.
Aim or Magic:
Good!: [2 x (Power + 1)] Piercing Shock DMG
Bully or Magic:
Nice!: Stun (1) for 3 turns
Good!: Stun (2) for 3 turns
Great!: Stun (3) for 3 turns
Adds:
+1 Resist (Shock)
Removes:
Immunities and Resistances to Earth.

Boo Mushroom Power-Up 50 Coins Turns the user ghostly and pale; they may
even take on an uncanny resemblance to a
Boo!

Artist: LadyLuck
When wilted, can be eaten to produce a
similar effect to a Boo's Sheet.
For 5 FP:
Adds +1 Attack, Fear x2 and Element (Shadow)
to an attack.
For 2 FP:
Outta Sight
Turns the user and a willing ally invisible and
intangible.
Magic or Trickery:
Nice!: Become Secure for 1 turn.
Adds:
Immune (Fear, Shadow)
Weakness (Sudden Light)
This weakness overrules any existing immunity or
resistance.
You are stunned by the light, Dazing (1) you for a
turn for each point of damage taken (minimum 1
turn).
Hover
Intangibility
Invisibility

Page 118
 Item Type Value Effect
Rotten Mushroom Power-Up 50 Coins Floods the user's body with poison; if they're
not immune to poison or similar statuses, they
have to make a Steady check to resist a

Artist: LadyLuck
Lingering (1) poison lasting 3 turns; if they
can't prevent the poison outright, their
current HP is halved, and the Power-Up fails.
When wilted, can be eaten (by the brave and
the foolish) for an effect similar to a Poison
Shroom.
For 5 FP:
Adds +1 Attack, Lingering x2 and Element
(Poison) to an attack.
For 5 FP:
Touch of Death
A simple touch carrying a potent poison.
Coordination:
Good!: [2 x (Power + 1)] Piercing Poison DMG
Bully or Magic:
Nice!: Lingering (1) for 3 turns
Good!: Lingering (2) for 3 turns
Great!: Lingering (3) for 3 turns
Adds:
Immune (Poison)
Removes:
Immunities and Resistances to Fire and Water

Super Leaf Power-Up 50 Coins Gives the target a magic raccoon-like tail and
ears, and some of the qualities of a Tanooki
creature.
When the magic fades, the leaf can be
wielded for an effect similar to a Reflect
Cape.
For 0 FP:
Tail Smack
A hefty spinning smack of the tail, hitting the
target indirectly.
Coordination:
Auto: [Power] DMG
Nice!: [2 x Power] DMG
For 2 FP:
Adds Aerial and/or Indirect to an attack.
Adds:
Fly
Latent (Stone Cap)
For 5 FP: Activate the effect of a Stone Cap,
targeting yourself.
Grants the user +1d6 to checks where their
tail and ears provides them a clear
advantage, such as Notice checks to listen,
or Steady checks to balance.

Page 119
 Item Type Value Effect
Cape Feather Power-Up 50 Coins Gives the target a magic cape.
When the magic fades, the feather can be
wielded for an effect similar to a Reflect
Cape.
For 0 FP:
Cape Spin
A quick spinning smack with the cape, hitting
the target indirectly.
Coordination:
Auto: [Power] DMG
Nice!: [Power] DMG x2
For 2 FP:
Adds Aerial and/or Indirect to an attack.
For 5 FP:
Plunging Tremor
The user slams into the earth from above,
causing a mighty tremor – affecting all enemies
outside the user's group in contact with the
floor, wall or ceiling.
The user must be airborne before attacking, and
becomes grounded afterwards.
Athletics:
Good!: [2 x [Power + 1]] Piercing Earth Quake
DMG
Adds:
Fly
Grants the user +1d6 to checks where their
cape provides a clear advantage, such as
Athletics checks to fly with a running start,
or Guard checks to deflect projectiles.
Boomerang Flower Power-Up 50 Coins Gives the target the ability to generate
boomerangs from thin air.
When wilted, the head of the flower can be
thrown similarly to a Dusty Boomerang.
For 0 FP:
Boomer-Whack
A quick smack with a held boomerang, hitting
the target indirectly.
Coordination:
Auto: [Power] DMG
Nice!: [2 x Power] DMG
For 5 FP:
Boomerang
A hefty spinning boomerang smack from afar.
Hits all targets in a straight line, twice.
Aim:
Good!: [Power + 1] DMG x2

Page 120
 Item Type Value Effect
Super Bell Power-Up 50 Coins Gives the target a fluffy outer coat, making
them look and behave more cat-like.
When the magic fades, the bell can be rung
loudly, producing a similar effect to a Dizzy
Dial, but based on sound.
For 2 FP:
Adds Aerial, Piercing or Indirect to an unarmed
melee attack.
For 0 FP:
Cat Claws
A rapid duo of claw swipes, striking indirectly
with the suit's sharp claws at the foe's weak
point.
Coordination:
Auto: [Power] Piercing DMG
Nice!: [Power] Piercing DMG x2
Grants the user +1d6 to checks where their
cat-like nature provides a clear advantage,
such as Athletics when jumping and climbing,
or Steady when balancing.
Rock Mushroom Power-Up 50 Coins Coats the target in a light-weight rocky shell
and allows them to bend the earth to their
will.
When wilted, the mushroom can be thrown to
the ground for a similar effect to a POW
Block.
For 5 FP:
Adds +1 Attack, Indirect and Element (Earth) to
an attack.
For 5 FP:
Rolling Rock
Forms a boulder around the user, then bowls
through enemies – hitting indirectly. The user
can bowl over the target to strike targets
behind them. Each new target slows them down,
dealing 1 less damage (to a minimum of 1).
The sheer force of the blow can leave each
target reeling.
Athletics:
Good!: [2 x (Power + 1)] Earth DMG
Athletics or Bully:
Nice!: Disorient (1) for 3 turns
Good!: Disorient (2) for 3 turns
Great!: Disorient (3) for 3 turns
Adds:
+1 Defense
+1 Resist (Shock)
Weakness (Blast, Quake)
This weakness overrules any existing immunity or
resistance.
Your stone form is chipped, nullifying this Power-Up's
Defense and Resist boosts for a turn for each point
of damage taken (minimum 1 turn), as well as Dazing
(1) you for the same duration.
Removes:
Hover
Fly

Page 121
 Item Type Value Effect
Mini Mushroom Power-Up 30 Coins Causes the user to shrink to miniscule
proportions.
When wilted, can be thrown at enemies to
produce a similar effect to a Mini Mr. Mini.
For 5 FP:
The user becomes Hustled (1) for 1 turn.
For 2 FP:
Under-Foot
The user ducks away from combat with superior
quickness, hiding behind something bigger.
Trickery:
Nice!: Become Secure for 1 turn.
Adds:
-2 Power
Homing and Selective to all Techniques.
Weakness (Air, Crushing)
Crushing attacks can't bypass your Secure status
from Under-Foot.
The Level and Duration of all Statuses you suffer
from these attacks are doubled.
Grants the user +2d6 to checks where their
small size provides them a clear advantage,
such as landing a hit with Coordination, or
dodging attacks with Trickery.
However, checks where the user's size is a
hindrance, such as Guard, require a higher
Grade of Success than usual.
Mega Mushroom Power-Up 200 Causes the user to grow to a tremendous
size.
Coins
When wilted, can be consumed for an effect
similar to a Power Punch.
For 5 FP:
Artist: LadyLuck Megaton Charge
The user barrels forwards with their full weight,
striking all enemies in the target group.
Athletics:
Good!: [Power] DMG
Great!: [2 x Power] DMG
For 5 FP:
Megaton Stomp
The user slams the ground with their full weight,
causing a powerful shockwave – affecting all
enemies outside the user's group in contact with
the floor, wall or ceiling.
Athletics:
Great!: [2 x Power] Piercing Earth Quake DMG
Adds:
+3 Power
Grants the user +2d6 to checks where their
large size provides them a clear advantage,
such as blocking attacks with Guard, or
standing their ground with Steady.
Checks where the user's size is a hindrance,
such as Coordination, require two more
Grades of Success than usual; in the case of
this Power-Up's Megaton Charge and
Megaton Stomp, this is already factored in.

Page 122
 Power-Ups don't need to be preserved – if you don't want to use one right
away, letting it wilt so you can use it as an Item can be a solid strategy. After
all, the original games didn't have any Power-Ups!

Page 123
Gear
Gear are specialised pieces of equipment that provide the user with new
Techniques and other significant advantages, both in the field and in combat.
If players request personalised Gear, Craft it themselves or (in the case of Basic
Gear) begin play with a Tool Technique, they can even design their own!

• Basic Gear
o Costs 30 Coins.
o Doesn't provide bonuses to stats or checks.
o If the Gear was generated through a Tool Technique in character
creation, players can begin play with it without spending Coins,
and don't design another Technique for the Gear; unfamiliar users
only have access to a basic version of that Technique, using the
below rules at the GM's discretion.
o Otherwise, this Gear provides the user with a new Technique.
This Technique must cost 0 FP, and can include one Trait as a
Tech Default, based on the Gear's primary use (e.g. Tool for
weapons, or Aerial for boots).
Regardless of the user's level, only 1 Trait can be used to reduce
the Technique's FP cost.
o Personal Traits can be added for a cost of 10 Coins each, but
checks using those Traits (e.g. Fly) can only score up to a Nice
result, and their numerical values (e.g. Resist, HP healed with
Immune, Contact damage) are limited to 1.

• Super Gear
o Costs 400 Coins.
o Grants either +1 Power (when wielded as a Weapon), +1 Defense
(when carried as a Shield or worn as Armour), or +1 to a Stat.
o Adds +1d6 to appropriate checks.
o Grants the user a new Technique using the Gear.
This Technique can include one Trait as a Tech Default, based on
the Gear's primary use (e.g. Tool for weapons, or Aerial for boots).
Regardless of the user's level, only 2 Traits can be used to reduce
the Technique's FP cost.
o Personal Traits can be added for a cost of 25 Coins each, with
their numerical values beginning at 1. Checks using those Traits
can score up to a Great result, but no higher.
Each numerical effect of a Trait can be enhanced to 2 for another
25 Coins, but no further.

Page 124
 • Ultra Gear
o Costs 800 Coins.
o Grants either +2 Power (when wielded as a Weapon), +2 Defense
(when carried as a Shield or worn as Armour), or +2 to a Stat.
o Adds +2d6 to appropriate checks.
o Grants the user two new Techniques using the Gear.
These Techniques can include one Trait as a Tech Default, based
on the Gear's primary use (e.g. Tool for weapons, or Aerial for
boots).
Regardless of the user's level, only 4 Traits can be used to reduce
the Technique's FP cost.
o Traits can be added for a further 50 Coins each, with numerical
values (e.g. Resist, HP healed with Immune, Contact damage)
beginning at 1.
Each numerical effect can be increased, 1 point at a time, for
another 50 Coins.

The following pieces of Gear are just a few examples of what can be found in
the world, either following these rules or as unique examples.

Gear Type Value Effect

Basic Boots Boots 30 Coins An ordinary pair of jumping shoes.
For 0 FP:
Jump
The user leaps onto the foe's head, attacking
with a double-bounce.
Athletics or Coordination:
Auto: [Power] DMG
Nice!: [Power] DMG x2

Basic Hammer Weapon 30 Coins An ordinary tool for busting blocks.

For 0 FP:
Hammer Whack
The user smacks the foe with a straightforward
hammer attack.
Coordination:
Auto: [Power] DMG
Nice!: [2 x Power] DMG

Page 125
 Gear Type Value Effect
Spiny Hat Headgear 50 Coins A skullcap with one or more sharp spikes,
intended to ward off attacks from above.
In a pinch, it can be used to attack.
Adds:
Immune (Aerial)
This Immunity is negated if the attacker has
Immune (Spikes).
Contact
The attacker takes 1 Piercing DMG, and you
make a Steady check; with a Nice result, the
attacker is Dazed for 1 turn.
For 0 FP:
Pointed Headbonk
The user leaps onto the foe's head, skewering
them with their own spiky head.
Athletics or Coordination:
Nice!: [Power + 1] DMG
Good!: [2 x [Power + 1]] DMG

Spiny Spear Weapon 50 Coins A stick with a pointed spike attached at the
end. While it's intended as a weapon, just
carrying it around helps protect against jump
attacks.
Adds:
Immune (Aerial)
This Immunity is negated if the attacker has
Immune (Spikes).
Contact
The attacker takes 1 Piercing DMG, and you
make a Steady check; with a Nice result, the
attacker is Dazed for 1 turn.
For 0 FP:
Spear Strike
The user stabs from afar with their spear. This
attack has reach, allowing it to hit airborne
enemies.
It can strike through the initial target to hit one
more target behind them, but this attack deals
-1 damage.
Coordination:
Nice!: [Power] DMG / [Power - 1] DMG
Good!: [2 x Power] DMG / [[2 x Power] - 1] DMG

Super Boots Boots 400 Sturdy leather boots. Comfy, but reliable.
Grants +1d6 to appropriate checks (e.g.
Coins
Athletics), and +1 Power when wielded, such
as in Spin Jump.
For 2 FP:
Spin Jump
The user jumps on the foe, then slams them with
a forceful ground-pound.
Athletics or Coordination:
Auto: [Power] DMG
Nice!: [Power] DMG, [2 + Power] DMG

Page 126
 Gear Type Value Effect
Super Hammer Weapon 400 A heavy iron hammer. Solid and reliable.
Grants +1d6 to appropriate checks (e.g.
Coins
Coordination) using this hammer, and +1
Power when wielded, such as in Spin Hammer.
For 2 FP:
Spin Hammer
The user spins in place with their hammer,
smacking targets into foes behind them.
Coordination:
Auto: [Power] DMG
Nice!: [2 x Power] DMG
Athletics or Bully:
For each Grade of Success, launch the target
into one additional target behind them, dealing
[Power] DMG to each new target.

Ultra Boots Boots 800 Aerodynamic jumping shoes. Built for maximum
mobility as well as comfort.
Coins
Grants +2d6 to appropriate checks (e.g.
Athletics), and +2 Power when wielded, such
as in Spin Jump and Spring Jump.
For 2 FP:
Spin Jump
The user jumps on the foe, then slams them with
a forceful ground-pound.
Athletics or Coordination:
Auto: [Power] DMG
Nice!: [Power] DMG, [2 + Power] DMG
For 4 FP:
Spring Jump
The user leaps high into the air, then slams back
down onto the foe with a single decisive strike.
Athletics or Coordination:
Nice!: [3 + Power] DMG
Good!: [2 x [3 + Power]] DMG

Page 127
 Gear Type Value Effect
Ultra Hammer Weapon 800 A solid steel hammer. Extremely heavy and
nigh-unbreakable.
Coins
Grants +2d6 to appropriate checks (e.g.
Coordination) using this hammer, and +2
Power when wielded, such as in Spin Hammer
and Ultra Whack.
For 2 FP:
Spin Hammer
The user spins in place with their hammer,
smacking targets into foes behind them.
Coordination:
Auto: [Power] DMG
Nice!: [2 x Power] DMG
Athletics or Bully:
For each Grade of Success, launch the target
into one additional target behind them, dealing
[Power] DMG to each new target.
For 4 FP:
Ultra Whack
The user builds up as much power as they can,
then brings the hammer down on an enemy.
Coordination:
Nice!: [Power + 3] DMG
Good!: [2 x [Power + 3]] DMG

Legendary Unique 500 A master chef's cookbook. Their legendary

instruction can help any chef master the art
Cookbook (Book) Coins
of combining ingredients.
It has no Techniques, but when the holder
consults this book while cooking, they can
make Crafts checks with +2 Spirit.
Checks made to combine two ingredients are
especially effective, receiving +2d6.
Strange Sack Unique 500 An exceptionally roomy pack, equivalent in
value and rarity to Ultra Gear.
(Container) Coins
It has no Techniques, but provides an
additional 10 Inventory slots for the holder to
use, without occupying an Inventory slot
itself.
Items are still relatively easy to locate, even
when the sack is full, as they seem to rise up
to the top whenever they're needed.

Page 128
 Gear is rare and expensive, but well worth the effort to track down. A good
piece of Gear can either supplement your existing skillset or make you more
reliable in different fields, giving you more options to work with.

Page 129
Badges
Badges are a special piece of equipment that take up no space in the
inventory.
Instead, a character equips a number of their owned Badges at once. You can
equip any number of Badges, but their BP total must be equal to or less than
your maximum BP.
Badges enhance your abilities in a variety of ways, often subverting the rules
of standard checks and Techniques.
Generally you can change your equipped Badges at-will, but during combat
and other stressful situations, you're unable to change your equipped Badges –
at least, not without a concentrated effort, and how much you can actually
change at a time will depend on the circumstances.

Badge BP Type Value Effect

Heart Plus 3 Stats 150 Coins Increases Heart by 1 and adds 5 Max
HP.

Spirit Plus 3 Stats 150 Coins Increases Spirit by 1 and adds 5 Max FP.

Courage Plus 3 Stats 150 Coins Increases Courage by 1.

I Spy 1 Skills 50 Coins Adds +2d6 to Notice checks to find

treasure.

Super Appeal 1 Skills 50 Coins Adds +1d6 to Appeal checks.

Timing Tutor 1 Skills 100 Coins Adds +1d6 to Stylish Move checks.

Chill Out 1 Skills 74 Coins Adds +2d6 to Initiative checks. You

don't suffer First Strikes, even from a
Critical Failure.

Emblem Mask 1 Skills 300 Coins You take on a simple disguise.

Adds +1d6 to Trickery checks to
maintain your disguise.
Adds +1d6 to Persuade checks with
people who are influenced by your
disguise.
Peekaboo 2 Skills 100 Coins Once per turn, you can make a Notice
check as a free action.
For each Grade of Success, you can find
out how much HP one enemy has.

Page 130
 Badge BP Type Value Effect
Medicine Man 2 Skills 100 Coins Adds +2d6 to Heal checks made to use
Items.

Power Rush 1 Attack 50 Coins When you have 5 or less HP, you have
+2 Attack.

Mega Rush 1 Attack 50 Coins When you have just 1 HP remaining,

bestows +5 Attack.

Simplifier 1 Attack 50 Coins All Techniques have Simple, but you

can't gain SP from Exceptional Results
when using them.

Unsimplifier 1 Attack 50 Coins All Techniques have Unwieldy, but they

earn SP from Exceptional Results as if
they had one more Grade of Success on
each check.
Ice Power 1 Attack 74 Coins You ignore Contact traits that deal Fire
damage, and have +1 Resist (Fire).
All of your attacks have Element (Ice).

Earth Power 1 Attack 74 Coins You ignore Contact traits that deal
Shock damage, and have +1 Resist
(Shock).
All of your attacks have Element
(Earth).
Fire Power 1 Attack 74 Coins You ignore Contact traits that deal Ice
damage, and have +1 Resist (Ice).
All of your attacks have Element (Fire).

Artist: LadyLuck

HP Drain 1 Attack 100 Coins Bestows -1 Attack, but when a strike

you make would deal damage, you
recover 1 HP.

FP Drain 1 Attack 100 Coins Bestows -1 Attack, but when a strike

you make would deal damage, you
recover 1 FP.

First Attack 1 Attack 100 Coins During the Surprise Round, enemies with
a lower Max HP than your Level take
double damage from your attacks.

P-Up, D-Down 2 Attack 150 Coins Bestows +1 Attack, but attacks made
against you have +1 Attack.

Jumpman 2 Attack 150 Coins Your Aerial Techniques have +1 Attack.

You cannot use attacks that don't have
Aerial.

Weaponman 2 Attack 150 Coins Your Tool (Indirect) Techniques have +1

Attack.
You cannot use attacks that don't have
Tool (Indirect).

Page 131
 Badge BP Type Value Effect
Handyman 2 Attack 150 Coins Your Techniques that make contact
with an enemy and don't have Aerial
have +1 Attack.
You cannot use attacks that don't
Original Artist: LadyLuck
Concept: @landsharkrawr make contact with an enemy or that
have Aerial.
Marksman 2 Attack 150 Coins Your Techniques with either Tool
(Ranged) or Ranged have +1 Attack.
You cannot use attacks that don't have
Tool (Ranged) or Ranged.
Original Artist: LadyLuck

Flower Saver 4 Attack 250 Coins Whenever you would spend FP, you
spend 1 less than normal. This Badge
cannot reduce FP cost for any
Technique or action below 1.
All or Nothing 4 Attack 100 Coins Bestows +1 Attack, but all Primary
Checks gain Commitment (if applicable)
and Unwieldy.

Bump Attack 5 Attack 300 Coins Enemies with a lower Max HP than your
Level take double damage from your
attacks.

Power Plus 6 Attack 400 Coins Bestows +1 Attack.

Last Stand 1 Defense 50 Coins When you have 5 or less HP, incoming
attacks have their damage halved
(before you react).

Close Call 1 Defense 100 Coins When you have 5 or less HP, you can
attempt to Dodge before you Block, and
you have +1d6 to Dodge checks.

Damage Dodge 2 Defense 150 Coins +2d6 to Guard checks.

P-Down, D-Up 2 Defense 150 Coins Bestows -1 Attack and +1 Defense.

Pretty Lucky 2 Defense 150 Coins When attacked, you can attempt to
Dodge before you Block.

Lucky Day 7 Skills 500 Coins When attacked, you can attempt to
Dodge before you Block.
+2d6 to Dodge checks.

Spike Shield 3 Defense 150 Coins Bestows Immunity (Spikes).

Page 132
 Badge BP Type Value Effect
Zap Tap 3 Defense 200 Coins Bestows Contact:
The attacker takes 1 Piercing Shock DMG,
and you make a Steady check; the
attacker is Dazed (1) for 1 turn for each
Grade of Success.

Feeling Fine 4 Defense 150 Coins Bestows Immune (Negative Status).

Defend Plus 5 Defense 300 Coins Bestows +1 Defense.

Return Postage 7 Defense 1000 Bestows the following Contact Trait:

The attacker takes damage equal to half
Coins the damage dealt to you.

Multibounce 1 Technique 74 Coins For 2 FP:

Multibounce
The user jumps on a foe, then attempts to
jump on as many foes behind them as
possible.
Athletics or Coordination:
Nice!: [Power] DMG; hits one target for
each Grade of Success.

Weapon Throw 1 Technique 74 Coins For 1 FP while wielding a melee weapon:

Weapon Throw
The user throws their held weapon as an
impromptu ranged attack.
Aim:
Auto: [Power] DMG
Nice!: [2 x Power] DMG

Spin Smash 1 Technique 74 Coins By spending 2 FP, you can treat a

single-target Technique as if it has
Launch.
If it already had Launch, add another
instance of Launch.
Power Smash 1 Technique 50 Coins For 2 FP:
Adds +1 Attack to a single-target attack.

Piercing Blow 1 Technique 74 Coins For 2 FP:

Adds Piercing to a single-target attack.

Ice Smash 1 Technique 74 Coins By spending 3 FP, you can treat a

single-target Technique as if it has
Element (Ice) and Daze x3 – the
Secondary Check defaults to Magic.
Shrink Slam 1 Technique 74 Coins By spending 2 FP, you can treat a
single-target Technique as if it has
Weaken (Attack) x3 – the Secondary
Check defaults to Magic.
Soft Slam 1 Technique 74 Coins By spending 2 FP, you can treat a
single-target Technique as if it has
Weaken (Defense) x3 – the Secondary
Check defaults to Magic.

Page 133
 Badge BP Type Value Effect
Sleepy Slam 1 Technique 74 Coins By spending 2 FP, you can treat a
single-target Technique as if it has Daze
x3 – the Secondary Check defaults to
Bully or Magic.
Dizzy Attack 1 Technique 74 Coins By spending 2 FP, you can treat a
single-target Technique as if it has
Disorient x3 – the Secondary Check
defaults to Magic or Trickery.
Poison Touch 1 Technique 74 Coins By spending 2 FP, you can treat a
single-target Technique as if it has
Lingering x3 – the Secondary Check
defaults to Magic.
Disarming Slam 1 Technique 74 Coins By spending 2 FP, you can treat a
single-target Technique as if it has
Disarm x3 (Tool) – the Secondary Check
defaults to Bully or Magic.
Head Rattle 1 Technique 100 Coins By spending 2 FP, you can treat a
single-target Technique as if it has
Confuse x3 – the Secondary Check
defaults to Bully or Magic.
Charge 1 Technique 50 Coins Bestows use of the Charge Technique (1
FP).
Boosts your Attack by 1 until after your
next attack, or until the end of your next
turn.
Repeated uses of this Technique increase
the Boost by 1 and extend its duration by
one more turn.

Tornado Jump 2 Technique 100 Coins Bestows the use of the Tornado Jump (2
FP) Technique. If you have multiple
Tornado Jump Badges, you can use
them together by spending 1 FP for
each additional Badge.
Treat [X] as the number of additional
Tornado Jump Badges used.
Tornado Jump
Stomps on an enemy, then generates
a burst of wind around them.
Athletics:
Nice!: (Power) DMG
Good!: (Power) DMG, [XX] Piercing Air DMG
The extra Air damage is Indirect, and
affects all other airborne enemies in the
group (but not the first target).

Page 134
 Badge BP Type Value Effect
Quake Slam 2 Technique 100 Coins Bestows the use of the Quake Slam (3
FP) Technique. If you have multiple
Quake Slam Badges, you can use them
together by spending 1 FP for each
additional Badge.
Treat [X] as the number of additional
Quake Slam Badges used.
Quake Slam
Pounds the ground to produce a
localised tremor, affecting everyone
in target group in contact with the
ground, wall or ceiling.
Athletics:
Good!: (2 x Power) + (2 x [X]) Piercing
Earth Quake DMG

Double Dip 3 Technique 100 Coins Bestows the use of the Double Dip (4 FP)
Technique. If you have multiple Double
Dip Badges, you can use them together
by spending 2 FP for each additional
Badge.
Treat [X] as 1 + the total number of
Double Dip Badges in use.
Double Dip
Allows you to act as if Hustled at Status
Level [X] this turn, but all your Hustle
actions must be to use consumable Items.
You suffer no penalty on those actions for
your Hustled Status.

Fire Drive 3 Technique 100 Coins Bestows the use of the Fire Drive (5 FP)
Technique. If you have multiple Fire
Drive Badges, you can use them
together by spending 2 FP for each
additional Badge.
Treat [X] as the number of additional
Fire Drive Badges used.
Fire Drive
Flings a fireball at the target at
range, then blazes a path past them
to affect more grounded targets.
Aim or Magic:
Good!: ((2 x Power) + [XX]) Piercing Fire
DMG
Repeats on as many grounded targets as
possible behind the target, dealing -1
damage each time.
Bully or Magic:
Nice!: Lingering (1) burn for 3 turns
Good!: Lingering (2) burn for 3 turns
Great!: Lingering (3) burn for 3 turns

Power Bounce 3 Technique 100 Coins By spending 3 FP, you can treat a
single-target Technique as if it has
Repeat.

Page 135
 Badge BP Type Value Effect
Refund 1 Boon 50 Coins You receive ¼ (rounded down, minimum
1) of an Item or Power-Up's value in
Coins when you consume it to use on
yourself or another target.
If you would keep the Item after use,
you don't receive Coins.
Happy Heart 2 Boon 150 Coins At the start of your turn, roll 1d6. On a
result of 4 or more, restore 1 HP.

Happy Flower 2 Boon 150 Coins At the start of your turn, roll 1d6. On a
result of 4 or more, restore 1 FP.

Pity Flower 3 Boon 200 Coins When you take damage, make a Steady
check.
You restore 1 FP for each Grade of
Success. You can't restore more FP than
the damage you take.
Heart Finder 3 Boon 100 Coins Restores 1d6 HP after victory.

Flower Finder 3 Boon 100 Coins Restores 1d6 FP after victory.

Item Hog 3 Boon 100 Coins After victory, make a Notice check.
Great!: You may find an Item that
belonged to an enemy, as appropriate.

Lucky Start 4 Boon 100 Coins At the start of battle, roll 1d6, and
receive the appropriate benefit for 3
turns.
1. Restore 2 HP at the start of your
turn.
2. Restore 2 FP at the start of your
turn.
3. Contact
The attacker takes 1 Piercing Shock
DMG, and you make a Steady check;
the attacker is Dazed (1) for 1 turn
for each Grade of Success.
4. +1 Attack.
5. +1 Defense.
6. When attacked, you can attempt
to Dodge before you Block.

Page 136
 Badge BP Type Value Effect
Quick Change 4 Boon 500 Coins Allows you to Swap with an ally as a
free action.
Once per round, after an enemy group
attacks, you can make a Coordination
or Trickery check – this counts as a
Dodge check.
Great!: You trade places with an ally;
attacks aimed at them instead affect you,
and attacks aimed at you instead affect
them. You can both Block and Dodge as
normal.

Money Money 5 Boon 350 Coins After victory, make a Notice check.
You may find more coins that belonged
to an enemy, as appropriate.
(Roughly 1d6 per Grade of Success)

Berserker 4 Boon 100 Coins During combat, you have +2 Attack and
Immune (Negative Status), but can't
spend FP or SP (or equivalent, in the
case of Alternative Techniques).
For the duration, you are Confused (3),
as well as being Provoked (6) by the
nearest enemy in range.
Double Pain 0 Negative 30 Coins Whenever you would take damage from
an attack or hazard, you take twice as
much. This effect applies after your
Defense, Blocking and other means of
reducing the damage.
Slow Go 0 Negative 10 Coins Athletics checks relating to running and
similar movement suffer a -3d6 penalty,
as if Weakened (3).

Page 137
Tips for the Game Master
As you may have noticed, Paper Story is designed to act the way you'd expect
the original games to – at least as far as combat goes. I've tried to include as
many fun ideas as possible, and keep closely to the original spirit of Paper
Mario.

Your players are bound to have all sorts of crazy ideas, either to solve
problems in inventive new ways, to skirt around the limitations of their
Techniques or to play wacky species not covered here.
I strongly recommend you work together with them on that, to the extent that
your game is comfortable with it.
The Items, Species, Techniques and Traits presented in this book are just a
starting point. Don't be afraid to draft new content for your players, or design
Techniques by hand. Creating an imaginative solution that suits your game
and your players will always be better than forcing players into a mould
they're not interested in.

The rest of this book is devoted to resources for you to use at your own table,
and suggestions for how to tweak the provided rules for your players.

I hope this helps you to wrap your head around the game. Thanks again for
reading. These are very special games, and I hope you enjoy translating them
to your tabletop.

Page 138
NPC Inaction
A critical distinction between Paper Story and other systems you might have
played is that Non-Player Characters (NPC's) don't follow any pre-defined rules
– they just kind of work.
NPC's only have very basic stats – HP and Defense is usually the only thing you
need to consider, as well as how they attack the players (if they do).

Essentially, NPC actions automatically succeed, and the players are the ones
that have to respond to those actions. They represent the flow of the
narrative for your game, so you just have to direct them as you see fit.
They don't make attack checks, they don't contest player's actions, and they
don't waste your time.
In a combat scenario, all you need for an NPC is to track their key stats and
the outcome of their attacks – which is usually just the number of strikes, the
damage dealt and any Statuses they can dish out.
You can give them FP, too, if you want the players to wear them down over
time; usually though I'd recommend just spacing out their best attacks by a
turn or two. If their FP total comes up (such as through a Point Swap), it's rare
enough that it's easier to just come up with something on the fly.
By design, all of this is simple enough to mock up on the spot, but it can be
really helpful to look at how the games have used enemies in battles and build
off of that.

If an NPC really poses a challenge (out-swimming a Cheep Cheep, or Bullying a

mighty dragon), your players still make their rolls as normal, but you might
want to warn them they'll need more Grades of Success. Boss fights in
particular can get away with some resistance to Statuses.

If you're not familiar with this style of play it can take some getting used to – I
highly recommend Dungeon World and other Powered By The Apocalypse
systems if you're interested in seeing that concept taken further, as it was a
big inspiration for this system.

NPC Action
Of course, if you prefer you can crunch out NPC stat blocks, giving them skills
and techniques like a player would have. In this case you would either have
their skills set the target number of Grades of Success players need to
succeed, or have them actively oppose the players with rolls of their own.

The important thing to remember is this will make the players' lives a lot
harder, as all of their actions will take more effort and the outcomes will be
less certain. So it's important to be clear with your players if you take this
option.

Page 139
Star Power Techniques
In a long-form campaign, players may acquire certain powers that rely on Star
Power to function, from artifacts, powerful beings or whatever else fits within
your campaign. With these boons comes an increase in maximum SP, improving
SP limits by 10 with each ability.

In the context of Paper Story, these are basically just Techniques which cost
SP instead of FP, as defined by the GM. As these are more potent than regular
Techniques and run on a less reliable power source, GM's are encouraged to
set SP costs as they see fit, and homebrew effects as necessary.

Some examples are provided below based on the existing games, to be taken as
suggestions only. Traits used are provided as a reference, showing how they
could potentially be designed as Techniques, and the relative power level when
translated into FP.
Simple rolls are generally assumed to succeed, however for debilitating
Statuses and other effects where variance is useful, feel free to request
relevant checks. Magic, Bully, Cheer and Perform are all useful skills to call in
these circumstances, though that will vary based on the Technique and source
of their power.

Equivalent FP costs assume the Technique operates at 1 Power and

automatically achieve their full potential.
When used in-game it's recommended that these Techniques don't rely on the
user's Power or Attack; usually, they just have set damage values.
Keep in mind these are rough estimates, as many Star Power Techniques don't
fit neatly into Paper Story's mechanics – generally, it's better for the GM to
design Star Power Techniques from scratch, working as they see fit.

Technique SP Effect
Refresh 10 Restore all allies' HP and FP by 5, and cures all status
Eldstar conditions. Affects the user, too.
Allies, Hearty x3, Flowery x3, Dismiss, Harmless
Equivalent: 11 FP

Lullaby 10 Attempts to put all targets outside the user's group to

Mamar sleep, Dazing them.
The user makes a Magic or Cheer check; for each Grade of
Success, targets are Dazed (5) for 1 turn, to a maximum of
5 turns.
All, Safe, Daze x5, Harmless
Equivalent: 7 FP

Page 140
Technique SP Effect
Star Storm 20 Deals 7 Piercing Star DMG to all targets outside the user's
Skolar group.
All, Safe, Strong x3, Piercing, Element (Star)
Equivalent: 15 FP

Chill Out 20 Reduces the Attack of all targets outside the user's group
Muskular by -3, for 3 turns.
All, Safe, Weaken (Attack) x3, Harmless
Equivalent: 7 FP

Smooch 30 Restores the user's HP by 20.

Misstar Hearty x10, Harmless, Self
Equivalent: 6 FP

Time Out 20 Attempts to freeze all targets outside the user's group in
Klevar time, Stunning them at Status Level 5.
The user makes a Magic or Cheer check; for each Grade of
Success, targets are completely Stunned (6) for a turn, to
a maximum of 5 turns.
All, Safe, Stun x5 (Stronger Variant), Harmless
Equivalent: 12 FP
Up & Away 20 Attempts to remove all targets outside the user's group
Kalmar from battle, sending them to the stars.
The user makes a Magic or Cheer check; for each Grade of
Success, they can remove a target with 5 HP or less from
the battle.
Multiple Grades of Success can be bundled together to
remove targets with more than 5 HP.
e.g. Two Grades of Success could remove two
targets with 5 HP, or one target with 10 HP.
All, Safe, Custom Banish Effect, Harmless
Equivalent: ? FP
Star Beam 10 The user can remove all positive conditions (e.g. Boost,
Star Haven Counter, Secure) and magic effects (e.g. Invisibility, Flight)
from all combatants in the target group.
Group, Harmless, Dismiss
Equivalent: 3 FP

Page 141
Simplified Rules
While the core rules for skill checks and Grades of Success are meant to be
lightweight, you might find the depth of options presented for Species and
Techniques to be overwhelming.
That's okay! These are just meant to be a starting point for players. If you'd
prefer to take things back a step, and your table is okay with it, you can
break these down into simpler concepts for them.
• To make a Simple Species, give them +2 to their Stats (in any
combination), and 3 relevant Skill Specialisations.
They start play with 1 Power and 0 Defense.
That's all you need for a playable species with its own distinct flair, but
if you want to go further, their qualities can be summed up as Quirks.
o Quirks can be Big or Small, and either Positive or Negative.
Big Quirks are twice as valuable as Small Quirks; think of Small
Quirks as +/- 1, and Big Quirks as +/- 2. The final species should
have a total Quirk value of (roughly) 0.
o Big Quirks impact important stats like Power or Defense, or provide
significant advantages, like Immunity or Weakness to certain
attacks.
o Small Quirks are more situational advantages and flaws, like points
in Resistance, Flight or the Aquatic Trait.
• To make a Simple Technique, start from a simple damage-dealing attack
using Coordination. It deals up to the character's Power in damage with
no successes, and up to twice that with a Nice result.
To expand on that, you can summarise all of a Technique's effects as
Quirks.
o Like with Species, Quirks can be Big or Small, and either Positive or
Negative.
Big Quirks are twice as valuable as Small Quirks; think of Small
Quirks as +/- 1, and Big Quirks as +/- 2.
The final FP cost of the Technique should be about 2 less than its
total Quirk value, but players should work with the GM to find a
value that's right for their Technique.
o Big Quirks represent the bulk of the action, like a Status you want
to inflict, the Technique's targets, the required Grades, extra
damage you want to deal, or (as a negative) even the inability to
deal damage.
o Small Quirks represent the little things, like requirements to use
the Technique, the type of damage it deals or the HP it recovers.

Keep in mind though that these simplified systems aren't balanced the same
way as regular Species or Techniques, so it's recommended to only use them
sparingly. You shouldn't need more than a few Quirks for anything.

Page 142
Travel Time
Generally, navigating around the world can be handled on a scene-by-scene
basis, with the GM describing the players' surroundings and the players asking
clarifying questions or making actions to engage with the world.
However, sometimes you want to move the exploration along a bit, or have the
players carry out some exciting acrobatic feats deserving of a Mario game.
These rules can be used to quickly navigate an area, abstracting a dungeon,
"level" or other explorable area into a couple of rolls.
Make sure you still describe their actions and the area they're exploring!
Otherwise it's easy to feel like you're just making dice rolls.
• All players make an Athletics check (or otherwise appropriate skill) on
their own, representing their general ability to navigate the terrain.
o With enough Grades of Success, they can make it through without
difficulty. The exact amount needed would vary depending on the
area they're exploring, but usually a Great result is a good start.
• If players fail this check, they suffer some kind of complication; but
ultimately, they should still make progress.
o Depending on the area they're in and the pacing of the game, you
might want to make this something small (like some damage, or
dropping some Coins), but occasionally a big distraction can be
fun – just keep in mind that anything too big is going to detract
from the players that did succeed.
o Usually this should require the players make another skill check
(e.g. Steady to resist some hazard), make a choice, or engage in
battle. Although if they almost succeeded, or it's only a minor
complication, it's fine to just describe it and move along.
• If players succeeded earlier, they can optionally make another check for
some kind of reward, or to help players who are struggling.
o This can be up to the player, but usually as the GM you'll want to
present them with a choice between two things to do, or two
routes they can go down.
o The easiest thing to ask for here is a Notice check, giving players
a chance to find Items or Coins. This is a good way to get small
things to players that they might not have otherwise considered,
like Mushrooms or crafting materials.
o Another fun option can be Perform, giving players a chance to
revel in their athleticism. This is basically an Appeal for SP.
o Alternate, more difficult, paths could use Athletics, Coordination
or Steady to traverse safely. These paths can lead to more
rewards, bypass some enemies, or get to the end faster.
Usually, that's enough to get through an area. But if players are lagging
behind, or the area is particularly long or dangerous, you can consider asking
for another check to navigate the area.

Page 143
Partner System
As an alternative to standard Paper Story, you may want to create a diverse
cast of partners to assist one major character, much like in the N64 original.
This may better suit a campaign where players control a variety of characters,
or where many players may drop in and out, centred around one main figure.

In the Partner System, in addition to ordinary characters (like Mario), there

are simplified partner characters.
Whenever a partner takes any amount of damage from an enemy, they act as
if KO'd and sit out of the fight; unlike ordinary status effects, this cannot be
reduced by Steady.
Instead, at the start of each turn they restore 1 HP, and become active again
when they're fully healed.
If for whatever reason a partner takes enough damage to reduce their HP to 0,
then as normal, they are rendered completely inactive, can't take any further
actions and don't passively heal.
Partners can't be attacked while in this state, though they may still take
damage through other effects.

While in this state, partners can take certain actions to help them recover
faster. This still counts as their action for the turn.
• Using Items on themselves.
• Making Heal checks on themselves.
• Getting a Second Wind with their SP.

Under this system, a number of Badges change when used by partners, as

noted on the following page.

This system works well for a large number of partners, which may make things
take longer and unbalance games. If this is a concern, you may want to
restrict combat actions to one partner at a time (as in the games), or have a
large group of partners in a loosely assembled formation behind their leader.

In any case, it's not as flexible as standard play, and is only recommended for
games focused on a central protagonist.

Page 144
Badge BP Type Value Effect
Power Rush 1 Attack 50 Coins While suffering from damage, and for the
next turn after recovering from damage,
you have +2 Attack.

Mega Rush 1 Attack 50 Coins While you have only 1 HP, and for the
next turn after recovering from damage
that reduced you to 1 HP, you have +5
Attack.
HP Drain 1 Attack 100 Coins -1 Attack.
When your attacks deal damage, you can
restore 1 HP for yourself or an ally.

Last Stand 1 Defense 50 Coins You can still act until you lose 6 or more
HP.

Close Call 1 Defense 100 Coins While suffering from damage, you can
attempt to Dodge before you Block, and
you have +1d6 to Dodge checks.+1d6 to
Dodge checks.
Heart Finder 3 Boon 100 Coins When an ally takes damage, you can
make a Heal check targeting them as a
free action.

Page 145
True and Honest Paper Mario
Paper Story adds a lot of options that aren't covered in the original games.
And you might feel some kind of way about that. That's fair! Sometimes I feel
like elements are a bit too much, too.
But the important thing is that you can pick and choose what works for you
and your group. Whether that's some of the new Badges, the Power-Up system
or entire Technique Traits, feel free to split off the parts that you don't want
to deal with.
Always remember; the GM gets the final say.

Darker and Edgier

Sometimes you want to take the kid's gloves off, and delve into some darker
themes. It's a vibe that doesn't really align with the Mario world, so it's largely
absent from Paper Story, but it's a fair enough thought process.
The original games certainly dance a thin line here; death and other adult
themes are certainly present in this world, if not a focal point, and sometimes
you need to highlight the danger your players are in.
Sometimes, being KO'd in the field of battle is a very real possibility – you
should make sure players understand the risks, and try not to be too flippant
with it. It's probably okay for a lengthy poison to drain someone's life away, or
a particularly devastating attack to end their game – not so much a Goomba's
headbonk.
Even in these cases, it's best not to be too graphic, and let players form their
own mental pictures to the level they're comfortable with. It's enough to
explain that the dragon has eaten someone whole – you don't need to go into
grisly detail about how it's playing out.
And of course, the most important thing is to set the expectation with your
players. As long as everyone knows what they're signing up for, it can provide
a different kind of fun.

Page 146
Resources
The rest of the book is reserved for player resources. You can download these
directly on Itch, but in case you need a quick offline reference, here they are.

Page 147
Character Sheets