Effort

Effort represents a protagonist’s capacity to push themselves beyond their normal limits - physical exertion, mental strain, or emotional resolve. It is a finite resource stored in three point pools, corresponding to the three Ability categories.

Effort Types

Each protagonist has three Effort pools:

• Blood. Tied to Physical Abilities (Might, Grace, Endurance)
• Sweat. Tied to Mental Abilities (Intellect, Cunning, Will)
• Tears. Tied to Emotional Abilities (Confidence, Guile, Empathy)

Spending Effort

When a protagonist makes a Check, after seeing the result, they may spend up to 5 Effort from the pool associated with the Ability used for that check. For each point of Effort spent, the protagonist gains +1 to that Check’s result.

Regaining and Refreshing Effort

The maximum number of points a protagonist can have in each of their Effort pools is determined by the protagonist’s ranks in the associated Abilities. This number is referred to as their Refresh. For example, a protagonist with 5 ranks in Might, 4 ranks in Grace, and 2 ranks in Endurance has 11 Blood Refresh.

Protagonists regain Effort by compelling Skills, as described in the Skills section.

At each Major Milestone, a protagonist’s Effort resets to the corresponding Refresh value.

Gaining Experience Points

Whenever a protagonist regains Effort through either a Skill compel or Refresh, they also gain an equal number of Experience Points (XP).