What’s Changed

This is the record of every rules change since the 2 Oct 2026 book, newest first. Each entry’s date is the day the change went to the table. When a later change replaces an earlier one, the earlier entry says so. The rules chapters always show the game as it is now, so if you only want to play, read those and skip this.

16 Oct 2026: Resolve, Confidence that swings, threads and the Bard

These all came out of the playtests.

Resolve replaces Sparks. Resolve is your character pushing themselves, and it pays for the big stuff. You have as much as you have Titles, so 2 to start. See Resolve.

• Spend 1 to take an extra action this round, reroll a roll you just failed (all your dice or just one), go beyond what a permission normally does, hold your ground when fear gets through, or go at a threat when you’re shaken.
• Get 1 back at the end of every scene and all of it after downtime, and 1 each when your Catch bites in a big way, when the GM rewards great roleplay, and when you strain a thread.
• Sparks are gone, and so are making an opportunity and adding a permission for the scene.

GM trouble is gone. The GM doesn’t offer you trouble for a Spark any more, and nobody turns trouble down. Letting your Catches bite is up to you. See Catches and Trouble and, for the GM, Catches and Resolve at the Table.

Aura keeps the small stuff: bringing something in, keeping a Catch quiet or turning it your way, winning a tie when you’re acting, what 1 Aura gets your archetype, a quick heal, and borrowing a permission through a thread. Going beyond costs 1 Resolve now, not 1 Aura. See Aura and Going Beyond.

Confidence swings up and down in a scene. See Confidence.

• Every scene starts on d6, a size up in clothes that fit. Titles and bonds don’t make it bigger any more, and it doesn’t come back in downtime, because it goes back to d6 at the end of every scene.
• Fear is a telegraph, and that’s your fear check. Stop all of it and you go up a size. Take a threat down and you go up a size too.
• When fear, lies or pressure get through, you choose: let it shake you and drop a size, bury it and take a Hurt, or hold your ground for 1 Resolve. The GM doesn’t name that cost any more. See When fear gets through.
• Write a Catch on your Hurt track and you drop a size as well.
• At d12 you’re fired up: cash it in for an extra action or to clear a Hurt box, and you’re back on d6. At d2 you’re shaken, and going at a threat costs 1 Resolve each time. Take a breath (your action) to come up a size, as far as d6.
• Confidence never goes past d12 any more. Past d12 is for Armour only.

The heal die is now the wound die. Same rule, new name. See Healing.

Connections are now threads. See Bonds and threads.

• Borrow a permission through a thread for 1 Aura, the same as before.
• Strain a thread, by leaning on them in the story, and take 1 Resolve. Mend it by making it right with them. Strain it again before it’s mended and it snaps.
• A thread with someone in the crew goes on both your sheets.
• A bond with three threads doesn’t make your Confidence bigger any more.
• There’s a guide to playing the strain when someone strains a thread with your character.

A new archetype, the Bard, for nerve: lift the crew’s Confidence, or answer all the fear coming at them with one song.

Boons and Burdens, three rows: the Spark row is now Resolve (+1 or −1 to your maximum), Confidence starts you a size up or down every scene, and the Going beyond Boon lets you go beyond once a scene without spending Resolve. See Boons and Burdens.

14 Oct 2026: Archetypes

Every Title is an archetype now. An archetype gives you permissions the way a Title did, and it has a mechanic of its own, something only it can do. Your Title is the name you give it. You start with two, and you can take the same one twice. The mechanic takes the place of the trait each Title used to bring. There’s a new chapter, The Archetypes.

• The sixteen: Bloodsworn, Elementalist, Face, Guardian, Healer, Hunter, Illusionist, Leader, Maker, Oracle, Scholar, Shadow, Shifter, Summoner, Teleporter and Warrior. (The Bard came on 16 Oct.)
• On most of them, 1 Aura adds +2 to one die on the mechanic, after you roll. Take the archetype twice and it’s +3.
• Every Title idea now says which archetypes it suits. See Title Ideas.
• Keep the traits you’ve got. Where traits go now is still being worked out.

Some things everyone used to do now belong to one archetype:

• Leading is the Leader’s. Anyone can still put their action into a friend’s roll.
• Areas are the Elementalist’s, and they don’t cost Aura any more. Sweep weapons still go at everyone in reach, free.
• Heal rolls are the Healer’s. A quick heal is still for everyone.
• Catching souls and summoning are the Summoner’s. The summoning Boon’s gone: take Summoner twice.
• Pulling more than one enemy’s attack when you Defend is the Guardian’s. The Boon that pulled from two is gone. Anyone can still Defend and pull one.

Changes for everyone:

• Wards and blessings reach one person, and the second die of a split can reach another friend you can touch. Healing a group is gone. See Wards and blessings.
• Study finds a hidden tag or a straight answer. Something that helps is gone, and a Scholar can introduce a truth instead. See Studying Something.
• Coming out of hiding gives you an extra action, whoever you are. See Extra actions.

13 Oct 2026: Items, attunement, taking the hit, and the name Zi’Dara

The game is called Zi’Dara. This rulebook became the one master copy of the rules, and the website, the printed book and the character tools are all built from it.

Items. See Items and What you carry.

• Plain items are just what they are. A sword counts as a line when it fits. Each piece of plain armour makes your Armour a size bigger.
• Resources are items now. You carry 3 equipment, 3 utility items and a keepsake, and your bag holds 10 more.
• Rarity (common, rare, legendary) is gone.

Attunement. You’ve got two attunement slots on top of what you carry. An attuned thing has permissions of its own and grows in three stages, Awakened, Tempered and Perfected, each needing a material. It can’t be broken, and you can hand it to a friend. See Attunement.

Titles don’t have Catches any more. Catches come from attunement and from Hurt. You can still bring real trouble on yourself with no Catch written down, for 1 Aura. Banes only come on attunement now, as a Burden.

Taking the hit. Anyone can step in front of an attack aimed at someone within their stride, free, with no defence roll. It has its own Boon and Burden, and it replaced the Step in Boon. See Taking the Hit.

Summoning. Souls of fallen creatures are caught into a summoning attunement, and you summon against their dice. This replaced the 12 Oct summoning. (On 14 Oct it became the Summoner’s.) See Summoning.

Permissions need two parts: the doing word, and how, what or where. Deceive is half a permission, and deceive through actions is a whole one. See Permissions.

Splitting past a d12 was made clearer: dice past six steps are their own, and going past 6 steps gives you a split on top of your action’s. See Splitting.

12 Oct 2026: Defend, Hurt bars, healing, Boons and Banes

Defend replaces Guard, and you roll your defence once a round. Anything being attacked rolls its defence once, and that roll stands against everything that round. Defend takes your action: roll your Armour once for every die coming at you and choose which roll blocks which, and pull one enemy’s whole attack onto yourself. See When It Lands and Defend.

Hurt is three bars of three. Fill a bar and write a Catch in it. At the end of every scene, the loose boxes clear. From your first Blaze you can choose for your character to die, and otherwise you take a Scar, which is for the story only. See Hurt, Blaze and Scars.

Healing happens in a scene. A heal rolls against the patient’s heal die, and a quick heal is 1 Aura for one box. Catches on your Hurt track take a downtime slot each. (On 14 Oct heal rolls became the Healer’s and healing a group went. On 16 Oct the heal die became the wound die.) See Healing.

Catches bite as often as you like, 1 Aura each time, as long as it’s real trouble. You got a Spark for each Title, all back every downtime. (Sparks became Resolve on 16 Oct.) The GM can give you 1 Aura when a great setup doesn’t land.

Permissions: how to write them (a doing word and what it’s done to, and the size test), and swapping them in downtime. See Permissions.

Boons and Banes: permanent upgrades that cost two permission slots, and downsides that pay for them, from one menu. (On 13 Oct Banes moved to attunement as Burdens.) See Boons and Burdens.

9 and 10 Oct 2026: Titles, set actions and one action a round

• Titles hold your permissions. A new character has two Titles with three permissions each, up to six on a Title. The Title itself counts 1 on any roll it fits. See Archetypes and Titles.
• Set actions: Fight, Move, Sneak, Study and Talk, and your own, with everything that fits counted in advance. See Set Actions.
• One action a round. There’s no Help action: to help, put your action into the same thing as a combo. See Your Action and Working Together.
• Bring something in for 1 Aura: anything that isn’t on your set action. That replaced stretching a permission.
• Going beyond what a permission normally does cost 1 Aura, for a sword or a spell. (1 Resolve from 16 Oct.) It replaced big magic.
• Telegraphs come to about 5 steps a round for each player. The threat budget starts at 10 a character with two Titles. See Telegraphs a Round and The Threat Budget.
• Title ideas, fourteen roles and fifteen schools of magic, replaced the old archetypes and quick-build kits. See Title Ideas.

7 and 8 Oct 2026: Permissions replace abilities

• Abilities, tiers and specializations are gone. Everything your character can do is a permission, written on a Title. See Permissions.
• A school of magic is a Title like any other, and magic is written as narrow as anything else (throw fire). See Schools of Magic.
• Area dice started costing Aura. (On 14 Oct areas became the Elementalist’s, free.)

2 Oct 2026: The book

The 2 Oct 2026 rulebook is where this record starts. Everything in it that isn’t changed above still stands.

Still open

These are being worked out at the table. Play them as the chapters have them for now.

• Traits: where they go, now that each archetype’s mechanic has taken the place of a Title’s trait. Keep yours, and a new character picks two.
• The Teleporter needs a better name.
• Taking the Teleporter or the Bloodsworn twice: neither has a +2 to grow, so what you get is still to come.
• The Shifter: where you find your animal tags in the first place.
• Permissions like teleport, take an animal’s form or cast illusions: whether they still work without the archetype.
• Attunement: how many slots you can have past two, and whether six permissions is the top.
• Keepsakes: what a keepsake does.
• Armour: whether it only drops when a piece breaks.
• Movement: whether it comes from permissions.
• Mending a thread in downtime: whether it takes a slot.