Every Tempered Legacy Item contains regrets — narrative fragments of past failure, betrayal, or sorrow. Each regret is:
- Tied to a story hook about the item’s former wielder.
- Resolved only through meaningful narrative action or character development.
- Unlocks both mechanical power and artifact potency.
Tempered Items begin dormant or unstable. Their artifact die improves as the character resolves the regrets within.
This scaling ensures narrative rewards track alongside mechanical growth, and helps integrate these items naturally with core rules.
Each regret, once resolved, unlocks:
- A unique effect — such as rerolls, conditional bonuses, or session-based abilities.
- A step increase in the artifact die.
These effects are designed to reflect the theme of the regret and the nature of the item, such as:
- Bonus gear dice against certain foes.
- Rerolling failed rolls tied to the item's theme (e.g., Pathfinding, Manipulation).
- Temporary access to talents when fulfilling specific conditions.
Effects should be useful but not overpowered, and always tied to narrative meaning.
They must be unlocked in order.
As long as one or more regrets remain locked, the item imposes a drawback. These are not curses in the magical sense, but manifestations of the emotional or psychic burden the item still carries.
Drawbacks may include:
- Penalties when using certain skills.
- Condition loss in specific circumstances (e.g. when sleeping, fighting kin, or failing Insight).
- Narrative complications like unsettling dreams, voices, or social stigma.
Once all regrets are resolved, all drawbacks are lifted.
As a player, you can design a tempered legacy item for your character. This requires an it to first be Awakened fully to tier 3. Once it reaches Tier 3, you can go through the following
- What is it's name if you have not yet named it?
- Appearance: A brief but evocative description or picture.
- What backstory event or trauma from your past has been haunting you:
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- Describe the event: lost members of their village because they weren't paying attention, abandoned someone who needed me to save my own skin, facing a mighty beast and failing to defeat it only to hear about how it has ravaged the lands since.
- Three Regrets: Break your backstory trauma into 3 pieces. Each is a short backstory fragment with a specific unlock trigger.
- Three Unlock Effects: One per regret, tied to a meaningful narrative or mechanical milestone
- Drawback: Optional but recommended while the first regret is still locked.
- A dwarven travel clock, cracked at the 12th hour, once owned by a caravan guard.
- Regret 1: Led her kin into a canyon and they were ambushed.
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- Drawback: Insomnia - cannot rest at night
- Unlocks when the player successfully navigates the party on a 3 day journey through dangerous territory without any death with Lead the Way
- Power Gained: Can spend a Willpower to motivate the rest of the party to do a Forced March to continue traveling. Party members that fail their Endurance test instead inflict damage on bearer's Wits
- Regret 2: Not able to move quick enough to save their kin during the ambush.
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- Unlocks after successfully moving to defend an ally from an attack.
- Power Gained: gain an extra move action during combat.
- Regret 3: Wasted her life following the company agenda and forgetting that the people were what mattered most.
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- Unlocks after taking time to form a bond with all of those you travel with.
- Power Gained: ignore fatigue for 1 quarter day when traveling for others.
- Artifact Die: Starts at none → d6 → d8 → d10
- Drawback fades when the first regret is resolved