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).
Index§
- Starting Momentum
- Gaining Momentum
- Spending Momentum
- Assisting
- Cancellation
- Momentum and character creation
- Tracking Momentum
Starting Momentum§
Each character begins every session with 3 Momentum. Unspent Momentum does not carry over between sessions.
Gaining Momentum§
Whenever you make a roll with Disadvantage — from any source — you gain 1 Momentum after the roll, regardless of the outcome. Suffering a harder roll is always rewarded.
Whenever you suffer trauma, you gain 1 Momentum per trauma point inflicted. Taking a hit always charges the resource.
Momentum is capped at 6. Gains beyond that are lost — you cannot bank more than six at once, so a run of hard rolls is best spent, not hoarded.
Spending Momentum§
Whenever something would allow you to roll with Advantage, you must spend Momentum to actually receive the benefit. The cost depends on the source of the Advantage:
| Source of Advantage | Momentum Cost |
|---|---|
| A characteristic (Advantage on a relevant characteristic) | 2 |
| A Boon, or a situational edge called by the GM | 1 |
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 (1) therefore funds the same Advantage a characteristic would charge 2 for — so a Boon covering a characteristic you already have at Advantage acts as a Momentum discount, not a redundancy.
If you have no Momentum to spend, 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).
Assisting§
Momentum is a personal pool, 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 pay the Advantage's cost from their own Momentum instead of the roller. 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 Momentum. An Assist is a situational edge (the 1-Momentum source above), spent from the assistant's pool. 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.
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 — no Momentum is spent, and no Momentum is gained. 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. Momentum begins to matter only once play starts, when every character resets to 3 at the top of each session.
Tracking Momentum§
Momentum is tracked openly — players should know their current total and spend it as a deliberate choice, not discover it was gone when they needed it. It resets at the start of each session regardless of how much remains.