Despair

Despair represents the physical strain, psychological pressure, and emotional exhaustion a protagonist accumulates during their adventures. It is their primary damage track. A protagonist is not directly injured as they accumulate Despair, but it pushes them towards harmful states and may eventually lead to lasting Wounds.

Each protagonist has a 10 slot Despair Counter. Whenever they suffer Despair, they must either absorb it with a combination of Despair and Moods.

Clearing Despair

Filled Despair slots may be cleared in several ways. At a Major Milestone, each protagonist clears all filled Despair slots. At a Minor Milestone, a protagonist may spend any number of their Hope points to clear one Despair slot per point of Hope spent (no Action required).

In addition, a protagonist may use a Bolster Action to attempt to relieve the Despair of another protagonist. On a success, the protagonist clears filled slots worth up to 1d10 Despair.

Fragile State

When a protagonist fills their fifth Despair slot, they become Fragile. While Fragile, the results of a protagonist’s successes are mitigated. Critical Hits become Hits, Hits become Grazes, and Grazes become Misses.

Broken State

When a protagonist fills their tenth Despair slot, they become Broken. While Broken, a protagonist suffers three effects.

Greater Mitigation

The protagonist’s successes are further mitigated. Critical Hits become Grazes and all other results become Misses.

Hopelessness

The protagonist is unable to spend Hope for any purpose, including to clear Despair at Minor Milestones.

A Broken protagonist may be rescued by having an ally compel their Connection to the Broken protagonist and giving up the Hope they would receive. In exchange, the Broken protagonist clears 5 of their filled Despair slots.

Vulnerability

If a Broken protagonist would suffer Despair, they instead gain a Wound with a number of ranks equal to the number of Despair slots they would have filled. The Wound is of the same type as the source of the Despair. For example, a Broken protagonist suffering 8 Despair from a physical source suffers a rank 2 Physical Wound. See Wounds below for more information.