Reserve on the SheetCopy link
Hero Statistics shows available Reserve and maximums. The Hero Bag records current token quantities. Recording an earned ability can update supported maximums, but gaining, spending and changing tokens still follows The System; the general sheet does not resolve those actions for you.
Reserve represents the temporary forces, resources, relationships, and metaphysical energies a Hero has made available through play. Where the Hero Bag records the capabilities and possibilities a Hero carries with them, Reserve reflects the portions of that potential which have become active and ready to use.
Within the Reserve section of the Hero Sheet, you track the different forms of Reserve your Hero can sustain, including Aspects, Sanctions, and Threads, along with any limits governing those resources. Reserve may represent preparation, social leverage, material resources, accumulated experience, divine authority, or living Thread energy. As a Hero develops, their ability to generate, maintain, and use these forces may grow alongside them.
ACTIVE POTENTIAL Copy link
Every Hero begins with six Potential Tokens. Potential does not require a Pathway assignment; an Active Reserve Token is associated with the Reserve it represents. Potential represents capability that exists within the Hero but has not yet been brought into active use. A Potential Token normally contributes 1 Versatility when drawn.
When the Hero generates Reserve, an appropriate Potential Token may become an Active Reserve Token. The token remains part of the Hero Bag, but its current state changes from unrealized possibility into usable capacity.
An Active Reserve Token contributes 1 Versatility when drawn during a Performance. If the Reserve is associated with the Pathway being used for that Performance, it instead contributes 2 Versatility.
When that Reserve is spent, lost, exhausted, or otherwise returned, the token becomes Potential again.
Potential is what could be. Reserve is what the Hero has made available.
USING RESERVE Copy link
Reserve does not possess a fixed Control or Impulse alignment. It represents flexible capability that may support either approach depending upon the Performance in which it appears.
When an Active Reserve Token is drawn, it contributes Versatility to the Performance. Normally this is 1 Versatility. When its associated Pathway matches the Pathway being used, it contributes 2 Versatility instead.
Reserve therefore rewards Heroes for creating useful opportunities and then bringing those opportunities to bear through the disciplines most closely connected to them.
A Connection may be especially valuable during an Influence Performance. Momentum may naturally support Prowess. A Thread may become more effective when drawn during a Threads Performance. The Reserve itself has not changed; the Hero is simply using it through the discipline best suited to that resource.
RESERVE AND THE HERO BAG Copy link
Reserve Tokens are not permanent additions to the Hero Bag. They represent the active state of Potential already carried by the Hero.
This distinction keeps the size of the Hero Bag stable while allowing its contents to change meaningfully throughout play. A Hero who has generated little Reserve carries more unrealized Potential. A Hero who has prepared carefully, built relationships, gathered resources, invoked divine authority, or drawn upon the Threads may enter a Performance with more of that Potential active.
Reserve therefore changes the state of the Hero Bag, rather than continually adding new tokens to it.
RESERVE AND CORE Copy link
Core and Reserve represent different layers of a Hero.
Embers represent capability that has become part of the Hero's identity. They describe enduring qualities such as Might, Agility, Tenacity, Resolve, and Intuition, as well as the approaches through which the Hero has learned to act.
Potential represents capability that has not yet been realized.
Reserve represents that Potential temporarily made available through action, preparation, opportunity, or connection.
Core answers what the Hero can inherently bring to the world.
Reserve answers what the Hero has available right now.
RESERVE CATEGORIES Copy link
Reserve is divided into three broad categories: Aspects, Sanctions, and Threads. These categories describe where the available capability comes from, but they follow the same basic Reserve rules when active within the Hero Bag.
ASPECTS Copy link
Aspects represent the practical and narrative forces a Hero accumulates through ordinary interaction with the world. They are created through preparation, relationships, possessions, accomplishments, and changing circumstances.
Momentum Copy link
Momentum represents movement, positioning, readiness, tactical flow, and opportunities created through action. It reflects the advantage produced when a Hero has already begun moving toward an objective and carries that progress into what happens next.
Connections Copy link
Connections represent relationships, allies, reputation, obligations, favors, trust, and social leverage. A Connection may represent a particular person or organization, or the broader network of relationships a Hero has developed through their actions.
Resources Copy link
Resources represent material capability: supplies, wealth, equipment, tools, transportation, logistical support, and other useful assets a Hero can bring to bear upon a problem.
Stories Copy link
Stories represent the narrative weight of a Hero's past. Reputation, remembered deeds, former victories, failures, legends, promises, and experiences may all become Stories when what happened before gains relevance in the present.
SANCTIONS Copy link
Sanctions represent divine authority and metaphysical alignment carried by a Hero.
The three Sanctions are Order, Balance, and Chaos.
Sanction Reserve may be generated through divine relationships, Devotion, sacred obligations, Favor, ritual, or other interactions with the greater powers of Rhuna. While active, a Sanction represents divine pressure or authority that the Hero is currently capable of bringing into the world.
Sanctions may also interact with Origin abilities, Innates, Favor, and other effects that specifically reference Order, Balance, or Chaos.
THREADS Copy link
Threads represent living metaphysical forces drawn from the structure of reality itself.
The five Threads are Dalo, Jatu, Sere, Cora, and Nari.
Unlike ordinary Aspects, Thread Reserve carries the inherent instability of interacting directly with the Weave. Thread Tokens may be drawn, used, spent, released, or transformed through Threadcraft and other abilities.
Thread Tokens may also flip, exposing the Hero to Wither or another corruption state when the forces being carried become unstable.
Because of this, a Hero's Thread capacity is not simply a measure of strength. It represents how much living metaphysical pressure they can safely sustain before that connection begins to threaten them.
RESERVE LIMITS Copy link
A Hero cannot carry unlimited Reserve.
The Hero Sheet records the maximum amount of each relevant Reserve type the Hero can sustain. The following sections describe each maximum.