Pushing fate

If the result of the test is a failure, the player may opt to push fate. Pull an additional card and add its value to the original total. If the total result of the two cards plus the attribute is 14+, the test succeeds as normal. You can never achieve a great success if you push fate. If the total result is 13 or less, the test becomes a great failure.

When you push fate and achieve a great failure, you not only fail to achieve what you set out to do, you make things even worse.

Narratively, a great failure creates new obstacles to overcome or severely hampers the adventurers’ path forward. For example, if a thief achieves a great failure while picking a lock, the sound of the broken lockpick jammed in the door alerts a passing guard, who catches the thief red-handed. Or, if a templar suffers a great failure when attempting to intimidate the ogre, the ogre flies into a rage and sucker-punches the templar in a surprise attack.

Additionally, a great failure inflicts a mechanical penalty on the adventurer who failed. If the situation is a dangerous situation, the GM can inflict a Wound on the adventurer. If the situation isn’t life threatening to begin with, an effect—representing frustration, sorrow, madness, exertion, or some other emotional state—might be more appropriate. For example, the GM might say that until the adventurer’s next encampment they become Exhausted (suffering the Exhaust effect) because they have overexerted themselves.

Pushing fate with the Fool

The Fool has a value of 0.

• If you pull the Fool initially during a test of fate, you can push fate as normal. This could turn the test from a failure to a success or to a great failure.

• If you pull the Fool when pushing fate, your result automatically becomes a great failure.

When the Fool is drawn, remember to shuffle both the minor and major arcana decks.

Example test of fate

GM: The black dragon seems to be asleep. A rattling snore issues from its nose, as if it’s congested. Its eyes are closed, and occasionally it licks its lips with a long, forked tongue.

Phynn: And you said that my cup is under it?

GM: Yeah, like, not right under it—but on its bed of gold, which is all spread out around the dragon. So it’s near it. You can reach the cup if you’re careful.

Phynn: OK, I want to sneak up to the bed of gold and steal my ancestral cup.

GM: OK, that will be a test of fate. Test Pentacles.

Phynn draws from the minor arcana deck and gets an 8 of Swords. He realizes that the odds are good since he needs a total of 14.

Phynn: That’s an 8 of Swords plus my Pentacles score of 2. That’s a 10 total. I’m gonna push fate.

Phynn draws again and gets a 10 of Wands.

Phynn: Awesome. That’s 20 total. That’s a success.

GM: Awesome. You sneak closer and closer to the dragon. At one point, the snoring stops and becomes a choking cough. A little cloud of acid fog smokes out of the dragon’s nostrils, but then the snoring begins again. You reach out and grab your cup. Now you have your ancestral cup in your hands, and you’re still sitting in a room with a sleeping dragon. What do you do now?