Playing to your descriptors also has another benefit: you’re feeding the GM ideas for snags. You’re already bringing your descriptors into the game, so all she has to do is offer you complications and you’re good to go.
GMs, you’ll use your NPCs’ descriptors the same way, but you get an additional way of “reading the divining chain”—you can also use them as a way of figuring out how the world reacts to the characters. Does someone have the descriptor Smartest Woman in the World? That’s a reputation that might precede that character, one that people might know about and react to. People might crowd in to see that character when she’s passing through or ask her questions they desperately need answers to.
Also, it suggests something about that character’s attitude and maybe even their background. A Black woman in the 1800s, touted as the Smartest Person in the World is naturally going to intimidate white people during that era. Those people might be overly aggressive or even violent as overcompensation for being intimidated.
But no one’s going to ignore that character. Inserting these kinds of descriptor-related details into your narration can help your game seem more vivid and consistent.
Removing or Changing a Descriptor
Game and character descriptors change through advancement.
If you want to get rid of a situation descriptor, you can do it in one of two ways:
Perform a surmount action specifically for the purpose of getting rid of the descriptor.
Perform some other kind of action that would make the descriptor make no sense if you succeed. For example, if you’re Grappled, you could try to sprint away. If you succeed, it wouldn’t make sense for you to be Grappled anymore, so you’d also get rid of that descriptor.
If a character can interfere with your action, they get to roll the dice in active opposition against you as per normal. Otherwise, GMs, it’s your job to set passive opposition or just allow the player to get rid of the descriptor without a roll, if there’s nothing risky or interesting in the way.
Finally, if at any point it simply makes no sense for a situation descriptor to be in play, get rid of it.
Creating and Discovering New Descriptors in Play
In addition to your character descriptors, game descriptors, and the situation descriptors that the GM presents, you have the ability to create, discover, or gain access to other descriptors as you play.
For the most part, you’ll use the Get the Upper Hand action to make new descriptors. When you describe the action that gives you an advantage, the context should tell you if it requires a new descriptor or if it derives from an existing one. If you’re bringing a new circumstance into play—like throwing sand in someone’s eyes—you’re indicating that you need a new situation descriptor.
With some skills, it’s going to make more sense to stick an advantage to a descriptor that’s already on some other character’s sheet. In this case, the PC or NPC you’re targeting would provide active opposition to keep you from being able to use that descriptor.
If you’re not looking for a free invocation, and you just think it’d make sense if there was a particular situation descriptor in play, you don’t need to roll your dice pool or anything to make new descriptors—just suggest them, and if the group thinks they’re interesting, write them down.
Secret or Hidden Descriptors
Some skills also let you use the Get the Upper Hand action to reveal descriptors that are hidden, either on NPCs or environments—in this case, the GM simply tells you what the descriptor is if you get a tie or better on the roll. You can use this to “fish” for descriptors if you’re not precisely sure what to look for—doing well on the roll is sufficient justification for being able to find something advantage-worthy.
Generally speaking, we assume that most of the descriptors in play are public knowledge for the players. The PCs’ character sheets are sitting on the table, and probably the main and supporting NPCs are as well. That doesn’t always mean the characters know about those descriptors, but that’s one of the reasons why the Get the Upper Hand action exists—to help you justify how a character learns about other characters.
Also, remember that descriptors can help deepen the story only if you get to use them—descriptors that are never discovered might as well never have existed in the first place. So most of the time, the players should always know what descriptors are available for their use, and if there’s a question as to whether or not the character knows, use the dice to help you decide.
Finally, GMs, we know that sometimes you’re going to want to keep an NPC’s descriptors secret, or not reveal certain situation descriptors right away, because you’re trying to build tension in the story. If the PCs are investigating a series of murders, you don’t exactly want the culprit to have Sociopathic Serial Murderer sitting on an index card for the PCs to see at the beginning of the adventure.
In those cases, we recommend you don’t make a descriptor directly out of whatever fact you’re trying to keep secret. Instead, make the descriptor a detail that makes sense in context after the secret is revealed.
Making a Good Descriptor
Because descriptors are so important to the game, it’s important to make the best descriptors you can. So, how do you know what a good descriptor is?
The best descriptors are double-edged, say more than one thing, and keep the phrasing simple.
Double-Edged
Players, good descriptors offer a clear benefit to your character while also providing opportunities to complicate their lives or be used to their detriment. A descriptor with a double-edge is going to come up in play more often than a mostly positive or negative one. You can use them frequently to be awesome, and you’ll be able to accept more snags and gain more point of Vigor. Try this as a litmus test—list two ways you might invoke the descriptor, and two ways someone else could invoke it or you could get a snag from it. If the examples come easily to mind, great! If not, add more context to make that descriptor work or put that idea to the side and come up with a new descriptor.
GMs, this is just as true of your game and situation descriptors. Any descriptor of a scene you call out should be something that either the PCs or their foes could use in a dramatic fashion. Your game descriptors do present problems, but they also should present ways for the PCs to take advantage of the status quo.
Say More Than One Thing
Earlier, we noted several things that a character descriptor might describe: personality traits, backgrounds, relationships, problems, possessions, and so forth. The best descriptors overlap across a few of those categories, because that means you have more ways to bring them into play.
GMs, for your situation descriptors, you don’t have to worry about this as much, because they’re only intended to stick around for a scene. It’s much more important for game and character descriptors to suggest multiple contexts for use.
Clear Phrasing
Because descriptors are phrases, they come with all the ambiguities of language—if no one knows what your descriptor means, it won’t get used enough.
That isn’t to say you have to avoid poetic or fanciful expression—Simple Country Boy isn’t quite as poetic as Child of the Austere, Backwoods South. If that’s the tone your game is going for, feel free to indulge your linguistic desires.
However, don’t do this at the expense of clarity. Avoid metaphors and implications when you can get away with just saying what you mean. That way, other people don’t have to stop and ask you during play if a certain descriptor would apply, or get bogged down in discussions about what it means.
If you’re wondering if your descriptor is unclear, ask the people at the table what they think it means.
Invoking Descriptors
The primary way you’re going to use descriptors in a game of Steamfunkateers is to invoke them. If you’re in a situation where a descriptor is beneficial to your character somehow, you can invoke it.
In order to invoke a descriptor, explain why the descr
iptor is relevant, spend a point of Vigor, and you can choose one of these benefits:
Add +2d to your current skill check. Invoke before you roll your dice.
Pass a +2d benefit to another character’s roll, if it’s reasonable that the descriptor you’re invoking would be able to help. Invoke before the other character you’re passing it to rolls.
Add +2d to any source of passive opposition, if it’s reasonable that the descriptor you’re invoking could contribute to making things more difficult. Invoke before whoever you are making things more difficult for makes their roll.
The GM is the final arbiter on the relevance of a particular descriptor when you invoke it. The use of a descriptor should make sense, or you should be able to creatively narrate your way into ensuring it makes sense.
Precisely how you do this is up to you. Sometimes, it makes sense to use a particular descriptor. Other times, you might need to embellish your character’s action a little more so that everyone understands where you’re coming from.
Free Invocations
You don’t always have to pay a point of Vigor to invoke a descriptor—sometimes it’s free.
When you succeed at getting the upper hand, you “stick” a free invocation onto a descriptor.
You also get to stick a free invocation on any Conditions you inflict in a conflict.
Free invocations work like normal ones except in two ways: no point of Vigor is exchanged, and you can stack them with a normal invocation for a better bonus. So you can use a free invocation and pay a point of Vigor on the same descriptor to get a +4d bonus instead of a +2d, or you can add +4d to another character’s dice pool or increase passive opposition by +4d. Or you could split the benefits. You can also stack multiple free invocations together.
After you’ve used your free invocation, if the descriptor in question is still around, you can keep invoking it by spending Vigor.
If you want, you can pass your free invocation to another character. That allows you to get some teamwork going between you and a buddy. This is really useful in a conflict if you want to set someone up for a big blow—have everyone get the upper hand and pass their free invocations onto one person, then that person stacks all of them up at once for a huge bonus.
VIGOR
GMs and players, you both have a pool of points called Vigor that you can use to influence the game. Players, you start your character’s first adventure with 3 points of Vigor.
At the end of each session, you recover a base 3 points of Vigor—you reinVIGORate. See what we did there?
When your descriptors come into play, you will usually spend or gain a point of Vigor.
Earning Points of Vigor
You earn points of Vigor in the following ways:
Accept a Snag: You get a point of Vigor when you agree to the complication associated with a snag. As we said above, this may sometimes happen retroactively if the circumstances warrant.
Have Your Descriptors Invoked Against You: If someone pays a point of Vigor to invoke a descriptor attached to your character, you gain their point of Vigor at the end of the scene. This includes advantages created on your character, as well as consequences.
Concede in a Conflict: You receive one point of Vigor for conceding in a conflict, as well as an additional point of Vigor for each condition that you’ve received in that conflict. This isn’t the same as being incapacitated or killed in a conflict, by the way, but we’ll get into that later.
The GM and Vigor
GMs, you also get to use Vigor, but the rules are a little bit different than the rules for players.
When you award players Vigor for snags or concession, they come out of an unlimited pool you have for doing so—you don’t have to worry about running out of Vigor to award, and you always get to invoke the PCs descriptors for free.
The NPCs under your control are not so lucky. They have a limited pool of Vigor you get to use on their behalf. Whenever a scene starts, you get one point of Vigor for every PC in that scene. You can use these points on behalf of any NPC you want, but you can get more in that scene if they take a snag, like PCs do.
You reset to your default total, one per PC, at the beginning of every scene.
There are two exceptions:
You accepted a snag that effectively ended the last scene or starts the next one. If that happens, take an extra point of Vigor in the next scene.
You conceded a conflict to the PCs in the previous scene. If that happens, take the point of Vigor you’d normally get for the concession into the next scene and add them to the default total.
If the immediate next scene doesn’t present a significant interaction with NPCs, you can save these extra points until the next scene that does.
Spending Vigor
You can spend Vigor to:
Invoke a descriptor—phrases that describe some significant detail about a character. Descriptors can cover a wide range of things, such as personality or descriptive traits, beliefs, relationships, issues and problems, or anything else that helps us invest in the character as a person, rather than just a collection of stats.
To declare a story detail.
To activate certain powerful feats—special tricks that your character knows that allow you to get an extra benefit out of a skill or alter some other game rule to work in your favor.
Invoking a Descriptor
Whenever you make a skill check, and you’re in a situation where a descriptor might be able to help you, you can spend a point of Vigor to invoke it in order to change the dice result. This allows you to reroll your dice. You do this after you’ve rolled the dice—if you aren’t happy with your result.
You also have to explain or justify how the descriptor is helpful in order to get the reroll—sometimes it’ll be self-evident, and sometimes it might require some creative narrating.
You can spend more than one Point of Vigor on a single roll, gaining another reroll. You can also spend an additional point of Vigor to gain a +2d bonus on the reroll, as long as each point you spend invokes a different descriptor.
Declaring a Story Detail
Sometimes, you want to add a detail that works to your character’s advantage in a scene. For example, you might use this to narrate a convenient coincidence, like retroactively having the right supplies for a certain job (“Of course I brought that along!”), showing up at a dramatically convenient moment, or suggesting that you and the NPC you just met have mutual clients in common.
To do this, you’ll spend a point of Vigor. You should try to justify your story details by relating them to your descriptors. GMs have the right to veto any suggestions that seem out of scope or ask the player to revise them, especially if the rest of the group isn’t buying into it.
Snags
Sometimes (in fact, probably often), you’ll find yourself in a situation where a descriptor complicates your character’s life and creates unexpected drama. When that happens, the GM will suggest a potential complication that might arise. This is called a snag.
Sometimes, a snag means your character automatically gets a “No” result, or your character’s choices are restricted, or simply that unintended consequences cloud whatever your character does.
In order to snag a descriptor, explain why the descriptor is relevant, and then make an offer as to what the complication is. You can negotiate the terms of the complication a bit, until you reach a reasonable consensus. Whoever is getting snagged then has two options:
Accept the complication and receive a point of Vigor.
Pay a point of Vigor to prevent the complication from happening.
The complication from a snag occurs regardless of anyone’s efforts—once you’ve made a deal and taken the point of Vigor, you can’t use your skills or anything else to mitigate the situation. You have to deal with the new story developments that arise from the complication.
If you prevent the complication from happening, then you and the group describe how you avoid it. Sometimes it just means tha
t you agree that the event never happened in the first place, and sometimes it means narrating your character doing something proactive. Whatever you need to do in order to make it make sense works fine, as long as the group is okay with it.
Once you’ve suffered a snag, you get a point of Vigor for your troubles. If you want, you can pay a point of Vigor to prevent the complication from happening, but we don’t recommend you do that very often—you’ll probably need that point of Vigor later, and getting snagged brings drama—and fun—into your game’s story.
Players, you can call for a snag when you want there to be a complication in a decision you’ve just made, if it’s related to one of your descriptors. GMs, you’re going to call for a snag when you want to make the world respond to the characters in a complicated, unexpected, or dramatic way.
Anyone at the table is free to suggest when a snag might be appropriate for any character (including their own). GMs, you have the final word on whether or not a snag is valid. And speak up if you see that a snag happened naturally as a result of play, but no point of Vigor was awarded.
GMs, you’re the final arbiter here, as always—not just on how the result of a snag plays out, but on whether or not a snag is valid in the first place. Use the same judgment you apply to an invocation—it should make instinctive sense, or require only a small amount of explanation, that a complication might arise from the descriptor.
Finally, and this is very important: if a player wants to snag another character, it costs a point of Vigor to propose the complication. The GM can always snag for free, and any player can propose a snag on his or her own character for free.
Types of Snags
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