1 The Velvet Knife

A Rogue playbook for the shining city-states. Written against Wizards & Lizards v0.10 (BETA, not yet playtested).

The shining cities run on more than magic and gold. They run on secrets carried, locks opened, the right throat reached at the right moment, and on people quick and clever enough to do it and walk away smiling. The goddesses get the temples. You get the back streets, the rooftops, and the truth.

1.1 You Are Quick, and You Are Lucky

You win by being where the blow is not, by knowing the thing no one meant you to know, and by a knack for slipping out of trouble that looks, to those who do not know better, exactly like luck. You are good at a great many things, and deadly in the one moment your mark forgets you are there.

1.2 Make Your Rogue

Your Agility begins at +2. Might, Wits, and Presence begin at +0; the tables below will raise them.

You begin with:

• Hit Points 14.
• Speed 3 (no one is quicker).
• Stress 4 + your Presence.
• Defense = Agility + cover. You wear light armor and favor light blades.
• Larceny, your trade and signature skill: locks, traps, and other people’s pockets. It is always one of your skills, and your tools and tricks build on it.
• Backstab, and you are Highly Skilled (below).
• Your edge (below).

Highly Skilled: where another adventurer begins with three skills, you begin with four, Larceny, the two your tables below grant, and one more of your choosing, and you gain a new skill at every level, not only the even ones.

Now walk the tables. Roll or choose; take what each one grants.

1.2.1 What were you before the knife? (1d6)

1. A guttersnipe of the dock wards, raised by no one. (+1 Agility · Streetwise)
2. A merchant’s clever child, taught to count and charm. (+1 Wits · Appraisal)
3. A fencing-master’s failed pupil, too quick for the forms. (+1 Agility · Dueling)
4. A runner of letters between the great houses. (+1 Presence · Courtesy)
5. A faerie-touched foundling, light-fingered and luckier than you should be. (+1 Presence · Glamour)
6. A poacher of the city’s edge, at home in the dark. (+1 Wits · Wayfaring)

1.2.2 How do you make your way? (1d6)

1. Cutpurse and rooftop-runner. You read locks and crowds like a page. (skill: Stealth)
2. Spy in borrowed silk. You wear other people’s faces and lives. (skill: Disguise)
3. Duelist of the great houses. You settle other people’s debts at dawn. (skill: Dueling)
4. Smuggler of the dockside. You always know who to pay, and who to avoid. (skill: Contacts)
5. Charlatan of the fairs. You can sell a man his own hat. (skill: Deceit)
6. Scout of the wild roads. You go gladly where the city’s law will not. (skill: Tracking)

1.2.3 Who watches your back?

Choose another player’s character, the one you would not leave behind even when the smart move says run. Once per session, when the two of you act together, one of you may turn a partial success into a clean one, the other was there at just the right moment.

1.2.4 Your edge (1d6)

1. A blade that folds to nothing. It is concealed always, and your first strike in a fight is a Backstab.
2. A set of city-master’s picks. +1 to open locks and disarm traps.
3. A domino mask of faewood. Once per day, those who saw you cannot recall your face.
4. A weighted deck and a pair of kind dice. Once per session, decide a coin-flip or a wager your way.
5. A coil of grappling silk, thin and strong. You climb as fast as you run.
6. A debt owed by someone powerful. Once per session, you may call it in.

1.3 Advanced Actions

You have Backstab already. Choose one more now; you will gain others as you rise.

• Backstab (granted). When you Strike a foe who is unaware of you, surprised, or flanked by an ally, deal +3 damage.
• Fortune’s Favor. Your stress cap rises by 2, more luck to push a roll, shrug a blow, or vanish from a tight spot.
• Shadow. +1 to Sneak, and you may hide in a moment’s distraction, mid-fight, in plain sight, wherever a heartbeat’s inattention gives you cover.
• Duelist. When a foe misses you in melee, you may mark 1 stress to riposte with a Strike (a reaction).
• Quick Fingers. +1 to locks, traps, and pockets, and you may do such work in half the time, or under a watching eye.

1.4 Your Actions

Like every adventurer you have the shared actions, roll 3d6, add the attribute, read the ladder (8- miss, 9-12 partial, 13-17 success, 18+ critical):

Strike (Might, or Agility with your light blades) · Shoot (Agility) · Defend (Agility) · Maneuver (Might/Agility) · Endure (the fitting attribute) · Skill (use one of your many skills). And you may always mark stress to push a roll, resist a blow, or fuel an Advanced Action.

1.5 As You Rise

You grow over five levels, and faster than most in skill: you gain a skill at every level. At 2nd and 4th level you also gain a new Advanced Action (choose from the list above, or invent one with your GM). At 3rd and 5th level you raise an attribute (to a cap of +3) and your blades bite harder.