The Party Sheet

The party sheet is two A4 sheets, printed double-sided. The front of each one is a tile of the faction board, and the backs are the crew page and the downtime page. Lay the tiles side by side in the middle of the table. Any edge joins any edge: two tiles make an A3 board, four make A2, and you can keep going.

Each tile has six seats, one for every faction that matters, with room for its dice, its agendas, its tags, its face, its secret once you find it, and a Standing ladder. There aren’t any lines printed between the seats. The crew draws its own, between any seat and any other, because the crew decides who’s tied to who. If you need more seats, print the Faction Sheet, which is the board on one page, as many times as you like.

Here’s what lives on it:

• The crew. Its name, its Reputations, its Power and Wealth, its tags, and the people it relies on, with how it grows and what its Wealth can buy.
• The Party Goal, and any projects on the go.
• Aspirations. Every player’s, where everyone can see them.
• The faction board. Every power that matters: its dice, its agendas, and how it sees the crew.
• What has changed. One line for every agenda that happened.
• Party resources. Things the crew owns together.
• Crew tags. All twelve, so the table can pick one when the crew grows.

The downtime page has the order downtime runs in, how downtime rolls work, the Standing ladder, the crew’s moves on a faction, the faction turn and its d6, and what happens when a faction comes for the crew, so you don’t have to look them up.

Things That Climb

Most dice in Zi’Dara count down. A scene clock, a stake clock, an event, Supplies and the alarm all step down, and past d2, whatever they were counting to happens. Four things on the party sheet count up instead: the Goal, every Aspiration, every project and every faction’s agenda. They start low and climb as someone works at them, so the first steps come easy and the last ones are hard work.

• In a scene, an action aimed at it rolls against its die, when the GM says it’s within reach. That’s usually once or twice a session, when a scene’s really about it.
• In downtime, a slot spent on it is one roll.
• Whoever does it builds the roll. In a scene it’s an action like any other, built from the set action that fits. In downtime it’s 1 step for the slot, plus everything on their sheet that fits what they’re doing about it.
• Ties go to the die you’re climbing. In a scene you can pay 1 Aura to win one, the same as always. In downtime there’s no Aura, so see Rolling in downtime.

The Party Goal

The Goal is what the crew’s after this arc, like clear Dorrie’s name, free the Bound or own the Low Market. It starts at d2 and climbs.

• It climbs when someone chases it and wins: an action in a scene when the GM says the Goal’s within reach, or a party slot in downtime (or a personal slot someone puts toward it).
• It steps back down one when a consequence lands on it, or when the crew takes a real setback. It never goes below d2.
• When it climbs past d12, the crew’s done it. Play the moment out. Then the crew grows (see How the crew grows), everyone writes one new thread, to someone the Goal brought into their life, and the table writes the next Goal, at d2.

Projects

A project is anything the crew, or one of them, sets out to build or bring about over time: a ring of informants in the Low Market, a forged charter, a ship refitted, the salt carters turned against the Vane Estate. Write one line for what it is, and one for what happens when it’s done.

• It starts at d2, like the Goal. If the crew’s already partway there, start it higher: a d6, or a d10 when one more push would do it.
• Work it the same way. An action that chases it when it’s within reach, or a slot in downtime, rolls against its die.
• Past d12, it’s done, and what you wrote happens.
• Keep two or three on the go, at most. Any more and none of them gets anywhere.

Projects are how a small crew takes on a big faction. You can’t go straight at the Vane Estate’s Power without both party slots (see Factions), but you can start Turn the salt carters against the Estate, and write that when it’s done, the Estate’s Wealth steps down one. Every slot you put into it is a slot the Estate doesn’t see coming.

The Crew

The crew’s a faction too. It starts small, and it grows the way a character does.

• Power is muscle, reach, and how many people turn up when the crew calls. It’s the die the crew rolls when it moves on a faction, and its people are threats with a Challenge to match: a d6 Power sends Challenge 3.
• Wealth is what the crew can bring to bear with money, and it’s spent a step at a time (see Spending Wealth). A purse of gold is still each character’s own, a utility item that’s worth about a month’s wages.
• Reputations are what the city says about the crew, one line each: The ones who beat the forger’s court. A Reputation works like a Title for the crew. It’s a step on any crew roll it fits, and the crew earns one every time a Goal’s done, and keeps them all.
• Crew tags work like traits for the crew. Each one’s a step on any crew roll it fits, and most do one thing as well. There are twelve below, or write your own in the same shape.
• Party resources are the big things the crew owns together (see below).

How big it is

Crew tags

Spending Wealth

Spending Wealth steps it down one, and buys one of these:

• An extra party slot this downtime.
• Another faction’s move. Pay a faction and it makes one move where the crew says, rolled with its own dice. A faction that’s an Enemy won’t take the crew’s money.
• A tag or a thing bought from a faction that’ll sell, which means one that’s Neutral or better. It changes hands: the tag’s the crew’s now, and a thing becomes a party resource.
• A tie won on a downtime roll (see Rolling in downtime).
• Anything too big for a purse, in a session: passage for twenty, a house, a magistrate’s goodwill. When the money’s what does it, it counts as a permission on the roll.

How the crew grows

• When the Goal’s done, the crew earns a new Reputation and picks two of these: Power up one, Wealth up one, a new crew tag, or a new party resource.
• When it takes something big (a building, a ship, a street) or a faction it struck falls, it picks one.
• A job can move its dice too. A job that brings home a fortune steps its Wealth up, and the GM says so when she offers it.
• It shrinks when a faction attacks it and wins: it loses a tag, or a step of Power or Wealth.
• Rebuild with a party slot: step Power or Wealth back up one, never past its best.
• It never takes a turn. The party slots are the crew’s turn.

There’s a whole campaign of it, from a crew with no name to a power in the Low Market, in The Crew, Session 1 to 20.

Party Resources

Big things, like a horse, a cart, a small boat or a house, are party resources rather than items. The story decides whether you’ve got access to them, and the crew keeps track of them together. A party resource counts as a line on any roll it fits for whoever’s using it: a fast horse in a chase, or a safehouse when the crew needs to disappear. It isn’t on anyone’s set action, so bringing it into a roll costs 1 Aura, the same as bringing in the ground.