This game assumes you have read Unsong and remember it well. If you have not, you will likely be very confused.
A successful game should include lots of specifically worked out placebomancy and yetzirah manipulation. That's what makes the setting vibrant, and will make for great stories afterwards. Therefore these things never get shoved under the abstraction threshold. But it should be possible to play a character who is better at these things than you are. When the character is highly skilled in these things but the player is stuck, the rest of the table should assist, and use out-of-game tools (such as the Internet Anagram Server) as necessary.
Meanwhile, a lot of more boring things are getting shoved under the abstraction threshold. There are explicit rules for retconning equipment precisely so that you don't have to worry about it in advance.
The rules are not designed to stand up to minmaxing or munchkinry. If you are inclined toward those, know that you will find no interesting challenge here and move on.
These mechanics reveal things from Unsong which would otherwise be surprises, including one major piece of the ending.
A long campaign (or high level one-shot) may see player characters rivaling the cometspawn in power. If the PCs become too powerful to coexist with the canon plot, simply declare that the game is taking place in an adjacent world in The Garden. Whether or not you do this, there's no reason canon characters can't appear as visiting NPCs, at least provided your players are good at keeping player and character knowledge separate.
That said, there are no rules here for Theoretical Kabbalah (that only Uriel can cope with) nor the Celestial Kabbalah (that exactly four mortals have touched). We deal only in the Applied and Worldly Kabbalah, which are somewhat more broadly used.
To see if you succeed at something, roll a number of d10s equal to your relevant ability and add the results. If any die rolls a 10 (“explodes”) reroll it and keep both values. If you have a specific skill that is directly relevant, add two dice. Somewhat relevant, one die. If this leaves you with no dice to roll, roll a d4 (it does not explode). Add a (non-exploding) d4 if circumstances are conducive to your success.
If the total value on the dice meets or exceeds the DC, you succeed.
(Do not use any dice besides d10s and d4s. Unless you have physical d22s or d72s, in which case you should find a way to incorporate them.
If an action targets a character (and the target is aware) said target may assist or resist as a reaction. They roll a relevant ability and add or subtract half their result from the actor's.
In general, DCs should look like:
If it is necessary to keep track of exactly when characters do things, go into rounds. Use 10 rounds to the minute. During a round, you can move up to 20 cubits and do something.
To determine order within a round, roll initiative using Violence. Ties are broken in favor of the player sitting closer to the DM's right (NPCs last). In an ambush or similar scenario, there is one surprise round in which only the ambushers act, followed by initiative as normal.
There are no hit points. Injuries are described in-universe. Being shot with a gun is usually fatal.
If your character is about to die or otherwise suffer unacceptable harm, you may permanently burn a Destiny die to prevent it by implausible coincidence. If you have no Destiny dice, you cannot do this.
You start with 10 dice to distribute among the abilities. You may not put more than 4 dice in any one ability. (A campaign that starts with experienced characters might start with more dice. The limit on any ability remains 40%, rounded down.)
While not strictly mandatory, it is advisable to put at least one die into each of Destiny, Social Skills, Metis and Wealth. A character with no Destiny ultimately doesn't matter, and cannot use the retroactive resource rules. One with no Social Skills has no relationships, and requires an explanation of how they wound up in an adventuring party. A character with no Metis cannot reliably prepare meals or outfits for themselves, and requires an active full-time caretaker. And a character with no wealth has only a 3/4 chance to own pants.
You may claim unlimited resources if you could get them by rolling all 3s on your relevant acquisition check. Please keep this within reason for a character concept. Granted, “crazy hoarder” is a character concept. Also, remember that you can fill these in retroactively (see the Resources section).
You also start with four “expensive” resources, which you could get by rolling all 5s on your check. You may leave some of these blank to fill in retroactively if you wish. Mark these by checking the “SX” (Starting Expensive) box on your character sheet.
(There are blanks on your character sheet to mark these DCs. They are useful if you are likely to gain abilities during the game, but may not have immediate downtime.)
Note that languages spoken beyond your native ones count as resources. You may have multiple native languages if it fits your backstory. Do not abuse this.
You may be an ordained priest, which enables you to create Holy Water and grants social bonuses in relevant situations. This counts as a connection and as an expensive resource regardless of your abilities.
A blank character sheet is available.
There are people in this setting with extra abilities that don't fit neatly. Starting with these means starting with fewer ability dice, and should effect your roleplay substantially.
For example, you can be a Fallen Angel. This has advantages: you are fluent in all languages except Aramaic; can fly when drunk on holy water; can conjure a flaming sword at will; and if killed by ordinary violence, you recorporate after a brief time. It also has disadvantages: you cannot learn Aramaic, comprehend deception, reliably remember limitations, or generally cope with the harshness of the world. You start with two fewer ability dice.
You can also have a complicated relationship with space. Using this to your advantage requires a dc 10 Metaphors check. You start with four fewer ability dice.
Other abilities are possible, at similar ability-die costs.
In a multi-session campaign, characters gain dice after successful sessions: one for a basic session, two for a session with significant challenge or accomplishment, and four for resolving a major plot point. If multiple dice are gained in a session, they must be placed in separate abilities. Also, no ability can hold more than four tenthes of your total dice. This means that the maximum dice in any attribute increases at total dice 13, 15, 18 and 20. (It is recommended that campaigns wrap by die 22, as characters are probably getting too powerful at that point.)
This does not grant resources, or change the DCs at which retroactive resources can be obtained. (See Resources)
If there is in-universe downtime, characters may acquire resources. This may either be done explicitly, with estimates of how long the acquisitions take, or abstractly, with one Starting Expensive Resource slot per week. Having downtime, even just one week of it, does update the DCs at which retroactive resources can be obtained.
The abilities (and some example DCs, to be adjusted on the fly by the DM) are:
How relevant your success is to Adam Kadmon's ultimate goodness. A high destiny check means the setting's contrived co-incidences go your way.
Destiny powers the retroactive resource rules (see: Resources) and can be burned to avoid death (see: Combat). It also controls circumstances that intuitively qualify as "luck". Furthermore, a player may call for a convenient coincidence a number of times per session equal to their destiny dice, and then roll to see just how convenient the coincidence is.
Example DCs:
Recognizing how things are metaphors for eachother. Interacting with Yitzerah.
Changes made in Yetzirah do affect the physical world, but they revert as soon as current circumstances become a metaphor for something else.
Example DCs:
Working with languages and texts, especially holy ones. Knowledge and comprehension of the world as it functions via sephirot. Finding relevant references in Tanakh or Talmud. Finding linguistic correspondences.
This skill is also used (mostly in backstory) to learn languages (see the Resources/Skills section)..
Example DCs:
Self explanatory.
Example DCs:
Everything from wrestling to sniping.
Example DCs:
Learn and reason about Names.
Example DCs:
Perform placebomancy, or deduce how effective it will be without performing it.
Placebomantic blessings and curses usually last until the situation becomes a metaphor for soemthing else.
Remember that placebomancy cannot do the physically impossible.
Example DCs:
The world as based on physics. Includes knowing which bits of physics are running at the moment. Also includes practical applications via technology.
Example DCs:
Practical skills. Includes anything that doesn't fit anywhere in particular.
Example DCs:
Your ability to buy things unexpectedly. This is approximately the amount of money you have, but after earmarking some of it for rent, adding easily accessible credit, etc.
Example DCs:
Resources are things your character has that are less fundamental than abilities. They come in four types: physical possessions, specific skills, names, and connections.
Resources can be claimed retroactively, up to the limits of chargen (dc 3×dice: unlimited; 5×dice: expensive). A resource that is clearly in line with a character concept is automatic. One which isn't requires a Destiny check, based on the probability for someone of your background having that resource. Once a resource is claimed retroactively, you have it permanently (unless you lose it in-universe).
When claiming retroactive resources, use your ability scores at time of last downtime, not your current ones (if they differ).
Can be anything from clean socks to a decommissioned aircraft carrier. Possessions are generally assumed to be on your person when needed unless they are too large or there's a specific plot reason for them not to be.
Learning a new skill is usually either a Metis or Science check, and tends to take quite a while. When making a check for which a specific skill is relevant, add two dice. Example learning DCs:
Note that while using a pistol in combat is Violence and behaving properly at a banquet is Social Skills, learning these specific skills is Metis. This generalizes to any skill where the primary difficulties in learning it are diligent practice and finding suitable excersices of gradually increasing difficulty.
Possessing a Name means that you can reliably remember it and speak it in one try. See the List of Names for DCs to learn them.
Making connections is a Social Skills check. Like learning skills, this takes a while, and it is usually better to role-play explicitly outside of backstory. For backstory purposes, some example DCs:
You can speak any name which you know. Ordinary people can speak 10 syllables a round (speaking slowly and carefully). See the Naming ability for more advanced options.
If the name allows choices (e.g. the Kinetic name), controlling it with precision also requires a Naming check.
Writing a name does not activate it, but does trigger any Sentinal Names in the vicinity. Triggering a written name is easy, and destroys the name. (Destroying the name does not automatically trigger it – if you want a chain reaction of Wrathful names, you need to engineer that deliberately.)
Only a human can write or speak a name.
The Coagulant, Extinguishing, Luminous, and Thunderclap Names are available in scrollwheel form as a DC 5 Wealth check.
| Name | Time to Speak | DC to Research | Effects |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mortal | 0 | 2 | Kills speaker |
| Ascending | 2 | 5 | Speaker can float up or down in air, ignoring gravity |
| Chromatic | 1 | 5 | Changes color of an object |
| Coagulant | 2 | 5 | Stops bleeding |
| Extinguishing | 2 | 5 | Puts out fire |
| Luminous | 1 | 5 | Produces a bright white light |
| Sobering | 1 | 5 | Removes drunkenness and hangovers |
| Avalanche | 1 | 10 | A convulsive sort of explosion that can demolish weak structures |
| Bulletproof | 3 | 10 | Stops one projectile. |
| Fulminant | 2 | 10 | Produces a small bolt of lightning, enough to stun a person |
| Kindling | 1 | 10 | Starts a fire |
| Kinetic | 1 | 10 | Exerts a strong force (like being pushed really hard) against an object |
| Respiratory | 2 | 10 | Allows speaker to breathe in an otherwise unbreathable environment for some time |
| Steelforging | 2 | 10 | Transforms ore to iron, iron to steel, and makes steel stronger |
| Tenebrous | 2 | 10 | Everywhere within speaker's field of vision goes dark |
| Thunderclap | 1 | 10 | Very loud noise |
| Wakening | 1 | 10 | Gives speaker some energy, comparable to chugging a cup of coffee |
| Abjuring | 3 | 15 | Cancels the effects of Names that can be spoken normally in less than 3 rounds |
| Cavernous | 3 | 15 | Causes a large cave to form |
| Enlivening | 2 | 15 | Awakens unconscious or comatose people. |
| Liberating | 2 | 15 | Unties knots, breaks chains, picks locks, bends bars |
| Magnifying | 1 | 15 | Allows you to see further and more clearly, like binoculars |
| Reconditioning | 2 | 15 | Fixes certain types of broken machinery |
| Sentinel | 3 | 15 | Gives superhuman hearing of certains spoken nearby |
| Taming | 2 | 15 | Causes animals to be friendly to you |
| Vanishing | 2 | 15 | Teleports speaker to a location which is a metaphor for the same thing as their current one |
| Volatile | 1 | 15 | Disturbs things by making them shake and become slightly warmer; pushes them to a lower-entropy state |
| Amnestic | 3 | Target forgets one second of their life | |
| Charismatic | 1 | person who hears you speak it likes you more | |
| Confounding | 2 | Confuses whatever memory or thought is on somebody's mind at moment. | |
| Explicit | 7 | Completely rewrites reality | |
| Fertile | 2 | Doubles yield of crops. | |
| Fluvial | 1 | A spring of fresh water bursts forth from ground, lasting from a week to a few months. | |
| Heartwarming | 1 | Gives one an inner warmth that lets one resist cold climates | |
| Moon-Finding | 1 | Shows the direction to the moon | |
| Motive | 3 | Makes an object move; can be used to power cars | |
| Nuptial | 3 | Initiates Sacred Kabbalistic Marriage | |
| Optometry | 2 | Corrects the speaker's vision | |
| Poetic | 2 | A supernatural ability to remember poetry and music | |
| Precious | 3 | A form of dowsing; increases your ability to find minerals you are looking for | |
| Protective | 1 | Makes speaker immune to radioactivity | |
| Purifying | 2 | Sterilizes an area of bad bacteria; a powerful antibiotic | |
| Quickening | 3 | Speeds pace of gestation of an embryo | |
| Revelatory | 3 | Reveals hidden dangers in certain situations, like a minefield | |
| Sanctifying | 1 | Makes air in a building cool, pleasant, and healthy to breathe; increases well-being | |
| Sandshaper | 3 | Allows one to create monsters and structures from sand | |
| Shield | 2 | Some protection against swords and other such weapons | |
| Static | 1 | Stops growth, especially cancer | |
| Tempestuous | 2 | Produces a whirlwind | |
| Thunderous | 1 | Makes your voice louder | |
| Unyielding | 2 | A barrier that demons cannot easily pass | |
| Vital | 5 | Grants human souls | |
| Wrathful | 4 | Nuke-level explosion. Destroys a city. | |
| Xenoglossal | 3 | Allows one to speak and understand across a language barrier for any human language except Aramaic |
(Taken straight from Scott's post on the subject)
"Time to Speak" is in rounds (1 round = 6 seconds). Names without listed research DCs require quests to obtain.