Invictus

Drive and Flare

The Will to Powers

A Hero’s Drive is their governing motive, largely defined by a single core conviction. It empowers their very will.

Anchor

A Hero’s drive is the sum total of their beliefs and tenets: that which compels them to Act. Their drive is fixed to their Anchor: a single overriding ideal that is both a moral compass and a guiding worldview. They might reflect a guiding principle, a personal truth, or a deep loyalty to some principal power.

Foundations of Order

Authority

Duty

Honour

Justice

Tradition

Sacrifice

Forge of Aspiration

Creativity

Dominion

Foresight

Knowledge

Resilience

Wealth

Circle of Harmony

Balance

Community

Equality

Freedom

Nature

Passion

Optionally, but not necessarily, a campaign can also employ secondary drives, including the:

Ambition: a personal goal that shapes the Hero’s journey

Agenda: the long‑term priority of the faction the Hero serves.

Flare

Flare is a Hero’s reserve of willpower and inner fire. They may draw upon it to perform heroic deeds, allowing them to Act heroically even in the face of danger. 

Flare is measured on a track that is marked off as it gets used. A Hero starts with 8 or 10 Flare as as this gets used, they start to feel exhausted. When Flare reaches 0 the Hero is drained and spent.

If using the villainy rules, Heroes can optionally draw upon Gloom, but this comes at a price.

The Player can burn (spend 2 Flare) to:

  • add +1d to any roll
  • increase the impact of an Action after the roll
  • ignore the compulsion of a Condition
  • Mages and Theurges use Flare to refresh their powers
  • some dangers or adversaries will make a Hero lose Flare

The Player can restore Flare from:

  • fulfilling their Drive, restoring all Flare
  • using a downtime activity to rekindle Flare

Since Flare use is recorded on the character sheet, it is preserved for the next game.

Keepsakes

A Keepsakes is a concrete link to the Hero’s Anchor: a touchstone object that represents their connection to it. It can be a treasure from their past, or a symbol of their ideals.

A Hero starts with one, but can acquire up to three. 

During downtime, a player can spend some time with their Keepsakes, to regain Flare. For each Keepsake, they roll a Hero die, and restore as much Flare as the number on their highest die. Mages and Theurges roll favourably for this.

Gloom

If the game is using the Villainy, a Hero may also call on Gloom, a dark echo of Flare fuelled by willing corruption.

A single point of Gloom can pay any single Flare cost regardless of how much Flare the cost is.

Each point spent feeds the Hero’s Dark Urge, their villainous impulse, and may cause this to come forth, taking over their sense of purpose.