itch.io

first of all, thanks so much for the kind words! and secondly, for pointing my attn to these not being well defined enough. admittedly this was a huge jump in mechanics, lore, and just straight functional design from the other 2 ttrpgs i've completed & i was def rushing against the clock to finish so i think some things might've gotten a bit turned around. 

FLARE: only 1 rule cond on the books (#6)

when you act with no RESERVE left, you FLARE. see THE INDEX.
~ you do not flare any more. flaring was the body still arguing.

beyond that, there is no rule, stat, roll, narrative, engine, or any other mechanic that causes a FLARE. it's meant to parallel reality aka when you've run yourself down & out and try to act anyway. 

RESERVE is refilled 2 per scene (#13) and fully after resting for a night (#14),  and spending RESERVE  is how you perform "in/extraordinary" tasks.

and i hope i made this clear but if not, the portions after the ~ tilde marks in each rule are the PROGRESSION rulesets, which are what triggers when a rule is struck; those are permanent conditionals. 

so overall, FLARES are kinda rare at first but as you progress and rules are inevitably struck and players want to continue pushing past their limits, they not only become more frequent and easier to trigger, but depending on the rule being struck, RESERVE limits can be heavily impacted. even the rules that refilling depends on can be altered/struck.

as for core storyline, my intention was to allow the GM/table to define the feeling of the opening. session setup, char creation, opening progression markers, and general framework are all to be played straight as per the rules. but there's no scripted opening scene, location, or env atmosphere in the rules. the EDITOR (GM) can set any scene/setting/framing, as long as it's dictated by the framework of the Spine (#1-6) for difficulty, host perception, char setup etc. 

all of that said, now outside of the time limit and over-the-top amount of prep i did, i can def see how it might have been a little too vague (ironic lol). 

sorry for the novel, but thanks so much again for pointing these things out; like i said this was by far the most indepth ttrpg i've done and i am still new to this arena, so trying to make sure everything makes sense to anyone besides me is def not an inherent skill. 

please let me know if anything else needs clarification or if this opened up more questions. in thinking this out loud, i realized the meta-theme of it being "The Abridged Edition" itself can both help and hurt the narrative depending on diff factors. i was worried about it reading more as an actual system rather than the full thing, so i think i might take this inspiration to create some supplementals that are pure scenario packs.