Mechanics

Foundations

Foundations

The word ‘Foundation’ refers to what your character did and learned before they began adventuring. One person might write about their Foundation as ‘I spent my time as a wastrel in the taverns, spending my days dicing for coins and deep in the cups.’ Another person when creating their character’s Foundation might describe it as ‘I was a dutiful apprentice to a wizard, delving deep into the mysteries of the arcane under the tutelage of my preceptor.’ Both of these tales flesh out the character and describe that character’s Foundation before they ever set foot into the Numina campaign.

Each player may choose one Foundation as part of their character creation. You may purchase up to two Foundation Skills. To allow for diverse and in-depth character histories, we offer the following lexicon of Foundation options. Each Foundation has a Type and description. The Type determines the group of Skills granted to that Foundation. The description provides a guide to when the Skills come into effect. For example, a Soldier is a Place Type. Battlefields are the Place in which their Skills come into effect.

Available Foundations

Agriculture (Resource: Food)

You have sown crops, raised livestock, and/or gathered the fruits of the world. You can find bounty anywhere, even where others would find naught. You could have owned a farm, worked on the land of another, or kept gardens of flowers for their beauty.

Alchemical (Resource: Components)

There are times when you wonder if you have more alchemical substances running through your veins than you do blood. You have distilled potions, venoms, poisons, and balms. You could have spent years in an alchemical shop, apprenticed to an alchemist of great note, or experimenting on your own.

Arcane (Specialty: Magic)

The Arcane was your world. Maybe you grew up in the house of a mighty wizard or arcane researcher. Perhaps you found a great book of magic in your youth that taught you how to control the arcane or maybe it just came naturally to you.

Artifice (Resource: Components)

Where something could be accomplished through muscle, you create amazing constructs to achieve it. Where something could not be done through normal means, you found even more fantastic creations to realize it. You may have been part of a manufactory, were a lone inventor, or come from a family with a history of working in creation.

Ecclesiastic (Specialty: Divine)

You may have spent your years in a temple or traveling the world preaching your faith. You dedicated your youth to the service of a single faithful order or perhaps you learned many faiths to better broaden your enlightenment.

Entertainer (Interaction: Performance)

A room full of people reading and studying is as boring as a tomb to you. You would rather see them all singing together, enjoying a performance, or dancing the night away. Perhaps you were a traveling bard, a soloist in a theater, or maybe you were just the best singer in your town.

Artistic (Resource: Sale of goods)

Perhaps you are a painter, a sculptor, or another creator of physical art. You gain insight and inspiration from the act of creation. Your works bring laughter, tears, and epiphany to those who view them.

Heroic (Place: Modules: An adventure led by an NPC or through a gate that includes less than 12 PCs)

You are a hero. Perhaps you come from a time lost, like Fortune’s Bend’s past. Perhaps you are a modern hero, who has put yourself in peril to save others. You put the good of others and the good of the world above your own safety.

Leisure (Resource: Coin)

You have money and goods at your disposal. When you are hungry there is food, when tired there are the softest of beds, and when you want to go shopping there are always funds and eager merchants to sell you things. You grew up with money and know how to spend it.

Mariner (Place: Physical Challenges and Water)

You could have been the captain, first mate, or a sailor upon a vessel on the seas or rivers. You know navigation, ropes, and a wide range of ports of call. As a mariner you understand the weather, the tides, and the call of the waves.

Mendicant (Interaction: Helping others in need)

You spent your years helping those in need, setting bones, healing the ills of those around you, and learning about what cures and afflicts the body. You may have been the town healer, worked in a large house of healing, or traveled to help those in need.

Mercantile (Resource: Goods and Trade)

You may have worked in a merchant house, run your own store, or traveled from town to town buying and selling goods. As a merchant you understand the real value of money and have connections that allow you to turn coin into goods or coin into more coin.

Military (Place: Field Battles: Any large-scale combat encounter including more than 12 PCs)

You spent years serving in an army as a soldier or officer. You could have served in a kingdom’s army, as part of a mercenary company, or in the defense of a city. You know the ways of battle and understand the honor that comes from following a respectable commander.

Courts (Interaction: Noble and political interactions)

Maybe you are the 7th child of a noble of the sword and gained recognition from your parents’ martial lineage. Mayhap you were adopted by a Baron and gained her family name. Mayhap you are descended from a long line of royalty that has seen better days. Regardless of where you got your name, you come from a noble background and can claim lineage within your kingdom. While you have noble lineage this background does not grant you any inherent political or titular power. (Note: You cannot be of the direct line of the ruler of a kingdom or some other noble of significant status. You can be of a line related to the ruler, but it would be far enough away that there is no likelihood of inheritance)

Poverty (Resource: coins)

You never knew if you’d have enough food to eat, a place to sleep, or somewhere to get in out of the rain. Perhaps you are an orphan who had to make their own way, maybe your family fell on hard times and you had to work from a young age, or you might have had everything taken away by a bandit and were left with nothing. You know how to survive like no one else, because you’ve had to.

Reformed (Interaction: Interacting with or discussion of villains)

You were not a hero or even a good person. You committed foul deeds and made dark deals. But that is the past. You have changed and are that person no longer. You know what it means to be a good person, because you have seen the darkness and how easy it is to fall into the evil. Now that you have come to the side of good, you understand more than any how important it is to stay there.

Stargazer (Specialty: Shade)

The constellations of the Shade drew you from a young age. Maybe it was your choice, maybe it was theirs, but your past was bound to the Shade. You may have traveled it when young or lived on the edges of it. You know the Shade.

Traveler (Place: Any time you pass through a gate, but not outside of the World)

You never felt comfortable living in a single place. Perhaps you grew up in a family that was nomadic. Maybe you just left your place of birth to see what was out there. Or mayhap you are following a legend across the world seeking answers. In any case, you love to travel and have seen much of the world.

University (Specialty: Pick a specific subject)

You might have been a student, a professor, or a staff member of one of the great houses of learning. You have experience with classes, books, and researching information. You know the way to mine for the right answer within a tome and how to record information so it is not lost.

Wilderness (Place: forests)

Soft beds, ample food, the comforts of civilization, these things were not for you. You spent your years in the wilderness. Perhaps it was by fate, because you were lost there; by choice, as you wanted away from the life of cities; or by necessity, as you had to leave your home. In any case, you know of life within the forests and wild places.

Foundation Skills

Research

All Foundations grant you the ability to research on a topic explicit to your specific Foundation. For example, a person with a University background would be able to look into topics like the contents of books, libraries, or about individual professors or staff at a given institution of learning. A person with an Alchemical background could ask questions about alchemy and ingredients for Alchemy.

Place Skills

Place skills can only be used when you are in the place where your Foundation applies. For example, a soldier’s Skills, being Military, works in field battles, whereas Travelers work in modules and Wilderness Skills work outside of town in forests.

Specialty Skills

Specialty skills can only be used when you are wielding the forces or arrayed against the forces your specialty implies. For example, an Arcanist would be skilled against magical beings, where-as a stargazer would be skilled in shade matters.

Resource Skills

Resource Skills can only be used when you are dealing with coin and crafting. Your Foundation will determine what type of Resources you might have access to. For example, an Arcaneer would be skilled at crafting Arcaneering items, whereas a Merchant might do better when buying items.

Interaction Skills

Interaction skills can only be used once empowered by an interaction. For example, a diplomat might be empowered by a political discussion where-as an entertainer would be from a performance .