Chapter 7 — Momentum
Momentum is a per-session resource that flows from adversity into opportunity. Rolling through difficulty builds it; spending it lets you press your edge. It is the engine that prices Advantage (Chapter 6) and powers many of the choices in combat (Chapter 11).
You track it with a single d6 — the Momentum Die — set beside your sheet with its current value face up. The die is never rolled. It is a dial: adversity turns it up, spending turns it down, and the whole table can see where it stands.
Index§
- The Momentum Die
- Starting Momentum
- Gaining Momentum
- Spending Momentum
- Substitution
- Assisting
- Cancellation
- Momentum and character creation
The Momentum Die§
Your current Momentum is the face showing on the die, from 1 to 6. A die at 1 is flat — you have nothing to spend. Sources of Advantage are still there; you just can't fund them until adversity recharges the die.
Momentum is tracked openly. Spend it as a deliberate choice, not something you discover was gone when you needed it.
Starting Momentum§
Each character begins every session with the die at 3. Momentum does not carry over — however the die ends one session, it starts the next at 3.
Gaining Momentum§
Whenever you make a roll with Disadvantage — from any source — turn the die up one face after the roll, regardless of the outcome. Suffering a harder roll is always rewarded.
Whenever you suffer trauma, turn the die up one face per trauma point inflicted. Taking a hit always charges the die.
The die has no seventh face: gains past 6 are lost. You cannot bank more than the die can show, so a run of hard rolls is best spent, not hoarded.
Spending Momentum§
Whenever something would allow you to roll with Advantage, you must turn the die down to actually receive the benefit. The cost depends on the source of the Advantage:
| Source of Advantage | Cost |
|---|---|
| A characteristic (Advantage on a relevant characteristic) | Turn the die down 2 |
| A Boon, or a situational edge called by the GM | Turn the die down 1 |
The die stops at 1 — you can only pay a cost the die can cover. A characteristic needs the die at 3 or higher; a Boon needs 2 or higher.
Advantage does not stack: if more than one source would grant Advantage on the same roll, you still receive a single Advantage, and you pay only the cheapest cost among them. A Boon therefore funds the same Advantage a characteristic would charge double for — a Boon covering a characteristic you already have at Advantage acts as a discount, not a redundancy.
If the die is flat, the source of Advantage is available but you cannot activate it; the roll is made normally.
This creates a deliberate tension: Advantage is never free. It must be funded by the friction of earlier rolls — and leaning on raw aptitude (a characteristic) costs more than calling on a honed, specific edge (a Boon, see Chapter 9).
Substitution§
The die has a second use: a banked edge, cashed in at exactly the right moment.
After making any roll of your own, before the outcome is narrated, you may swap the Momentum Die's current face for one die you just rolled — then turn the Momentum Die to 1. The substituted value counts as if you had rolled it.
- Once per roll, and only on your own rolls. You cannot substitute into an ally's roll — and the world doesn't roll (Chapter 5), so there is nothing of the GM's to substitute into.
- On an Advantage or Disadvantage roll, substitute one of the two kept dice.
- Natural stays natural. Substitution cannot create a natural 12 or undo a natural 2 (Chapter 5). The dice you actually rolled decide those.
- Seeing the roll first is the point. You decide after the dice land. A die showing 5 or 6 is a success in your pocket — the question is which roll deserves it, because the die drops to 1 the moment you spend it.
Substitution and funded Advantage can stack on the same roll if the die can cover both — pay for the Advantage first, roll, then substitute what's left. It is an expensive, dramatic play, and it should be.
Assisting§
Momentum is a personal die, but help can cross between characters. When one Wanderer is making a roll that could carry Advantage and another is in a position to lend it — steadying the shot, feeding intel, holding the light, covering an angle, lending a skilled hand — the helper may fund the Advantage from their own die instead of the roller's. This is an Assist, and it turns Momentum into a resource the whole table can pool toward the rolls that matter.
- The fiction comes first. The GM has to believe the helper can actually help — present, free to act, and plausibly useful. A hand that can't reach, a skill no one has, an ally pinned two decks away: no justification, no Assist. The help is the situational edge, so it has to be real in the scene.
- It costs the helper 1. An Assist is a situational edge (the 1-cost source above), so the helper turns their die down one face. The character rolling spends nothing — which is the point: the teammate who's flush can shore up the one who's tapped out.
- One Assist per roll, and it doesn't stack. Advantage is still a single Advantage — only one ally can fund a given roll, and an Assist won't pile on top of Advantage the roller already has or is paying for themselves. Spread your help across different rolls, not onto one.
- Helping may cost the helper an action. Out of structured time, an Assist is just the declaration and the Momentum. In a fight, a chase, or at a crew station, meaningfully helping is usually the assistant's action for the round (Chapters 11, 25) — you can't work your own problem and lend a real hand to someone else's in the same breath.
- Uncertain help can be tested. If whether the help even lands is itself in doubt, the GM may call for a fitting test from the assistant (the way a sensor lock or a captain's call is rolled, Chapter 25); the Momentum is spent only if it succeeds.
- The helper's die, the roller's roll. An Assist funds Advantage — it does not open the helper's die for Substitution. Only you can substitute into your own roll, and only from your own die.
Cancellation§
The standard Advantage/Disadvantage cancellation rule applies before Momentum is considered. If both Advantage and Disadvantage would apply to a roll, they cancel out — the roll is made normally, no Momentum is spent, and the die does not turn up. See Chapter 6.
Momentum and character creation§
Momentum is a play resource. The Advantage and Disadvantage that characteristics grant on career entry tests and term rolls during character creation (Part III) are applied directly to those rolls — you do not spend Momentum to receive Advantage, and you do not gain Momentum from Disadvantage or from trauma taken during creation. The Momentum Die begins to matter only once play starts, when every character sets it to 3 at the top of each session.