The Fifth World v1.0

Authors Blake Behrens Dani Kaulakis Giulianna Maria Lamanna Jason Godesky Noah Bradley

Plaintext

Writing & Game Design In The Fifth World tabletop roleplaying
Jason Godesky game, you and a handful of friends ex-
plore what happens to your descendants
Editing living beyond civilization. You'll see the
Giulianna Maria Lamanna familiar places of your life transformed
Art by four centuries of change. You’ll trace
Blake Behrens, Dani Kaulakis, Giulianna the history of your family and learn the
Maria Lamanna, and Noah Bradley customs that helped them to survive and
thrive, and then step into the lives of
people in that family to see how they
live in a neotribal, ecotopian future.

Version 1.0 Released January 1, 2018

The Fifth World roleplaying game presents an open source set of rules. As such, you will
always find the most up-to-date rules online at https://thefifthworld.com/rpg. This doc-
ument represents a “stable,” playtested snapshot of the rules as of the release date
above. We release this document under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0
International License.

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Roleplaying She can only tell us what her hunter
thinks, says, and does. The others can say
what their own hunters say and do, as
We can best explain what a roleplaying well as what happens in the rest of the
game looks like by presenting a small, world (like what the elephant does).
simple one.
It gives you the chance to express your
We play roleplaying games with our own sense of drama. When the player in
friends. Gather two or three of your focus says that she does something that
friends and get comfortable. This game sounds difficult (perhaps “I dodge out of
will take 15-20 minutes. the way of the charging elephant”) say,
It lets us explore interesting “That sounds difficult.” If she describes
scenarios. Tell your friends that you’ll something that sounds dangerous (per-
take on the roles of a band of hunters in haps “I stand my ground and stab the
the Fifth World, a neotribal, ecotopian charging elephant with my spear”) say,
future four hundred years after the fall “That sounds dangerous.” She might
of civilization. even say something that sounds both
difficult and dangerous (perhaps “I dodge
It gives us a chance to put ourselves in
out of the way at the last possible sec-
someone else’s life. Take turns asking
ond to stab the elephant in its chest as it
each other three questions about your
charges past me”), in which case one of
hunters. Which of you has the most ex-
you should say, “That sounds difficult”
perience? Which of you has the most to
and someone else should immediately
prove? Which of you has the most to
say, “That sounds dangerous.”
learn?
It helps create something more inter-
It thrives on sticky situations. Start
esting than we would on our own. If the
things off as you find yourself unexpect-
player in focus said that she did some-
edly between a baby elephant and its
thing difficult, a third player describes
mother. Which of you led the group into
what she’ll need to do to succeed. If she
this situation? How and why? The big-
did something dangerous, a third player
gest bull in the herd trumpets and
describes who gets hurt and how badly.
charges at you!
You’ve done it all along. When you get
It unfolds as a collaborative waking
out of one situation, pick another player
dream. Pick one player to take the focus.

We copied shamelessly from Epidiah Ravachol’s game, “What is a Roleplaying
Game?” to create the introductory game above. We skinned it to better
match the Fifth World, but all credit for the ingenious idea and simple de-
sign go to him. See the original astrorobber game at https://dig1000holes.-
wordpress.com/what-is-a-roleplaying-game/

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to take the focus and set up a new situa- roleplaying game. You put yourself in
tion. Keep playing until your hunters re- your character's life and try to think and
turn home. act as she would, to see the world
through her eyes and experience it as
The Fifth World vs. Other she would.
Roleplaying Games Playing the Other: When you play the
Other in an encounter, you play another
If you’ve played other tabletop roleplay- character — one that we might not know
ing games, you might find The Fifth very much about yet. You have some ba-
World a bit bewildering. It doesn’t neces- sic ideas about her, including the need
sarily work like other games you might that drives her at this moment, but pos-
know. If you haven't played other table- sibly nothing more than that. This differs
top roleplaying games, you don't need to only slightly from playing your own
worry about any of this — skip ahead to character, in that you want to convey
reading about our agenda. the character as you understand her
based on everything we've seen or
It has no game master. learned about her so far, but you cannot
make decisions for her. She might speak,
If you've played other tabletop roleplay- but only to reiterate or elaborate on
ing games before, you might notice things we already know. She might act,
that The Fifth World has no game master but not in any decisive way. If anyone
(GM). Rather than placing the responsi- wants to push the Other to make a sub-
bility for adjudication, running adver- stantive decision, they'll have to spend a
saries, and presenting the world in the moment of awareness to ask a question.
hands of one person, here that responsi-
Asking questions: Anyone in the en-
bility belongs to the whole group. Au-
counter can spend a moment of aware-
thority shifts from one player to the next
ness to ask a question. In this role, you
throughout the game, and in fact choos-
try to learn something definite about the
ing who to give that authority to forms
world, which could include what the
an important part of play.
Other or any other secondary character
(NPC) will do.
Your role changes frequently.
Answering questions: When another
The role you play in the game shifts fre- player spends awareness and asks you a
quently. Much of it revolves around question, you get to answer. That an-
when you play which role. One of the swer forms the truth of the story. You
main skills used to play the game well could think of it as becoming the GM for
lies in shifting gracefully from one role a moment. When you answer a question
to the next. always say what the principles demand,
what the place demands, and what honesty
Playing your character: When you play
demands.
your main character, you act much as
you would when you play any other

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Serving as audience: When you don't between sessions, or you might just play
play your character or the Other, ask a new character when your old one
questions: questions for more detail or reaches the end of her life. Throughout
color (“What did that smell like?”), that life, your character might change in
provocative questions (“Which of them many profound ways, but she won’t
do you trust the most?”), leading ques- necessarily become progressively more
tions (“Did you hear the tiger sneaking powerful, and certainly not in any way
up on you?”), any questions. They don't that the game’s mechanics will focus on
have the gravity of truth like the ones or reward. She might become an ances-
you ask by spending awareness, but tor honored by your family, tying them
much of the game's fun and color comes more deeply to their territory, and so
from them. her memory might live on.
Over the long term, your family, rather
You don’t level up —
than your characters, endure. You learn
your family does. the names of places (a crystallization of
the stories those places tell), and learn-
Most people in the Fifth World have ing about those places unlock new ques-
skills that we, today, would consider im- tions to ask, with which you can learn
pressive. Most can move through the new things. Over time your family be-
forest like parkour runners. They live to comes more powerful — and by “more
over a hundred years old, and even the powerful” we mean more deeply rooted
elders have more strength and en- in the land, dwelling more peacefully
durance than most of their ancestors. within it, more intimately bound to it.
They nearly all have expansive training
with bows and other weapons, go about Related Games
armed most of the time, possess expert
hunting and tracking skills as well as a The Fifth World didn’t come out
rapport with one another and their fami- of nowhere, of course. Like any other
ly territory so uncanny as to sometimes creative work, it has its own lineage. It
seem like telepathy. That just describes takes great inspiration from Archipelago,
the average person in the Fifth World. Vast & Starlit, Ganakagok, Shock: Social
But the game doesn't focus on them be- Science Fiction, Misspent Youth, and Apoc-
coming more skilled or deadly. It focuses alypse World and several related games,
on the relationships between them and including Monsterhearts, Dungeon World,
how those relationships change. and Dream Askew. If you’ve played these
In saga play (what another roleplaying or similar games, then you might not
game would call a campaign), your char- find The Fifth World so surprising after all.
acters grow up, grow old, and eventually
die. You play an intergenerational story,
so you’ll plat several characters through-
out the saga. You might play more than
one in the same generation, switching

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Agenda Reveal everyone’s
personhood.
When we play The Fifth World, we work
together to: In many languages in the Fifth World,
“person” verbs, rather than nouns. Hu-
See the Fifth World together.
mans can person, but so can animals and
Reveal everyone’s personhood. even plants, rocks, and weather patterns.
Hunt the wild story. Stories might person, and even “imper-
sonal forces” like luck or memory might
If you pursue other agendas — like chal- sometimes person. Not everything per-
lenging the other players or defeating sons, though. Critically, persons relate to
them, or telling the story you planned other persons. They can have relation-
ahead of time — the game won’t go very ships.
well. If you stick to these goals, the
game will help you and you’ll have a Persons do not embody stereotypes. In-
much more positive experience. stead, they have motivations, histories,
and concerns. If someone seems to act
See the Fifth World more like a stereotype than a real per-
son, show us the parts of their lives
together. where they break those patterns. Show
us reasonable and understandable moti-
When you listen to a story, you might vations for even your most hated adver-
feel yourself swept along by it, and you saries and bitter rivals.
can almost feel yourself in it. This game
offers a similar kind of immersion, one
where we can all see the Fifth World to-
Hunt the wild story.
gether. We flesh it out more and more Don’t think of your story as something
with rich descriptions and vivid details. you tell, but something you hunt. You
We see familiar places transformed and and your friends each pull it in your own
reclaimed by a more-than-human world. favored direction, and from time to time
Don’t try to come up with something the rules intervene to introduce unex-
clever. Rather, tell us what you see. Even pected and even unwelcome develop-
if everyone else considers it obvious, too, ments. That makes the story a living
your description simply confirms that thing uncontrolled by anyone at the ta-
we all see it together and pulls all of us ble, and only possible here, now, with
deeper into the world. Sometimes, these people, and nowhere else. Stay on
though, you’ll see something nobody else its trail, follow where it goes, and em-
has noticed yet. Though it seems obvious brace its twists and turns as the expres-
to you, it might surprise everyone else, sion of its own personhood. Resist the
and flow naturally from the story so far. urge to domesticate it by trying to force
it to follow your own plan.

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Principles
To help us pursue our agenda, we have a
few principles:
Rewild the domesticated.
Feed the story with what you know.
Address the Fifth World.
Reveal understandable motivations.
Give every person life.
Listen to the spirit of the place.
Defer answers.
Draw lines.
Ask questions and build on the an-
swers.

Rewild the domesticated.
Take the things that seem normal and
familiar and watch what happens to
them as civilization collapses, the world
changes, and other-than-human forces
claim them as their own. Free them
from purely human control and watch in
your mind’s eye as they rewild. Build-
ings, places, people, and institutions —
let them all rewild, and tell us what you
see.

Feed the story with
what you know.
Real things you know about the world —
in particular things like anthropology or
ecology, or more practical knowledge
like earth skills or tracking — can feed
your story. It thrives on informed imagi-
nation. If you feel excited about an up-
coming game and want to spend time

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preparing, learn about your local area. Give every person life.
Learn how the people native to your
area make a living there. Learn about Our game tells the story of the particular
your local ecology. Learn about tracking people played by you and your friends,
or gathering wild edibles or herbal med- but that doesn’t mean that no one else
icine. Don’t turn the game into a lecture, in the world matters. We focus on these
but do feed the story with what you’ve characters in this story, but outside of
learned to make it richer. that focus, the people whose paths we
cross live their own lives and their own
Address the Fifth World. stories. When one of our characters en-
counters another person, those stories
Rather than talking to your intersect. Show us that these people do
friends about the Fifth World, talk to not only exist in our story. Have them
their characters in the Fifth World. Ad- mention other things beyond the scope
dress them by the names of their charac- of our current story, hints and references
ters. Speak directly to the world you see to a wider world and an active life be-
together. yond our sight.

Reveal understandable Listen to the spirit
motivations. of the place.
If someone in the story acts in a way Every place has a story to tell. You can
that seems more like a caricature than a hear it in the pattern and rhythm of life
person, don’t accept it. Rely on curiosity that unfolds there. Listen for it, and
rather than contradiction. If this person you’ll hear it. You’ll notice patterns and
seems two-dimensional, don’t blame one themes that keep recurring there —
of your friends for this portrayal. Instead, something that every animal seems to
accept the mystery they’ve presented to do there, regardless of species, or some-
you. What really motivates this person to thing that happens again and again in
act this way? Explore the question fur- the history of that place, regardless of
ther, until you can understand and even the differences of the people involved.
sympathize with this person, even if her Like many traditional peoples today, the
actions put her in direct conflict with people of the Fifth World do not think of
your character. intelligence or creativity as faculties that
dwell within them. Rather, they think of
them as belonging to places, which they
partake in when they go there.
Heed the spirit of the places where the
game unfolds. Remember each place’s
individual personhood, and treat them as
you would any other person, with life
and understandable motivations. What

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does that mean for a place in general, or you, but they may disagree about what
this place specifically? What does it you should do or which path you should
mean for the way things unfold there follow. People in the Fifth World find
right now? ways to overcome these divisions and
heal the rifts between them, but it does
Defer answers. take effort and skill. Their stories focus
on the people who struggle to do that,
When another player spends a moment how they do it, and even, occasionally,
of awareness to ask a question, the an- how they fail.
swer you give establishes the truth.
Don’t contradict anything we already Ask questions and build on
know (at least, not directly). With each
established truth, the story takes form. If
the answers.
it takes form too quickly, we give it few- Constantly ask questions of the other
er opportunities to surprise and delight players’ characters — about the things
us. So choose your answers carefully to they see, hear, smell, taste, and touch,
not close off too much too soon. Give about their feelings and perspectives,
answers that open new questions and about their hopes and fears, about their
possibilities. Put off making definitive past, about anything and everything
statements until the last possible mo- about them that catches your attention.
ment. The answers remain uncertain until
someone spends a moment of aware-
Draw lines. ness, but these impressions provide the
hints and signs that help us do that. Add
Bonds of kinship bind the Fifth World what you see to their answers and build
together — including bonds of kinship on them. When those answers pique
between the human and other-than-hu- your curiosity, pursue them in play.
man — but kinship does not always
mean accord. What lines divide the fami-
ly, or groups within the family? What
lines divide your family from neighbor-
ing families? What lines divide your fam-
ily from the other-than-human commu-
nities around them and those they de-
pend upon? What lines divide you within
yourself?
These divisions do not generally come
from hatred, contempt, or disregard.
Those would present relatively easy an-
swers. They come from disagreement.
Most of the people in your story will, to
one extent or another, love and respect

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Awareness sounds dangerous.” Since you need
awareness to protect yourself and to ac-
complish your goals, you’ll need to con-
Places constantly generate moments sider going to some places to gather it.
of awareness. Your character can visit
those places and, by acting in accordance You can help another player’s character
with the particular spirit of that place, if you’ve come to the same place by
gather those moments. She can then spending your own moments of aware-
spend moments of awareness to avoid ness on her behalf.
danger, accomplish difficult tasks, and
ask questions to learn the truth about
the world around her. Cards
Moments of awareness form the primary
The Fifth World roleplaying game uses a
currency in the game. You’ll need some
regular deck of playing cards divided
kind of token to represent them, usually
into three decks:
not more than 100. Pennies work well,
but something that evokes the unique The Needs Deck, made up of the aces
spirit of your place can add a great tac- (four cards)
tile element to your game. The Persons Deck, made up of the
Each place begins with one moment of kings, queens, jacks, and jokers (four-
awareness, and they generate more after teen cards)
each encounter. Places occur in sets of The Places Deck, made up of the
three, each of which has a different cri- numbered cards (36 cards)
terion that you’ll have to meet to gather
awareness there.
When you gather awareness you can
take as much or as little as you like, You can play with a standard, 54-
with the exception of your home. There, card deck of playing cards (with
you gather awareness by sharing a meal two jokers) by looking up what
with others, and everyone present can each card means on the tables
take awareness — if you can all agree on included here, but you’ll probably
how to split it. If you can’t, then no one have more fun with our custom
gets anything. deck, with all of the information
You can normally have up to five mo- printed on the cards, space to
ments of awareness, until you take scars, add place names that you discov-
each of which will reduce your limit by er, and beautiful art by Blake
one. Behrens, Dani Kaulakis, Nick Ped-
ersen, and Noah Bradley. Visit
You spend moments of awareness to ask https://thefifthworld.com/rpg/
questions during encounters and in re- cards to order one.
sponse to certain ritual phrases,
like “That sounds difficult” and “That

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! !
Clubs Hearts
The Suit of Spiritual Life The Suit of Emotional Life
East • Childhood • Water South • Young Adulthood • Fire

Examples of spiritual needs include: Examples of emotional needs include:
Authenticity, beauty, freedom, harmony, hope, in- Affection, excitement, humor, intimacy, joy, love,
tegrity, justice, presence, purpose mourning, self-expression, warmth

Spirituality doesn't mean something su- What we value and believe in shapes the
pernatural. It refers to the magic that way we feel about the things that hap-
animates everything that lives, that gives pen to us, leading us to our emotional
us life and personhood, awareness and lives. Emotion does not stand opposed to
the ability to affect the world around us. intellect or reason. It forms part of the
We see spirit in everything that acts like same circle. Intellect and reason cannot
a person: the spells sung by the song- exist without it.
birds who entice the world to bloom, Our emotions act as another kind of per-
the eloquence of trees creaking in the ception. They can help us notice patterns
wind, or the slicing intellect of glass too subtle for our conscious minds. They
knapped to a perfect point. can help us perceive the changes inside
When we face our own spirituality, we of ourselves. We don’t dismiss them as
see where things begin. We see the ephemeral or “merely” subjective. We
things we value, the things we believe, know that they point us towards things
the things we hold dear, the things that that we need to understand.
motivate and drive us. When we need Our feelings often point us towards our
things from the east, we face needs for unmet needs. As a sense, we cannot nec-
honesty and authenticity, the need to act essarily control how we feel any more
in a way more true to ourselves. than we can control what we hear. By
the same token, what we feel needn’t
define what we do, any more than what
we hear. It can tell us what we need,
and it can alert us to what we might
otherwise miss, but what we do with
that always remains ours to decide.

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! !
Diamonds Spades
The Suit of Physical Life The Suit of Mental Life
West • Mature Adulthood • Earth North • Elderhood • Air

Examples of physical needs include: Examples of mental needs include:
Air, food, movement, rest, safety, sex, Challenge, clarity, creativity, discovery, efficacy,
shelter, touch, water learning, legacy, mastery, understanding

Our emotions push us into our physical Our engagement with the physical world
lives by demanding that we take action. teaches us. We learn about the world by
Physical life forms part of the wheel. interacting with it and observing it, and
Without it, the wheel breaks. Even those so our physical bodies draw us into our
other-than-human persons who lack a mental lives.
body have a physical form. We may not We live in a world full of intelligence
see the wind people, but we can still feel that we get to take part in. Different
them. We may not see the bodies of the places think differently. If you go to a
dead, but they still dissolve into the soil. place quietly and observe, you'll find it
Our bodies have needs, of course. When thinking you, too. The intelligent person
one of us goes hungry, we all go hungry, has a talent for taking in that intelli-
but thankfully, that rarely happens. Pine gence and using it in the most artful
nuts and grubs may not taste good, but way. Like conversation or song, we un-
they stave off hunger. No, more often derstand intelligence as an engagement,
when we face physical needs, it means rather than an attribute.
dealing with injury, infection, exhaus- When we face mental needs, we face our
tion, or physical safety. We also take the need for meaning, our need to make
need to excel seriously, so we would call sense of what we have seen and learned,
a need to improve our health, strength, or our need to make decisions. Mental
or stamina a physical need, too. needs might address existential angst or
simple curiosity. You can distinguish
them from spiritual needs because they
do not change values or beliefs, and
from emotional needs because they do
not change feelings or emotions.

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The Persons Deck Ancestors

The persons deck represent the people in If you’ve discovered the true name of a
your game, including your own primary place, you might have an ancestor asso-
characters and the secondary characters ciated with it — someone from your fam-
they encounter. Who each card repre- ily’s past whose legacy you still experi-
sents will change from one game to the ence there. Ancestors connect you more
next. deeply to that place, providing two bene-
fits:
Kings and Queens have mastered the
aspect of life represented by their At the end of each encounter, the
suits. place gains two moments of aware-
ness instead of one. The ancestor’s
Jacks pursue the aspect of life repre-
legacy may have made the place
sented by their suits, but haven’t
more abundant, or, just as likely, her
mastered them yet.
influence helps you to appreciate the
Jokers transgress or subvert tradi- abundance there more deeply.
tional life.
In addition to the place’s existing
prompt for gathering awareness, you
Places Deck can also pay a moment of awareness
to honor your ancestor to gather
Most of the cards form the places deck.
awareness there.
Each card in this deck represents a par-
ticular place in your family’s territory.
When you learn the stories of your land
you’ll learn the true names of these
places, which will unlock new questions
to ask and make it easier for you to
move through your territory.
Learning the true name of a place allows
you to draw that card from the deck in-
stead of drawing a card at random. Any
time you would draw from the places
deck, you can instead call out the name
of a place whose true name you have
learned. Once you have taken it, reshuf-
fle the remainder of the deck.

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Persons Deck
Card Archetype Meaning Concepts

King of Clubs The Priest Mastery of Ecstatic prophet, ritualist, hierophant,
Spiritual Life psychopomp, thaumaturge

Queen of Clubs The Healer Mastery of Doctor, seeress, witch, herbalist,
Spiritual Life wise woman

Jack of Clubs The Seeker Pursuit of Disciple, apprentice magician, ascetic,
Spiritual Life pilgrim, monk

King of Hearts The Amabassador Mastery of Diplomat, big man, mediator, trader,
Emotional Life herald

Queen of Hearts The Grandmother Mastery of Matriarch, counselor, clan elder,
Emotional Life matchmaker, midwife

Jack of Hearts The Adventurer Pursuit of Champion, daredevil, romantic, explorer,
Emotional Life rebel

King of Diamonds The Guardian Mastery of Berserker, experienced scout, protector,
Physical Life warchief, pillar of the community

Queen of Diamonds The Huntress Mastery of Amazon, hunter, provider, beast master,
Physical Life wild woman

Jack of Diamonds The Apprentice Pursuit of Student, tenderfoot, prodigy, innovator,
Physical Life craftsman

King of Spades The Teacher Mastery of Philosopher, mentor, scholar, logician,
Mental Life recluse

Queen of Spades The Storyteller Mastery of Bard, lorekeeper, artist, griot, musician
Mental Life

Jack of Spades The Scientist Pursuit of Researcher, investigator, tinkerer,
Mental Life empiricist, inventor

Red Joker The Magician Transgression of Wizard, sorcerer, shapeshifter, warlock,
Traditional Life mystic

Black Joker The Fool Subversion of Trickster, wise fool, village idiot, comic
Traditional Life relief, clown (sacred or otherwise)

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Places Deck: Clubs
Set Card Description Questions

Otherworldly 2 Portal to the Other At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
Places World To what other world does this place connect?
Make a promise Learning this place’s name unlocks:
to someone What does the other world want from you?
who lives here
to gather 3 The Magician’s Hut At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
awareness. What kind of power dwells here?
Learning this place’s name unlocks:
What debt do you owe?

4 Place of Restless At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
Spirits What haunts this place?
Learning this place’s name unlocks:
What torments you?

Honored Places 5 Abode of the Spirits At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
Make an What manner of spirits make their home here?
offering to Learning this place’s name unlocks:
gather What do the spirits want from you?
awareness.
6 Natural Wonder At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
What makes this place so astonishing?
Learning this place’s name unlocks:
What do you believe in?

7 Shrine At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
What do you honor at this shrine?
Learning this place’s name unlocks:
Whom do you serve?

Sacred Places 8 Heart of the Wild At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
Perform a How did this survive the old world unscathed?
religious Learning this place’s name unlocks:
ceremony to What do you fear in yourself?
gather
awareness. 9 Consecrated Ground At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
What makes this place sacred?
Learning this place’s name unlocks:
What do you hold sacred?

10 Axis Mundi At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
What marks this as the center of the universe?
Learning this place’s name unlocks:
What does your life revolve around?

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Places Deck: Hearts
Set Card Description Questions

Melancholy 2 Desolation At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
Places Why does so little grow here?
Express your Learning this place’s name unlocks:
sadness to What do you grieve for?
gather
awareness. 3 Solitude At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
What makes this place so secluded?
Learning this place’s name unlocks:
When do you feel alone?

4 Ruin At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
What stood here before it fell into ruin?
Learning this place’s name unlocks:
What have you lost?

Unquiet Places 5 Watchtower At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
Spot an What here does your family keep vigil over?
impending Learning this place’s name unlocks:
danger to What makes you wary?
gather
awareness. 6 An Ominous Place At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
What frightens you about this place?
Learning this place’s name unlocks:
What do you fear?

7 Scout’s Nest At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
Why do your scouts camp here?
Learning this place’s name unlocks:
What worries you?

Joyful Places 8 Playground At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
Express your joy What sort of games do you play here?
to gather Learning this place’s name unlocks:
awareness. What brings you joy?

9 Overlook At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
What can you see from here?
Learning this place’s name unlocks:
What fills you with awe?

10 Tryst At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
Whom would you hope to meet here?
Learning this place’s name unlocks:
Whom do you love?

!15
Places Deck: Diamonds
Set Card Description Questions

Dangerous 2 A Predator’s Territory At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
Places What predator claims this place?
Express your Learning this place’s name unlocks:
sadness to Do you think of yourself as predator or prey?
gather
awareness. 3 Ambush Site At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
What makes this a good spot for an ambush?
Learning this place’s name unlocks:
What threatens you?

4 Contested Ground At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
What disagreement revolves around this place?
Learning this place’s name unlocks:
What enemies do you have?

Abundant 5 Hunting Ground At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
Places What sort of animals do you hunt here?
Spot an Learning this place’s name unlocks:
impending What nourishes you?
danger to
gather 6 Watering Hole At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
awareness. Where does the water here come from?
Learning this place’s name unlocks:
What sustains you?

7 Garden At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
What sort of plants do you grow here?
Learning this place’s name unlocks:
What must you protect?

Creative Places 8 A Place for Making At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
Express your joy Tools What sort of tools do you make here?
to gather Learning this place’s name unlocks:
awareness. What help do you need?

9 A Place for Making Art At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
What sort of art do you make here?
Learning this place’s name unlocks:
What beauty within you must you express?

10 A Place for Making At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
Luxuries What sort of luxuries do you make here?
Learning this place’s name unlocks:
What makes you feel wealthy?

!16
Places Deck: Spades
Set Card Description Questions

Mysterious 2 Cave At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
Places What shaped this cave?
Express your Learning this place’s name unlocks:
sadness to How do you relate to the earth?
gather
awareness. 3 Ancient Mystery At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
What mystery of the old world do you find here?
Learning this place’s name unlocks:
What do you wish you knew about the past?

4 Natural Mystery At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
What do you find here out of the ordinary?
Learning this place’s name unlocks:
What makes you curious?

Unforgotten 5 Archive At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
Places How does this place record your family’s history?
Spot an Learning this place’s name unlocks:
impending What do you think of your family’s history?
danger to
gather 6 Burial Site At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
awareness. Who lies buried here?
Learning this place’s name unlocks:
What does death mean to you?

7 Monument At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
What does this monument commemorate?
Learning this place’s name unlocks:
How would you like others to remember you?

Storied Places 8 A Secret Meeting At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
Express your joy Place What secret society convenes here?
to gather Learning this place’s name unlocks:
awareness. How do you relate to this secret society?

9 Historical Site At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
What happened here?
Learning this place’s name unlocks:
What does the past mean to you?

10 A Gallery At the start of the first encounter here, ask:
What sort of paintings do you find here?
Learning this place’s name unlocks:
What does this art mean to you?

!17
Creating a Family
“I don’t see it.” States, empires, and corporations died
out centuries ago. In the Fifth World, the
Most ritual phrases only have an extended family forms the basic sov-
effect during encounters, so we’ll ereign unit. Some families live as bands
cover them in more depth when of hunter-gatherers, while others might
we get to that part of the rules, live in small villages, but all conceive of
but we have one that you can themselves, first and foremost, as a fami-
use even during family and char- ly. In fact, they understand the whole
acter creation: “I don’t see it.” world in terms of kinship. Nothing mat-
Say “I don’t see it” any time ters more than family and land, and with
someone contributes something bonds of kinship tying the land to the
that you don’t think fits the Fifth family, the distinction between the two
World, doesn’t strike the right can become rather blurry.
tone, or pushes you too hard. You In The Fifth World roleplaying game, you
can offer an explanation or not, play members of a single family making
as you like. You might stop to a living together. Making a family can
discuss what happened or not. take some time, but they play a very im-
The other person must amend portant role in the game. We spend rela-
what she said. You can say “I tively little time coming up with indi-
don’t see it” to that, too, and vidual characters who belong to the
keep using it until you find family.
something that everyone likes.
You play the family that has claimed the
Everyone should feel free to use area where you live as their territory
this phrase as often as they like. four hundred years from now. They
Particularly early on in your might descend from climate refugees
game it will help your group to who fled poleward, or from your own
find a fun, fruitful space together. stubborn descendants who refused to
You’ll need to make good use of leave, or a little bit of both. Think of
this ritual phrase to fulfill the who would have the best chance of sur-
first agenda, to see the Fifth vival. That usually has little to do with
World together. weapons or bunkers, and much more to
do with strong community bonds and a
willingness to look out for one another.
Those people most likely become the an-
cestors of your family in the Fifth World.
We'll follow their history through four
eras from the near future to the Fifth
World.

!18
Four Eras you live as either urban or rural, leave it
in the middle space.
Each era poses a question. For example, Now, each of you will take a turn push-
the first era asks, “What did your ances- ing the marker one space to the left, one
tors do?” Below that question, it shows a space to the right, or leaving it in its
spectrum with “Pioneer” on one side current place. Whichever you choose to
and “Survive” on the other. For each of do, you must provide a reason for it —
these questions, no one ever truly lived and a different one than any of your
by practicing one strategy to the exclu- friends.
sion of the other. The truth always lies
For example, while considering the first
somewhere in between. Many leaned
era, you might talk about a transition
more heavily towards one or the other.
town, militia group, hippie commune,
In this case, some families descend from
ecovillage, separatist movement, or per-
ancestors who had a very strong idea of
maculture community in your area and
the future they wanted to create, while
push the marker to the right towards
others descend from ancestors who had
“Pioneer.” Or you might talk about the
very few plans besides making it
lack of local disaster preparedness as you
through the day.
push the marker to the left towards
In the first era, you'll start by placing a “Survive.” You might reinforce why the
marker in the middle of the spectrum. If marker belongs right where it lies with
you live in an urban area, push it one another line of reasoning. Whichever one
space to the left. If you live in a rural you choose, you must add a new reason.
area, push it one space to the right. If
When everyone has taken a turn, where
you wouldn't describe the area where
do you end up? If you end in one of the

Writing Good Customs

Your family customs will define a lot of the game, so take your time with
them, especially for a saga. Good customs suggest something that a member
of the family could pursue or dedicate her life to, like a group to join, a call-
ing to follow, or a prestige to earn.
Balancing out the values that your customs reflect will give you access to
more questions, whereas focusing on one or two customs will give you the
ability to ask one or two questions much more often. Do you want to have a
wider variety of options available to you, or do you want to have the oppor-
tunity to really focus on one thing? Which one better reflects the family you
see developing?

!19
three middle spaces, you landed between middle, you’ll describe one custom for
the two extremes. If you end in one of each side.
the two spaces on the left or one of the When you describe a custom, choose
two spaces on the right, you land on which value this custom reflects — com-
that side of the spectrum. This will de- passion, fairness, loyalty, honor, or puri-
termine the prompts you'll answer to ty. Then provide a name for the family
determine your family's customs. ancestor associated with that custom.
Two Customs Discovering Place Names
Each side instructs you to describe a cus- When you have two customs from the
tom that your family adopted during this era, pull a card from the place deck and
era. If your family chose one side over discover its name. Locate it somewhere
the other, you’ll come up with two cus- in your family’s territory (in about a 30
toms that answer that side’s prompt. If square mile radius, though you might
you placed yourself somewhere in the

Values

Families across the Fifth World have five core values. Some families place
more emphasis on one as opposed to another, even to the point of some
families neglecting one or more of them altogether. Disagreements rage be-
tween families and between individuals on what these values mean, how
one should live by them, and which ones should take priority. Nonetheless,
at least in principle, most people can agree that these form the most basic,
broad strokes of ethical life.
Compassion, a concern for the well-being of others and a desire to allevi-
ate suffering
Fairness, a concern for justice and a desire to ensure that everyone re-
ceives what they deserve
Loyalty, a concern for fidelity and a desire to know that you can depend
on your fellows and they can depend on you
Honor, a concern for respect and a desire to ensure that everyone treats
each other with the dignity due to them
Purity, a concern for pollution of all kinds, even social or spiritual pollu-
tion, and a desire to avoid corruption

!20
expand to up to 90 square miles if you
discover that your family relies more on
hunting and gathering). Then ask: Native Place Names
What story does this place tell in its
geology? Normally you have an opportuni-
ty to learn the true name of a
What story does this place tell in its place as a reward at the end of a
ancient past? session. However, if you know
What story does this place tell in the the actual name of a place in the
Fifth World? original, indigenous language of
the area you can write it down at
What story does this place tell to our
any time — even before your first
family?
game.
Finally, answer: What name evokes all of
Thus, if you belong to an indige-
these stories? If you can answer that
nous nation and want to play
question, then you have discovered the
your descendants in the Fifth
place’s true name. Your family has be-
World, you could start with a
come a little more rooted in their land.
significant advantage, at a level
If you find that you can't, draw again
of play that others would take at
and use the new card.
least 32 sessions to reach, because
Once you've discovered its name, name your family begins with the deep
an ancestor associated with that place as history and connection to place
well. that other families would take
generations to catch up to.
The Next Era

You’ll then move on to the next era. Put
the marker in the same space in the next
era that you ended on in the previous
era. For example, if you ended in the
second-to-rightmost space in the first
era, set the marker in the second-to-
rightmost space in the second era.
You'll each take a turn to either move
the marker one space or keep it where it
lies, providing a new reason for your de-
cision, as you did in the previous era.

!21
The End of the Old World
Civilizations do not end all at once. First come recessions and then depressions. Food
lines become food riots. The people who live through such days might remember
some watershed moment that “changed everything,” but looking back you can see
that it began a long time before that, and it kept on for a long time after that. Like
the changing of the seasons, the old world passed, and a new world began.

What did your ancestors do?

Survive Pioneer
Your ancestors adapted as the old world Your ancestors prepared for the end. You
fell apart. The experience left them have a strong history, but their ideals
skilled and pragmatic, but sometimes could become a rigid ideology.
suspicious and hard. What custom have you
What custom helped keep your preserved from the old world?
family alive?
Examples
Examples
Compassion
Compassion We perform sky burials.
We provide medicine and aid for the sick and Fairness
injured. We have judges who settle disputes.
Fairness Loyalty
We make peace between families. We maintain the faith of our ancestors, and un-
Loyalty derstand its true, animistic nature
We have a process for initiating strangers into better than they did.
our family. Honor
Honor We use football to settle our differences.
We use song duels to settle our differences. Purity
Purity We keep kosher.
We mostly keep to ourselves.

!22
The Rusting Ages
Where good soil remained, neofeudal kingdoms would arise, deplete it, and collapse
in a generation or two. When they could no longer extract metal from the earth, the
ruins became the mines for an age of warlords and slavers. As miserable as life be-
came in areas such as these, however, in the forests others made a life for them-
selves beyond their reach, and began to renew ancient pacts of kinship.

What did your family do in the Rusting Ages?

Withstand Withdraw
Your family endured the worst horrors In the surviving wilds, the Rusting Ages
of the post-apocalyptic age. It has left seemed far away. You have a long histo-
you wary but fiercely independent. ry with your other-than-human kin.
What custom made you ungovernable? What custom binds you to
your other-than-human kin?
Examples
Examples
Compassion
We share everything we have. Compassion
Fairness At 12 a child fasts until some spirit
When someone boasts, we respond agrees to become her guardian.
with mockery. Fairness
Loyalty Each person belongs to a place, with
We consider trying to coerce someone the right and duty to sing its song.
a betrayal of the family. Loyalty
Honor You become a wizard when an
We have a secret society that stops would-be other-than-human animal becomes
rulers by any means necessary. your familiar and teaches you its magic.

Purity Honor
We gossip constantly. Our clans cut across families of humans
and other-than-human beings.
Purity
Failing to make a clean kill pollutes a hunter,
requiring a period of fasting.

!23
The New World
As the Rusting Ages ended and the warlords began to die out, even those who had
resisted throughout could no longer deny that the world had changed, and they
would need to change with it. Some turned to hunting and gathering. Others grew
forest gardens and formed small villages. In truth, though, even the most ardent for-
agers threw some seeds, and the villagers still needed hunters.

How do you make a living?

Forage Garden
You gather wild plants and hunt animals. You cultivate plants or raise animals to
You have an intensely intimate knowl- provide for yourselves — perhaps a food
edge of your territory. forest, a semi-feral herd, or
elaborate gardens.
What custom do you follow to pay back the
people who feed you? What custom do you follow to keep the
land fertile and abundant?
Examples
Examples
Compassion
If you orphan an animal, you must raise it as Compassion
your own child. We have two village sites that we alternate be-
Fairness tween every ten years.
We leave a choice part of each animal we hunt Fairness
as a sacrifice to the scavengers. We collect our waste, process it as manure, and
Loyalty give it to our gardens as payment for the food it
We burn meadows for ruminants to graze. produces for us.

Honor Loyalty
When you eat an animal’s flesh, you must tell the Each garden belongs to a specific matrilineal line,
story of the hunt to honor its life, given to you. responsible for its care.

Purity Honor
You must never eat the flesh of your clan animal; We plant guilds together: plants that support
to do so would count as cannibalism. each other and help each other grow.
Purity
Once harvested, a garden becomes unclean. Only
leaving it fallow for a year can cleanse it.

!24
Succession
Every family has its own legends about how their ancestors emerged from the old
world and learned to make a living in this new one. Often that process meant that
they owed a debt to those who saved them. Sometimes, a new generation realized
that they had a greater responsibility to the world than simply surviving in it. Even-
tually, though, they each came to understand their purpose in this world.

What duty do you bear?

Heal Protect
Things fall apart, and entropy forever Your family does not mere-
gnaws at the world. Your family pushes ly dwell in this land. They live in a sacred
against that, healing the world, bringing place, and they bear a solemn duty to
back life and beauty. protect and preserve it.
What custom do you follow to keep the What custom do you have about honoring
world alive? and protecting sacred places?

Examples Examples
Compassion Compassion
We consider the creation of art a sacred task We prepare feasts at burial sites to
that feeds the spirit of the world. share a meal with our ancestors.
Fairness Fairness
We support the Vulture Priests with food and No human may enter the heart of the wild.
supplies, so that they can focus on containing
Loyalty
our ancestors’ nuclear legacy.
We frighten animals away from the pools where
Loyalty ancient drugs have drained and mixed together.
Some of us seek out unquiet places
Honor
to try to heal them.
Members of a secret society dress as monsters to
Honor scare trespassers away from sacred places.
We each make a pilgrimage to a far-off holy
Purity
place to bring back new ideas.
We guard the ruins and make sure
Purity that no one enters them.
Mycomancers breed new strains of mushrooms
to eat ancient pollution.

!25
Creating a Custom
Character You might instead start with your char-
acter she relates to her family by picking
Once you have a family, you can create a custom. Pick one of your family’s eight
characters who belong to that family. customs that your character has a par-
Over the course of a saga you may play ticularly strong relationship with. Then
several members of this family from decide on the nature of that relation-
generation to generation or even from ship: does she embody that custom, as-
session to session. pire to it, rebel against it, or subvert it?
That relationship might suggest a card
Each player will need a copy of the char- and name, by first knowing how she fits
acter sheet, printed out on two sides of a into her family.
single sheet of paper. You can fold the
paper in half to create a booklet, which
you can add to later on as your family
Name
unlocks new bundles. If you already have an idea for a charac-
To create your character, you’ll begin by ter, you might want to start with
choosing a card, a custom, and a name. a name. Names in the Fifth World verb
more than noun — they describe some-
Card thing important about the person. The
right name, then, can establish a great
Choosing your card from the persons deal about your character and her per-
deck first can help you narrow down a sonality, which will help you decide her
broad, general concept into a unique custom and how she relates to it, and
character. Each suit represents a differ- her card.
ent aspect of life, so you can choose
the kind of character you want to play. Value
Then you can choose whether you want
to play someone who has mastered that Once you have your name, custom, and
area of life (a king or queen), someone card, choose which value you hold in the
still pursuing mastery in that area (a highest regard.
jack), or someone who subverts or trans- If you aspire to or embody a custom,
gresses against it (a joker). The card will you hold the value associated with
provide five concepts that you could use that custom in the highest regard.
for your character, which may help you
then decide her custom and how she re- If you rebel against or subvert a cus-
lates to it, and her name. tom, then you must pick any of the
four values other than that custom’s
value to hold in the highest regard.

!26
Age Family Tree
Set your character's age by filling in dots Place yourself on the family tree, either
on the aging track. Each dot represents related to someone else, or by adding
about twelve years of life, and will place your mother, father, and yourself.
you as a child (0 or 1), young adult (2 or
3), mature adult (4-6), or elder (7-10).

Playing Close to Home

We can play The Fifth World as an imaginative exercise and nothing more, but
it delivers its greatest rewards to those willing to play close to home. That
begins with creating characters who deal with issues and problems that res-
onate with you on a personal level. Picking things that seem interesting can
lead you to see your character from a cerebral, abstract distance. You might
find it hard to really slip into her skin and see the world as she sees it, think
as she thinks, and feel as she feels. If you invest her with some of your own
problems and struggles, though, you’ll more often find a deep, visceral con-
nection to her.
You can’t tell where her path will lead, though. You can’t always tell who
she’ll meet, and you can never tell what might happen when she meets
them. The tension of play comes from that uncertainty — your willingness to
put what you care about on the table and see what happens. It requires
honesty and vulnerability, but it can reward you with moments of incredible
catharsis and even triumph.
This sort of play does require a commitment from everyone at the table to
see it through. You should all know when you begin that you want to play
this kind of game. The ritual phrase “I don’t see it” plays an important role
in this type of play. Use it as often as you like, especially early in your game,
to establish the right tone for your group, what you want to see, and what
you’d prefer to avoid. It will help all of you find a space you feel comfortable
in together. You can also feel empowered to push for what your character
wants, or what the Other wants, as hard as you like, knowing that if you go
too far one of your fellow players will say “I don’t see it” to rein you in.

!27
Look Who broke your heart?
Do you know where the nightmares
Finally, the character sheet provides a come from?
series of lists that establish your charac-
What do you regret?
ter’s look and reputation. Choose one
item from each of these lists. Whose respect do you feel compelled
to earn?
Introduction Do you consider yourself a good per-
son?
When you and each of your friends have
finished making your characters, take What did you do that you hope no
turns introducing them. When you in- one ever finds out about?
troduce your character, each of your Which secret society do you belong
friends will take turns asking a question to?
about her, and you’ll answer (so each of
Why do so many people look up to
you will have an opportunity to ask a
you?
question about each other player’s char-
acter). Why do so many people hate you?
When your turn comes to ask a question What do you take pride in?
about another player’s character, pick
one from the list below or ask one of
your own if you have a more pressing,
personal, relevant, or provocative one to
ask.

!28
Setup 9. Deal one card from the persons deck,
face down, above each of the places
you have out.
1. Reprise a family whose saga you’ve
already begun, or create a new one. 10. Draw a card from the needs deck.
This represents your family’s current
2. Reprise a character in this family need. Interpret it together to decide
that you’ve played before, or create a what this means for the family right
new one. now. Write it down on the family
3. Decide on the length of the game needs sheet. Each player takes a turn
you want to play. Each round gener- describing how this situation has af-
ally takes about an hour. fected her character specifically.
Short: 2 rounds 11. Each player chooses where she will
begin by placing her card beneath
Average: 3 rounds
that place. You can choose to start in
Long: 4 rounds the same place as another player’s
Epic: 5 rounds character or not.

4. Separate a deck of playing cards into 12. Choose a player to go first and then
a needs deck (the four aces), a per- proceed sunwise (to the left).
sons deck (the kings, queens, jacks,
and jokers), and a places deck (the
remaining 36 cards).
5. Each player takes a card from the
persons deck to represent her char-
acter.
6. If you have a card for home, lay it
out on the table. If not, simply leave
an empty space to represent it.
7. Next, each player draws a card from
the places deck. As always when
pulling from the places deck, you can
call the name of any named place to
pull that card from the deck and
then shuffle the deck. Lay your card
next to home or the other drawn
places card, forming a row of places.
8. Place one moment of awareness on
each place laid out in the row.

!29
Setup Example

Jason, Giuli, and Mike set up a game. Jason takes the Jack of Hearts (The Adventurer) to
represent his character. Giuli takes the Red Joker (The Magician) to represent her charac-
ter. Mike takes the King of Clubs (The Priest) to represent his. They each draw a place from
the places deck. First Jason draws the Abode of the Spirits, then Giuli draws the Ancient
Mystery, and finally Mike draws the Garden. This creates a row of four cards, including
home. They deal out one person card, face down, above each of these places, leaving the
remaining person deck to the left of that new row. Below that, they put the places deck,
and the needs deck below that. They place one moment of awareness on each place card in
the row.
Jason puts his character at Home, as does Mike. Giuli decides to start at the Ancient Mys-
tery that she drew.

!30
Who Goes First?

If you don’t have any other method for choosing the first player, choose the
player with the youngest character. People in the Fifth World consider it a
common trope in stories for young people to cause trouble that their elders
then have to clean up.
If you don’t like that method — or if you can’t decide which player has the
youngest character — the player with the highest card goes first.

1. Jack of Clubs: The Seeker
2. Jack of Hearts: The Adventurer
3. Jack of Diamonds: The Apprentice
4. Jack of Spades: The Scientist
5. Black Joker: The Fool
6. Red Joker: The Magician
7. King of Clubs: The Priest
8. King of Hearts: The Ambassador
9. King of Diamonds: The Guardian
10. King of Spades: The Teacher
11. Queen of Clubs: The Healer
12. Queen of Hearts: The Grandmother
13. Queen of Diamonds: The Huntress
14. Queen of Spades: The Storyteller

!31
Encounters possibilities. If the place has a face-
down person card above it, you can
draw it to have a random encounter.
The game plays out in a series of rounds,
in which you and your friends take turns 4. Assign roles (see below).
setting encounters between your charac-
ter and someone else — the Other. From Random Encounter
encounter to encounter your role will
shift. Sometimes you’ll play your charac- If you’d like to have a random en-
ter, and sometimes you’ll play the Other. counter, draw the person card currently
Sometimes you’ll act as the audience, face-down above the place. Its suit and
and sometimes you’ll answer questions value will suggest something of this per-
and establish the truth about the world son’s character. First, answer:
and the story. Throughout, you’ll use Do you encounter a human person or
ritual phrases to affect the story. an other-than-human person?
If you answer human, answer:
Starting an Encounter
How does she relate to you?
Each time you start an encounter, follow This does not necessarily imply that
these steps: you have a relationship. You could an-
1. Your character’s card lies below a swer, “I’ve never seen her before in my
place card. Your encounter happens life,” establishing that she relates to you
at that place. Begin by using the ritu- as a stranger.
al phrase, “It happened at «place If you answered other-than-human, an-
name».” If you know the name of swer:
the place, use that. If not, the de-
scriptor on the card (like “a natural What form does she take?
wonder” or “the monument”) will Tell us what we see when this person
suffice. comes into view. Do we see a bear, a
2. If we haven’t yet seen an encounter tree, a mountain, or a storm? Or does
at this place in this game, answer the she take a form that we can’t see at all —
place’s introductory question. De- a story, an idea, or an absence, perhaps?
scribe what we see, hear, smell, and
feel here. Help us to see the Fifth Assign Roles
World together. After we've spent a
few moments placing ourselves Once you’ve established the identity of
there, decide who you will encounter the Other, choose someone to play her.
here. Players who have characters present at
that place might get involved in what
3. Choose the Other. You can encounter happens, so you’ll generally want to pick
anyone present at the place with someone else to play the Other if you
you. Other person cards with yours can. If you can’t, perhaps because you’ve
below the place card all represent all come together in the same place, the

!32
character of the person who plays the secondary characters who might appear,
Other might still appear, but won’t play or the audience. The player starting the
an important role in the encounter encounter should make these roles clear
about to happen. at the beginning.
The player starting the encounter will
Playing Your Character
play her own character. The encounter
focuses on her and the Other. Everyone
When your turn comes to start an en-
else might play their own characters as
counter, you'll set one up between your
secondary characters if present, other

Choosing the Other

One of the most important rules in the game lies hidden in that sentence
above: “You can encounter anyone present at the place with you.” People in
the Fifth World see the world as animists. They don’t think that everything
counts as a person, but they do have different criteria for personhood, such
that anything could. In fact, we get closer to the point by speaking of person-
ing as a verb, something that one does rather than something that one is.
To person means to relate. Persons have relationships. They communicate,
trade, give and receive gifts, and participate in ceremonies — in short, they
relate to other persons.
Of course human beings person all the time, as do other-than-human ani-
mals. Plants communicate with scents and the sounds they make. They give
gifts and receive them and participate in rituals. Likewise, some stones im-
press us with their character and personality, drawing us into relationships
with them. So do weather patterns and other complex systems.
Places will speak to you if you can quiet your mind long enough to listen.
They give gifts and receive them and participate in rituals. So when you
choose a person present with you, you could choose the place itself.
If your temper has ever gotten the better of you, if you’ve ever struggled
with your inner demons, if you’ve ever fallen under a story’s spell, if you’ve
ever felt overwhelmed by love, then you’ve experienced first-hand how you
can have a relationship with parts of yourself. You bring them with you, so
you can always find them present at the place with you. You can encounter
your fear, your depression, your love, the story that drives you, your inner
demons, or your own heart.

!33
character and someone else — the Other. they can to fulfill their needs. Take that
We'll focus on this encounter between feeling as a warning, and respond by
the two of you, with you playing your digging deeper into your character to
own character and another player of find your connection to her.
your choice playing the Other. We know
at least something about each of you, Playing the Other
and you both have needs that drive you.
Every time you encounter another per- When you play the Other, begin by draw-
son, the potential exists that she might ing a card from the needs deck. This will
change you, or you might change her, or give you a broad category for the need
both. What will happen with this one? driving the Other. You might only have
We play to find out. some basic facts about the person you
play, but use those facts to zero in on
When you play your own character, you
something more specific. For example, if
have the goal of making her seem real.
the Other takes the form of a bear and
Try to get into her skin, see the world as
you draw diamonds, you might conclude
she would see it, think as she would
that the bear wants food. Make sure you
think, and feel as she would feel. She
have the Other's need clear in your
might make mistakes, she might not
mind, and then introduce her as the
know what you know, and her feelings,
main character would see her (or experi-
prejudices, ignorance, temper, hope, de-
ence her, in the case of some less-corpo-
spair, naïveté, innocence, cruelty, or any-
real persons) as she acts on that need.
thing else might get the better of her,
but she wants to succeed. If you find Whenever you play a character other
yourself hoping that she fails, you might than your own, you have the goal of
have stayed behind playing the audience making her seem real. Take everything
instead of playing your character. Good we know about her (which sometimes
encounters come from both the primary might not give you very much at all) and
character and the Other trying as best portray her as a real person. However,

Strange Needs

If it falls to you to play a bear, drawing diamonds gives you a clear cue, but
what about hearts, or spades? What kind of mental needs does a bear have?
These less obvious combinations will challenge you to dig deeper into an an-
imist view of the world, but you’ll find good answers even for what might
seem at first like the most unlikely combinations. Visit the Fifth World web-
site, and https://thefifthworld.com/rpg/encounter/roles/other in particular,
for help and guidance.

!34
you cannot make decisions for her. The to take over her character because you
skill in playing the Other (or aany sec- choose to encounter her.
ondary character that doesn't belong to When someone chooses to encounter
you) lies in portraying a character while your character, you still draw a card
stopping short of making any decisions from the needs deck. This represents
for her. You can tell us about things she your present need. We might have just
says and does, so long as they follow seen you in an encounter focused on
from what we already know and do not solving a mystery, learning about a place,
constitute a substantive decision. If you or talking to someone, but needs can
reach the point where she must make a shift quickly. If you draw clubs, perhaps
decision one way or another, someone the spiritual ramifications of recent
needs to ask a question or make an ap- events suddenly weighs on you. If you
peal. draw hearts, perhaps you have a sudden
The Other's need counts as something rush of emotion that you find difficult to
you know about her. You chose the contain. If you draw diamonds, perhaps
specifics of it, but the cards pointed you you suddenly become hungry or thirsty
in one direction or another. Even if the or tired. If you draw spades, perhaps
Other wants to keep her need a secret your efforts to put it all together and
for some reason, a perceptive person understand what has happened leaves
might see through the charade. you feeling lost and confused. You can
try to connect the card you draw to the
If other players spend awareness to ask
existing narrative, but if you find it diffi-
questions, you must answer truthfully.
cult, remember that things can change
Not all questions will speak directly to
quickly. Don't feel like you can't intro-
the need you chose, but if it does, an-
duce a sudden shift.
swer the question truthfully. Don't wor-
ry about creating a puzzle or making Unlike playing other characters,
sure that your friends can't guess too you can make decisions for your own
easily which card you drew. Even when character, even as the Other.
you try to communicate it as clearly as
possible, you'll find it sometimes difficult Playing a Secondary Character
to do so. You don't need to try to make
it harder. If an encounter occurs with your charac-
ter present, you might play a role in it as
Encountering Other Main Characters a secondary character. She remains your
character, and so you can make deci-
You can encounter other players' charac- sions for her, but remember that the en-
ters as the Other. None of the above counter focuses on the character played
changes, but you do have a few more by the person who started it and the
restrictions. Your card and hers must Other. You only play a supporting role in
both appear at the same place, per the this. Don't take up too much time or
normal rules. She must play her own space. You can help, though, by spending
character as the Other. No one else gets your own awareness on other characters'

!35
behalf. You can also ask questions if you When you play the audience, your goal
appear in an encounter, even as a sec- lies in making the story interesting. Peo-
ondary character. ple playing their own characters can
change the story by telling us what they
You might also play some other charac-
say and do. People playing other charac-
ter. These characters don't play a central
ters can influence the story by how they
role in the encounter, either, so they
portray those characters, but ultimately
should take up even less time and space
those characters will not make any
than your own character in this role,
meaningful decisions unless we
though they may still perform an impor-
spend awareness to ask a question or
tant function in the encounter. As when
we make an appeal. As the audience, you
you play the Other, your goal lies in tak-
have a means of introducing new ele-
ing what we know about her and por-
ments much more easily: by asking a
traying her like a real person. You can-
leading question.
not make decisions for her, but you
should portray her as we know her as As audience, you can ask any question at
best you can. any time. Here you really have an oppor-
tunity to focus on asking questions and
Playing the Audience building on the answers, and those ques-
tions can establish new elements in the
Sometimes you won’t have any charac- encounter. If you ask, “How did you lose
ters in an encounter. Nonetheless, you’ll your footing?” the fact that the main
play an important part in it — as the au- character lost her footing becomes es-
dience. tablished, and she gets to tell us how it
happened, and then what she does next.

Mana

The distinction between portraying and making decisions for a secondary char-
acter can, at times, seem slippery. Consider the Polynesian concept of mana,
misunderstood by Victorian anthropologists as a sort of mystical force (and
used in many games with that understanding), but really more concerned
with the amazing ability that we have to affect the world around us. When
playing secondary characters, you can tell us what they say and do so long
as their words and actions remain unmanaful. Manaful words and actions —
those that will really change things — can’t come from your decision alone.
The main characters have mana — in fact, that mana makes them the main
characters of this story — but secondary characters only have as much mana
as we can invest in them by spending awareness.

!36
Don’t simply tell us about things that doesn't seem like the Fifth World. You'll
happen as the audience, though. By ask- need to make good use of this ritual
ing a question, even a leading one, you phrase to pursue the first agenda, to see
take authorship of one part of the event the Fifth World together.
but leave the other part for the other
players in the encounter. This split plays
a key role in keeping the story wild.
You should keep the agenda and princi-
ples in mind throughout the game, but
they become especially important when
you play the audience. Ask questions that
further the agenda and follow the prin-
ciples.

Ritual Phrases
During an encounter you will use cer-
tain ritual phrases to make things hap-
pen. They have restrictions on when and
under what conditions you can use
them.

“I don't see it.”

Who can use it: Anyone
When you can use it: Any time. This rit-
ual phrase differs from the others in that
anyone can use it at any time, even out-
side of encounters or before the regular
game begins during family and character
creation.
What it does: The last thing that some-
one said didn't happen. They can try
again by changing something about it or
approaching it differently. Everyone at
the table should feel free to use this rit-
ual phrase liberally. Particularly early in
a game this ritual phrase can help a
group find a comfortable space to play
together. Use it to veto elements that
make the story too dark, too post-apoca-
lyptic, too silly, or anything else that

!37
“It happened at «place name».” present in the encounter can help by
spending awareness on her behalf, which
Who can use it: Varies. would allow her to accomplish the thing
she described. Provide some description
When you can use it: Varies.
of how you provide help.
What it does: Outside of an encounter,
the player who has the next turn to start “…very difficult.”
an encounter says “It happened at
«place name»” to start the encounter. Who can use it: Anyone except the per-
son playing the main character and the
During an encounter, any player can re-
person who just said “That sounds diffi-
peat “It happened at «place name».” If
cult.”
you do so, you must remain silent until
the encounter ends. You cannot con- When you can use it: In response to the
tribute anything further to it. When a ritual phrase, “That sounds difficult.”
second player confirms that the en- What it does: In order to do the thing
counter has ended by repeating the ritu- the person playing the main character
al phrase a third time, the encounter described, she must spend another mo-
ends. ment of awareness.
Complete the ritual phrase with the Effectively this increases the cost to two
name of the place where it happens. If moments of awareness, but the player
you’ve learned the place’s true name, use pays each one separately, and all the
that. If you haven’t learned it yet, the rules about spending a moment of
card descriptor (e.g., the Magician’s awareness (like helping) apply to each
Hut or Solitude) will suffice. one separately.
“That sounds difficult.” “That sounds dangerous.”
Who can use it: Anyone except the per- Who can use it: Anyone except the per-
son playing the main character. son playing the main character.
When you can use it: In response to the When you can use it: In response to the
person playing the main character de- person playing the main character de-
scribing her character doing something scribing her character doing something
difficult. dangerous.
What it does: In order to do the thing What it does: In order to do the thing
she described, the person playing the she described, the person playing the
main character must spend a moment main character risks a scar.
of awareness. If she cannot, then she
cannot do the thing she said and must When you risk a scar, you can either
change it. spend a moment of awareness to avoid
harm or take the scar. If you don’t have
As always when spending a moment of
awareness, someone playing a character

!38
any awareness left, you have no choice If she guessed correctly, nothing hap-
but to take the scar. pens — she doesn’t take a scar and
doesn’t have to spend awareness.
When you take a scar, cross off one of
the slots for awareness on your charac- If she guessed incorrectly, she risks
ter sheet. You cannot fill this slot, mean- another scar (so she must either
ing that your maximum capacity for spend awareness or take a scar) and
awareness has dropped by one. You lose then she must make the same choice
any awareness that you might have had again.
in that slot. Example
You can run out of awareness, but if Giuli describes her character, Narluga, div-
your capacity for awareness drops to ing into the ocean to spear a whale. Wayne
zero, your character loses her ability to says, “That sounds dangerous,” so Giuli pays
affect the world any further — usually a point of awareness to avoid the scar.
meaning she has died. Mike says, “…very dangerous.” To avoid los-
ing more awareness, Giuli decides to gam-
“…very dangerous.”
ble. She guesses black, but she pulls hearts.
She pays a second point of awareness to
Who can use it: Anyone except the per-
avoid the scar. Now she’s run out of
son playing the main character and the
awareness, and realizing that she might get
person who just said “That sounds dan-
pulled quickly into a terrible escalation, she
gerous.”
decides to risk the scar to end it there. Un-
When you can use it: In response to the fortunately, she has no awareness left, so
ritual phrase, “That sounds dangerous.” she must take the scar, reducing her max-
What it does: In order to do the thing imum capacity to four awareness instead
the person playing the main character of five. “Well, yeah,” Giuli says, “I guess div-
described, she must make a choice. Ei- ing into the ocean to spear a whale could
ther she can risk a second scar, or she get you into some trouble, huh?”
can guess either black or red and then This can lead to drawing from the needs
draw a card from the needs deck. deck while the person playing the Other
has one of the needs cards. If this hap-
pens, that player should remember

Healing Scars

When you reprise a character you’ve played before in a saga game, you can
heal one scar from any other character that you’ve played before. That
means that when you let a character rest for a game, she’ll recover from a
scar. Characters with five scars cannot heal any of them.

!39
which card she has and shuffle it into a decision. Responding to this ritual
the needs deck for this. Then, when you phrase provides an exception to the rule
have resolved the ritual phrase, she can that the person playing the Other cannot
take the card back out again. Always pull make decisions for her, if the person
from the needs deck with all four cards playing the main character guesses in-
in it. correctly and the Other must make that
decision for the chosen setback to occur.
“I appeal to [her] [spirit/heart/
The setbacks that you can choose in-
body/mind].” clude:
Offended: You offend someone, which
Who can use it: The person playing the
could make future encounters diffi-
main character.
cult (e.g., other players should feel
When you can use it: During an en- free to use the ritual phrase, “That
counter sounds difficult” more frequently
What it does: Complete the ritual phrase than usual and for things that nor-
with a pronoun referring to the Other mally wouldn’t seem difficult at all).
and your guess as to the Other’s need: Tasked: Someone demands you do
whether she has a spiritual need (clubs; something for her. You’ll offend her if
“I appeal to her spirit.”), an emotional you don’t do it.
need (hearts; “I appeal to her heart.”),
Strained: You must pay one moment
a physical need (diamonds; “I appeal to
of awareness, if you have any.
her body.”), or a mental need (spades; “I
appeal to her mind.”). Describe how you Imperiled: The situation becomes
do this. The other players should ask you dangerous. Another player could esca-
if you forget. late the situation further by saying “…
very dangerous.”
If you guess the Other’s need correctly,
you can convince her to take solid action Lost: You get lost. When the en-
— to do something or say something that counter ends, draw a new place ran-
you want her to do or say. You have sat- domly from the place deck and go
isfied her need, and she will give you there. You cannot use your normally-
what you need in return. available option to call out the name
of a named place when you draw
If you guess the right color but not the
from the place deck when you get
right suit exactly (e.g., you appeal to her
lost.
body, but she actually had emotional
needs — hearts instead of diamonds, but
both red suits), you can spend a moment Asking Questions
of awareness to succeed anyway.
When the story begins, we have no idea
If you guess incorrectly, the person play- where it will take us. We have total
ing the Other selects a setback that oc- freedom, but only because we know
curs. This can involve the Other making nothing. As we learn what happens, that

!40
freedom diminishes and the story takes Compassion: What pains you?
shape. By the time we finish, we have Fairness: What do you deserve?
lost all of the freedom we began with,
and in exchange we have learned the Loyalty: Where do your loyalties lie?
story fully. We call this hunting the wild Honor: What do they think of you?
story. Each track or sign brings you clos-
Purity: What kind of pollution taints
er to the story. We can rush through it
you?
too quickly and miss that experience of
freedom and the tension of not knowing Your family's customs offer a resource to
that comes with it. We defer answers to ask questions from values that you don't
avoid that. If we don’t learn anything, hold as highly yourself. Mark an un-
though, we never find the story. We ask marked custom on your family sheet to
questions and build on the answers to ask the question associated with its val-
avoid that. The challenge lies in learning ue. To unmark a marked custom, go to
how to ask questions that will close in home and spend awareness to make an
on the story, but not too quickly, and offering to the ancestor associated with
leave it enough space to remain wild. the custom.
While we constantly ask questions in If you’ve learned the true name of a
play, the truth of those answers remains place, that knowledge will unlock a new
negotiable until we spend awareness to question that you can add to your list
ask one of a specific set of questions. while there. Learning the names of
These questions carry more weight than places will expand the questions you can
the others. Their answers establish ask, which will make it easier for you to
truths in our story and move us closer to learn things.
discovering its true form.
Answering Questions
When your character appears in an en-
counter, either as the main character or
When you ask a question, you ask it
as a secondary character, you can spend
about a character in the story. If you ask
awareness to ask any of the following
the person playing the Other, she’ll try to
questions:
use the answer to hint at the Other’s
What do you wish I would do? need, but she’ll have to answer the ques-
How do you really feel? tion honestly, which might make that
difficult or even impossible. Not every
What have I overlooked? question will really relate to every need,
What do you intend to do? after all.
Additionally, the value that your charac- When you play the Other or a secondary
ter holds in the highest regard allows character other than your own and an-
you to add an additional question to this other player spends awareness to ask
list: you one of these questions, you can
make a decision for that character
(which, you’ll recall, you normally can’t).

!41
Example then reshuffle the deck, rather than
pulling the top card from the deck.
Giuli plays Narluga. She wants to convince
Place it out in the row with the oth-
a traveling wizard at the festival named
er places and put your character’s
Mandrake to give hen some peppermint.
card below it to indicate that you’ve
Agreeing to the deal would count as a deci-
gone there.
sion, so Wayne, playing Mandrake, can’t
make that decision for her. Giuli spends a 2. If the person whose encounter just
point of awareness to ask, “What do you ended moved, any other players with
wish I would do?” Wayne answers, “Become a character in the place she just left
my apprentice, so I can train you as a wiz- can choose to move with her to her
ard.” That establishes what Mandrake new location.
wants, so when Giuli offers hens promise to 3. Anyone who moves her character
come to Montreal and train under her, can bring one secondary character
Wayne just portrays what we already know not played by anyone at the table
about Mandrake by giving hen the pepper- with her when she moves.
mint in exchange for that promise.
4. If cards remain in the persons deck,
Ending an Encounter deal out one face-down above any
place that no longer has one, begin-
After an appeal, successful or not, an en- ning at home and moving down the
counter will usually reach a conclusion row.
quickly, though not always. In other en- 5. Place one moment of awareness on
counters you may not make any appeal each place. If the place has an ances-
at all. Some encounters will simply give tor, add two.
you the opportunity to show your char-
At the end of each round, take a short
acter doing something or having a con-
break before starting the next one. When
versation with someone. Those encoun-
you reach the end of the last round, go
ters can matter just as much as one that
to the endgame.
culminates in an exciting appeal.
The encounter ends once two people
have invoked the ritual phrase, “It hap-
pened at «place name».” Once that hap-
Endgame
pens, you have a few things to take care When you finish the final round of en-
of before the next player starts the next counters, we have a few ceremonies to
encounter. go through to end the game.
1. Would you like to move to a new
place? You can do so now. You can Check Family Needs
move to any place currently out on
the table, or draw a new place from Go through each of the needs on the
the places deck. As usual, you can call family needs sheet. For each one, ask,
out the name of a named place to have we satisfied this need, or does it
find it in the deck and draw it, and remain?

!42
Character Questions cite lists of names, and in reciting them
walk the paths in their mind and feel
Start with the player who started the themselves there, immersed in those sto-
first encounter. Going sunwise (to the ries. You don’t name places. They already
left), each other player says something have names. You discover them.
she wonders about that player’s charac- When you try to discover a place’s name,
ter. Then, go to the next player and do ask:
the same thing, until each player has had
What story does this place tell in its
a chance to say something they wonder
geology?
about each other player’s character.
What story does this place tell in its
You might write these down on your
ancient past?
character sheet and use them as ques-
tions to explore in your next game, or What story does this place tell in the
simply leave them unanswered. Fifth World?
What story does this place tell to our
Discovering the Name family?
of a Place Finally, answer: What name evokes all of
these stories? If you can answer that
Do you have a place on the table that question, then you have discovered the
played an important part in the game place’s true name. Your family has be-
you just finished, or that you learned a come a little more rooted in their land.
lot about, but you don’t yet know its
name? If so, you have an opportunity If not, don’t worry. Discovering a place’s
to discover its name now. true name takes a lot of subtlety and pa-
tience. Keep at it. You won’t learn your
Every place tells a story. You can hear it land in a single game or even a single
if you pay attention. It tells its story in generation, but the work goes ever on.
the way that things happen there, the
way the light falls, the way the air
moves, the way animals feel there, and
the way plants grow. We sometimes Sagas
have difficulty separating our own con-
A single game can provide an excellent
cerns from the story that a place tells
night’s entertainment, but you can also
through us. The true name of a place
play an ongoing saga to see your family
condenses that story down, like carbon
change and grow through generations.
pressed into diamond. It gestures to the
In a saga, you and your friends meet on
whole story with just a few syllables. To
a regular basis (weekly, biweekly, month-
those who know the place, the name
ly — whatever suits your schedule) to
evokes its spirit, its character, its es-
reprise your characters (or add new
sence. For many people in the Fifth
ones) and play a series of games with
World, these names evoke such power
the same family.
and presence that they might simply re-

!43
In a saga, each game reveals the story of Welcome to the Fifth World
your characters, but your characters’
stories become part of the larger, inter- Conditions
generational saga of your family Complete the first game in your family’s
dwelling in their land. You’ll play other saga.
characters as your first one grows up, Unlocks
grows old, and eventually dies. At the The Knowledge bundle
start of each game you have the option
to reprise a character you’ve played be- Getting Things Done
fore or start a new one, so you can have
multiple characters at the same time, Conditions
too. You’ll only play one character in a Complete a game in which all of the
game, but you could switch from game players’ characters help during a single
to game. encounter.
Unlocks
Milestones The Endeavors bundle

Milestones mark events in your family’s
The Hunt Begins
story. Some of them will change the
rules of your saga by unlocking new Requires
bundles. Others will mark your family’s Welcome to the Fifth World
achievements and accomplishments. Conditions
Complete a game in which someone has
an encounter with an other-than-human

Missing Games

Roleplaying games require significant blocks of time. Even a short game can
take as long as watching a movie. Hopefully you find it time well-spent with
friends, but that doesn’t make it any less significant an investment.
To play a Fifth World saga you don’t need a group of friends who can com-
mit to perfect attendance. In every game we focus on some members of the
family (the characters of the people present), while other members of the
family fade into the background. If you can’t make it to game night, your
character simply joins them as one of the family members that tonight’s sto-
ry doesn’t focus on. When you return next time, you can pick right up again
without a problem.

!44
animal and accomplishes something very
difficult and very dangerous.
Unlocks
The Hunt bundle

The Plot Thickens
Conditions
Complete a game in which someone uses
an appeal to get the Other to confess
what she did.
Unlocks
The Mystery bundle

Wanderlust
Conditions
At the end of the game have at least
twice as many places on the table as
players.
Unlocks
The Journey bundle

Turning the Wheel
Requires
Getting Things Done, The Hunt Begins, The
Plot Thickens, and Wanderlust
Conditions
Members of your family must finish at
least one endeavor, succeed on at least
one hunt, solve at least one mystery, and
return from at least one journey.
Unlocks
The Crisis bundle

!45
When you add a Knowledge sheet to a
Bundle character (either because you've created
Knowledge a new character or because you just un-
locked the Knowledge bundle and
haven't played the character with the
To people in the Fifth World knowledge
new rules yet), you can write down four
about other people matters most:
things you know for each dot on your
knowledge in the sense of “I know that
aging track.
person.”
When you play with the Knowledge Learning
bundle, each player has a Knowledge
sheet with space for twelve people. This You can write down something as
represents the limit on the number of knowledge when it becomes established
people you can know. If you already as fact in the game. Mostly that
know twelve people and want to get to requires asking questions. Conclusions or
know a thirteenth, you'll need to choose judgments that you draw from the an-
one of the people you already know and swers to questions don't count as
erase them from your sheet to make knowledge, though. Neither does any-
room. thing situational that could change in a
You can only get to know a person if you day or two. It must tell you something
know her name. about that person that will remain true
for at least some time to come.
For each of these persons, you have eight
slots — two for each suit. These reflect You can also use a successful appeal to
different areas of knowledge: knowing get to know a person. Learn something
about her spirit, knowing her emotions, about the domain of that person's life
knowing about her physical body, and that matches the suit of her need. For
knowing her mind. If you learn one example, a person with spiritual needs
thing for each suit you know her. When can reveal something to you about her
you encounter someone that you know, spirit, and a person with emotional
reveal a card from the needs deck. That needs can reveal something to you about
eliminates one possibility, making it eas- her emotions.
ier for you to guess her need. When your character appears in an en-
If you learn a second thing about her for counter and someone else learns some-
each suit, then you know her well. When thing, you can spend awareness to learn
you encounter someone that you know it, too.
well, reveal two cards from the needs
deck, making it even easier to guess her Teaching
need. You still might get it wrong,
though, since occasionally even the peo- If one player’s character encounters an-
ple you know best of all can surprise other and makes a successful appeal, she
you. can teach one piece of knowledge for
each moment of awareness she spends.

!46
The other character can then learn those below the first column of things you’ve
pieces of knowledge by spending a mo- learned about her. She’ll give you a mo-
ment of awareness for each one. ment of awareness. If you know her
well, you can mark the circle below the
Getting Help second column of things you know
about her to gain her help a second
People that you know can help you. If time.
she doesn’t belong to any player and ap- If you know another player’s character
pears in an encounter with you, describe you can use this benefit when
how she helps and then mark the circle you help her. That means that after

Learning Strategies

You might notice that the four basic questions you get to ask don’t usually
get you the answers you need to get to know someone. They give you hints
about the Other’s present need, which will help you make a successful ap-
peal, but since her need can change from one encounter to the next it
doesn’t tell you something that will remain true for at least some time to
come. They can help you succeed on an appeal, but that route means that
you’ll need a whole encounter to learn a single thing, so it will take four
whole encounters to get to know someone (and probably more, since you
probably won’t always get the suit you need).
Your value’s question provides a much better chance of learning something,
but you only have one that you can ask freely. Don’t forget that you can
mark off family customs to ask other value questions. If your family has a
good selection, you could ask several value questions and potentially get to
know someone quickly. Your family customs only provide those extra ques-
tions as a shared resource, though, so you can’t do that too often, and doing
so diminishes everyone else’s ability to do so.
The questions that you unlock by learning the true names of places generally
work better for gaining knowledge, so if you want to gain knowledge you
should start by learning the stories of places. That will help you learn names
at the end of each session, which will unlock better questions for getting to
know people.
Gaining knowledge snowballs. You’ll need to aim carefully and find some
clever ways in to gain knowledge early in your saga, but as you do so the
knowledge you gain will make it easier to gain more.

!47
spending awareness on her behalf, you'll
gain awareness, meaning that you can Bundle
effectively help her for free (so long as
you have the awareness to spend to be-
Endeavors
gin with). If you know her well, you can Endeavors allow you to complete long-
do this twice per game. term or community efforts, like pre-
paring for a festival, building a bridge or
Changes to Setup a new village, conducting research, or
performing a ritual.
The knowledge bundle adds a new op-
tion to setup: when you choose cards for When you want to start an endeavor,
your characters (step #5), each player first decide its appropriate scale (other
can spend a moment of awareness to players should remember to use “I don’t
take a card for a person that she knows see it” if the scale seems inappropriate
something about. This allows her to for the intended effect).
choose which card represents that per- The scale determines the amount of la-
son and add her to the game from the bor involved to complete it. Divide this
beginning. Having already spent a mo- among the four suits as spiritual
ment of awareness before the first en- labor, emotional labor, physical labor,
counter, she begins play with one less and mental labor.
moment of awareness than she would
normally have.

Getting to Know Places

Places often person, so you can get to know them. The restriction that you
must know a person’s name to get to know them means that you can only
get to know a place after you’ve learned its true name. Afterwards, getting
to know a place works just like getting to know anyone else.
Getting to know a place comes with an additional reward: the question that
you unlocked by learning that place’s name gets added to your list of ques-
tions, allowing you to spend awareness to ask it anywhere, just as you
would the four base questions or your value’s question.
When your character dies, she can become the ancestor connecting your
family to one place that she knew well if it doesn’t already have one.

!48
Scale Labor Involved fruit of your endeavors home, but sitting
around at home won’t bring them any
Small 3
closer to completion.
Medium 5

Large 7
Bundle
Massive 9

Enormous 11
Hunt
Example This bundle requires the Knowledge bundle.

Wayne’s character Mimus wants to prepare People in the Fifth World hunt animals
a new play for the upcoming festival, wo- that provide them with food and the
ven with subtle themes that will help solve materials they need for clothing and
many of the family’s ongoing problems. Just shelter. They possess incredible skill, and
preparing a play would probably only count for them such hunts make up a regular
as a small endeavor, but the added subtlety part of everyday life. Your character can
makes it a medium one, so it will take five provide for her needs, including hunting,
labor. Wayne decides it will take at least without any particular effort or focus.
one of each (spiritual labor to have a clear The Hunt bundle allows you to go on a
understanding of what he wants to achieve different sort of hunt, the hunts that
and how to do it, emotional labor to give you'll tell your children and grandchil-
the play the pathos it needs, physical labor dren about, hunts for powerful, danger-
for making props and costumes and setting ous, or spectacular prey.
up the stage, and mental labor to figure out
plot, characters, and scene progression). He Changes to Setup
adds one more emotional labor, as he
wants it to really affect his audience, so his After each player has taken a card from
play will require one spiritual labor, two the persons deck to represent her char-
emotional labor, one physical labor, and acter, players can declare any number of
one mental labor. hunts. For each one, choose a card from
the persons deck to represent your prey.
When you start an encounter, you can Set that card aside and place a trail
describe how you fulfill one labor from marker on it. This marker represents the
an endeavor that matches the suit of the trail that the prey left behind. If you
place (e.g., spiritual labor at clubs, emo- have more than one hunt in a game,
tional labor at hearts, physical labor at you'll need trail markers that you can
diamonds, or mental labor at spades). distinguish for each quarry.
Other players might consider it difficult
or dangerous, depending on what it in- If you have a hunt from a previous game
volves. If you do it, mark one labor done that you'd like to pick up, draw the per-
for the endeavor. Home doesn’t have a son card for the prey from the persons
suit, and so you cannot work on your deck and set it aside, find the place card
endeavors there. You might bring the where you last found its trail and add it

!49
to the row of places in play, and put the ters with you can come with you if they
trail marker on that card. wish, and each of you can bring one
other character not controlled by anoth-
Picking Up the Trail er player if you wish. Then draw a card
from the needs deck. If it matches the
When you start an encounter and a trail suit of that place, you've found your
marker remains on your prey, you can prey. Add her card to that place with
look for the trail before choosing the you and remove the trail marker from
Other. Draw a card from the needs deck. the game.
If you draw the suit of that place, you
pick up the trail. Move the trail marker Resolution
to that place.
The hunt resolves in an encounter with
Tracking the prey, but only when you know your
prey. If you don't know your prey yet,
While at the place with the trail marker, you might still encounter her but it will
you can encounter your prey in the form not reach a conclusive end. She escapes
of the tracks and signs she left behind. If and the hunt goes on.
you succeed on an appeal, draw a card While the term “hunt” might seem to
from the places deck (you cannot call imply that the final encounter will end
the name of a place instead in this in- in death, and many do, it doesn’t have
stance) and add it to the row. You move to. You might hunt someone down to
to that place, any other players' charac- get them to admit to their wrongdoing,

Knowledge & Danger

Finding your prey before you’ve had a chance to get to know her can put
you in significant danger. You don’t know her, so you can’t finish the hunt
yet, but the physical presence of a dangerous creature provides ample reason
for other players to call the situation very dangerous, even at the very be-
ginning of the encounter before you do anything at all. You might still need
to encounter her to learn more about her, but doing so could involve signifi-
cant risk. When that happens, you’ll want to have hunting companions who
can help you, as you may find yourself spending awareness much faster than
you can gather it.
Tracking provides a much safer way to get to know your prey before you
come face-to-face with her, but each track and sign leads you closer to that
moment, and you never know when it might happen.

!50
to answer a question, or even to bring the color of the Other's card (red or
them home. You might hunt an animal black). If you encounter your home or
to drive it away or give it something. someone implied by your home (like
your family as a group) choose either red
Continuing the Hunt or black, as you like.

If the game ends with trail markers on Verifying Clues
places, you can write down the place on
the hunt sheet and pick up the trail next Between encounters any player can
time (see Changes to Setup above). You spend a moment of awareness to verify a
can record this information on an index clue. Draw a card from the needs deck. If
card or a scrap of paper, or use our hunt it matches the color of the person who
sheets. gave you the clue, mark it as true. If it
doesn't match, mark it as false.

Bundle Solving the Mystery
Mystery When you have verified three clues, you
can encounter the mystery itself. On a
Throughout the game we ask questions successful appeal, you can spend aware-
and build on the answers, but when it ness to ask the mystery's question as if it
comes to questions that will give us reli- appeared on your list. Write down the
able answers we have a much more lim- answer on the mystery sheet.
ited set to choose from. Mysteries allow
you to spend awareness to ask any ques-
tion and receive a reliable answer. Bundle

Declaring a Mystery Journey
At any time you can declare that you The Fifth World focuses on your family
want to solve a mystery. Take a mystery dwelling in their land, but sometimes
sheet and write a question on it. That you do want to get away from home and
becomes a mystery that you or any oth- see other places. Travel in the Fifth
er player can try to solve. World has become slower and more of
an adventure, but it certainly hasn't be-
Gathering Clues come unusual. Bards and traders journey
the length and breadth of continents,
When an encounter ends in a successful and some bold adventurers even circle
appeal, you can gather a clue. The person the globe. With the Journey bundle you
playing the Other provides you with a can leave your family's territory and set
statement about the mystery that may off on expeditions to distant lands.
lead to answering the question. Write it
down on the mystery sheet and mark

!51
Starting a Journey When you start an encounter while on a
journey, reveal the next card from the
To begin a journey, you’ll need a travel journey deck and read its matching en-
deck. The travel deck consists of 36 cards try. If you draw a black card, follow its
(2-10 for each of the four suits). Use a instructions and draw another card. Red
separate deck from the one used for cards provide encounters along the way.
your needs, persons, and places decks Play through the encounter per the
(journeys require two decks of playing normal rules.
cards, rather than one). The ace of hearts If you set an easy pace, then each time
from this second deck becomes the des- you draw from the journey deck one
tination card. member of your party regains a moment
Set aside the destination card and shuffle of awareness.
the travel deck. Take the destination If you set a hard pace, then each time
card and two cards from the travel deck you draw from the journey deck one
and shuffle them together. This forms member of your party must spend a
the start of your journey deck. Each card moment of awareness.
in the journey deck represents one day
of travel on your journey. How many Gathering Awareness
days do you expect your journey to take?
Draw that many cards from the travel on a Journey
deck, face-down.
Life comes with greater difficulty away
If you want to set an easy pace, for every from home, and you won’t find as many
set of four cards, draw another card chances to gather awareness on the
from the travel deck. road. You can always choose to stop and
If you want to set a hard pace, for every rest. When you start an encounter you
set of four cards put one back on the can choose to stop to rest instead of
travel deck. pushing on. If you do, draw from
the travel deck (not the journey deck).
Place these cards on top of your journey
deck. If you draw a black card, follow the in-
structions for that card. You then gather
Going on the Journey awareness equal to the card’s value,
which you can distribute amongst your
Set the journey deck beside the places party if you can come to a consensus on
deck, separate from the row of places in how to divide it. If you cannot, then no
your family territory. Leave room for a one gains awareness. You may then
discard pile. choose to continue the journey or take
another day of rest.
Everyone going on the journey places
their cards in a column below the jour- If you draw a red card, you have the en-
ney deck like you would under a place. counter stated for that card. If you suc-
ceed on your appeal, you gather aware-

!52
ness equal to the card’s value as you Reaching Your Destination
would for a black card.
A card that matches the suit and value When you draw the destination card,
of a place in play reminds you of home, you reach your destination. What hap-
giving you the opportunity to gather pens next depends on why you under-
awareness from that place as if you took this journey. From here you can
found yourself suddenly there. continue journeying, or go home (which
will require another journey, usually of
equal length).

How long does a journey take?

If you prefer to make broad estimates, by all means do so. If you think it will
take “about a week,” take seven cards.
If you prefer to get a little more precise than that, people in the Fifth World
can usually cover 25 miles in a day of walking. If she has an incredible rela-
tionship with an animal that will let her ride her, such a mount can run
much more quickly, but only over relatively short distances. They walk at
roughly the same pace, so you won’t cover any greater distance on average.
Canoeing will usually come out to about the same average, too. That means
you can probably cover about 100 miles every four days, so you could find
the distance you want to cover, divide the miles by 100, and use four times
that number for the number of days it will take. For example, in Children of
Wormwood, Robin and her family travel from Pittsburgh to Three Myland, a
distance of 230 miles, which takes ten days.
If you want to get even more precise, apply Naismith's Rule: it takes about
an hour to cover three miles (five kilometers), or to go up 2,000 feet (600
meters). When you have the number of hours your journey will take, divide
by eight to get the number of days.
Don’t try to cover more than a month (about 750 miles, approximately the
distance from New York to Chicago) in a single journey. Instead, break the
journey up into stages, with intermediate destinations along the way. To
cross the United States, you might journey from the ruins of New York to
the ruins of Chicago in the first journey, then from Chicago to the old Pine
Ridge Reservation, then to the ruins of Salt Lake City, and finally from there
to San Francisco Bay, taking you across a continent in four journeys. It will
take eight to go there and back again.

!53
Travel Deck (Part One)

Card Instructions

2 Clubs Ask a fellow traveler what she believes about the spirits.

3 Clubs Share a belief you have about the spirits with another traveler.

4 Clubs Pose a moral dilemma to a fellow traveler.

5 Clubs Ask a fellow traveler about her romantic relationships.

6 Clubs Share how you feel with another traveler.

7 Clubs Tell a fellow traveler about your romantic relationships.

8 Clubs Ask a fellow traveler a philosophical question.

9 Clubs Tell a fellow traveler about something you know.

10 Clubs Pose a riddle or tell a joke.

2 Hearts You encounter scouts who warn you against trespassing in their territory.

3 Hearts You encounter a magician who says she must ritually purify you before you proceed.

4 Hearts You encounter emissaries from a family that does not trust you.

5 Hearts You encounter a scout who offers to lead you through his family's territory.

6 Hearts You encounter a family that welcomes you to stay the night with them.

7 Hearts You encounter a young man who challenges you to a friendly contest.

8 Hearts You encounter a merchant.

9 Hearts You encounter a traveling bard.

10 Hearts You encounter a wanderer.

!54
Travel Deck (Part Two)

Card Instructions

2 Diamonds You encounter a difficult path.

3 Diamonds You encounter a dangerous path.

4 Diamonds You encounter a challenging climb.

5 Diamonds You encounter a storm.

6 Diamonds You encounter a flood.

7 Diamonds You encounter intense heat.

8 Diamonds You encounter a dangerous predator.

9 Diamonds You encounter a majestic creature.

10 Diamonds You encounter a territorial beast.

2 Spades Briefly describe the animal tracks you encounter.

3 Spades Briefly describe the bird songs you hear.

4 Spades Briefly describe the animal you glimpse.

5 Spades Briefly describe the foliage surrounding you.

6 Spades Briefly describe the plants you smell.

7 Spades Briefly describe the tree that amazed you.

8 Spades Briefly describe the lay of the land around you.

9 Spades Briefly describe the sky above you.

10 Spades Briefly describe the ruins you pass.

!55
needs of a single type (spiritual, emo-
Bundle tional, physical, or mental), you fail the
Crisis crisis. Your generation will only advance
once you end a game with fewer than
five unmet needs of each type.
This bundle requires the Endeavor, Hunt,
Mystery, and Journey bundles.
Advancing Generations
Every generation faces a crisis that de-
fines it. The Crisis bundle adds rules to When the crisis resolves — succeed or
your saga that moves your story towards fail — we move forward twelve years
a major, unifying story with each gener- into the future.
ation, then skips ahead twelve years.
For each character you control, pull one
or more cards from the needs deck based
Changes to Setup on your age class.
When you draw a need for the family, Age Number of Cards
mark which suit you draw. Even if you
satisfy that need by the end of the game, Child 4
that mark remains. The first suit to Young Adult 3
reach three marks determines the crisis.
Mature Adult 2
Suit Crisis
Elder 1
Clubs The Curse

Hearts The Revolution
Choose one of the cards you drew.
Diamonds The Sickness
Suit Effect
Spades The Monster
Clubs Erase four items from your
knowledge sheet.

Each crisis presents a series of endeavors, Hearts Nothing.
hunts, mysteries, journeys, or other tasks Diamonds Take a scar.
which the players must accomplish to
overcome it, as well as its own condi- Spades You die.
tions under which it might fail, and
what failure could mean.
If your character survived, mark the next
Overwhelmed box in her age track, which may advance
her into the next class (e.g., children be-
In addition to its own failure conditions, come young adults, young adults be-
your family can also find itself over- come mature, and mature adults become
whelmed by concerns on all sides and elders). If you don’t have any boxes left
unmet needs. If you have five unmet

!56
in your age track, you die of old age, Crisis
having lived for nearly 120 years.
The Curse
You can add four items to your Knowl-
edge sheet. Your family keeps suffering from spiritu-
Your character’s custom and how she al needs, and you know why: a curse lays
relates to it could change over the inter- upon you all. But who laid it on you, and
vening years. why?

Power
If you embody your custom, you can
Continue to do so When you reveal this crisis, the power of
Aspire to a different custom the curse equals the number of unmet
needs the family has. At the end of each
Rebel against a different custom encounter, draw a card from the needs
deck. If you draw clubs, describe an
If you aspire to your custom, you can ominous sign that someone finds. The
Embody it curse’s power increases by one.

Aspire to a different custom You can visit one of the three sacred
places in your territory and perform a
Rebel against a different custom ceremony which will allow you to
spend awareness to reduce the curse’s
If you rebel against your custom, you power, one-for-one.
can
If the curse reaches 15 power, the family
Continue to do so offers tribute and the crisis ends. Who
Subvert it they offer tribute to will depend on
what you discover about who cursed
Aspire to it you, and what tribute they offer will de-
Aspire to a different custom pend on what you discover about why
they did it. Rarely will anything less than
Rebel against a different custom
a human life do — children delivered to a
sorcerer as his apprentices, or a disre-
If you subvert your custom, you can spectful hunter surrendered to the wild.
Continue to do so When you offer tribute, all players’ char-
Transgress against it acters take a scar.
Aspire to it
Discovering the Truth
Aspire to a different custom
Rebel against a different custom First you must solve the mystery “What
curse lies upon our family?” When you
have solved that mystery, you must solve

!57
another one: “How can we break this Crisis
curse?”
The Revolution
The answer to the second mystery will
point you to either the cleansing ritual The repeated emotional needs of your
or hunting the sorcerer. family points to a difficult truth: one of
the customs that has helped your family
The Cleansing Ritual to live together for so many generations
doesn't work any more. It may have
If you discovered that you must ritually once helped you, but it has outlived its
cleanse your family, you must go to each usefulness. The time has come to make a
of the three sacred places in your territo- change, but change never comes easily.
ry and succeed at three separate appeals
at each of them: Time For a Change
An appeal for understanding
You must first solve the mystery, “How
An appeal for mercy
must our customs change?” The answer to
An appeal for forgiveness this question should identify one of your
You must also complete a large endeav- family customs to do away with, a dif-
or to make amends, requiring at least ferent custom to replace it, and what
four spiritual labor. value this new custom reflects.
When you solve this mystery, any player
Hunting the Sorcerer can immediately change her custom
to aspire to this new one. If necessary,
If you discovered that you must hunt the change your value as well.
sorcerer, you must first solve the mys-
tery, “Who cursed us?” Opposition
When you have learned the answer, you
must then prepare yourself to hunt the Once you solve the mystery, your family
sorcerer by making a successful appeal gains opposition. It starts at zero, but
to a place in the suit of clubs. increases every time you fail an appeal to
a family member or the family as a
Then you can hunt down the sorcerer — whole. If it reaches five and surpasses
whether to kill him, to force him to the support for the revolution, the crisis
work some magic to break his curse, or fails. When this happens, erase the value
to tell you how to do so, you might dis- that this custom reflects. Your family
cover only when you find him. still follows the custom, but out of rigid
Finally, you will need to confront either orthodoxy and traditionalism, sapped of
the curse itself or the dread that it has the value that originally inspired it.
created to end its effects for good.

!58
Support Card Support Needed

Joker 0
You must gather support for your
change from the family, but not every- Jack 2
one will sign on right away. The more King or Queen 4
esteem they have in the current system,
the more goading it will take to get
them to join you. You will need to gain
You must enlist the support of any family
the support of one family member for
members who embody or aspire to the
each card in the persons deck, but they'll
old custom (even if that means enlisting
only join if you already have support
support from more than fourteen peo-
from a certain number of other family
ple).
members, depending on their card.

Joining Your Own Revolution

Since you need support from people in your family for each card in the per-
sons deck, if you want to use the same card for your own character (and
play the same character) throughout, won’t you need to join your own revo-
lution? Yes!
You might support the revolution, but giving it your full-throated, public
support means something else entirely. Opening yourself to public shame
and scrutiny — and most importantly, doing so without hesitation — will re-
quire you to overcome some hurdles. You can encounter the part of yourself
that holds you back to recruit yourself to the revolution just as you would
any other family member. Like any other family member, your position in
the family will mean that it might take more or less support to do that. If
you have a Joker, you can encounter yourself right away. If you have a Jack,
you’ll need to see the two Jokers on board first. If you have a King or a
Queen, you’ll need to see the two Jokers joined by two Jacks before you’ll
join.
You can support the revolution, but to put your name on the list you’ll need
to encounter and confront the things that hold you back. Change doesn’t
come easily, even when part of you wishes it would.

!59
Implementation dition. Instead, they'll only recover if you
succeed in making a cure.
When you get support from fourteen dif- At the end of each round, draw another
ferent members of the family, you can card from the needs deck. This time if
undertake a massive endeavor to imple- you draw diamonds, choose a sick family
ment those changes. This requires at member who dies because of the illness.
least four emotional labor to deal with Each time a member of the family dies,
people’s feelings about these changes. one of the players' characters must take
When you complete the endeavor, you a scar. You won't fail this crisis if you
successfully resolve the crisis. Remove can keep the family's unmet needs under
the old custom and replace it with the control. Instead, the question lies in how
new one. Come to a consensus on which many people will die before you can
of you will put your name down as the solve the problem.
ancestor for this new custom. Anyone
who aspired to the new custom can Addressing the Crisis
now embody it.
Solving this crisis involves two separate
tracks which you could pursue simulta-
Crisis
neously or one after the other: making
The Sickness medicine and fixing the problem that
caused it in the first place.
Your family has faced repeated physical
needs, and it has sapped their strength.
Now a sickness spreads among them, Making Medicine
and it falls to you to seek a cure. First you must solve the mystery, “How
can we cure this sickness?” The answer to
Getting Sick that question will lead you to one of two
possibilities:
When the crisis begins, choose two
members of the family who get sick. At A large endeavor requiring at least
the end of each encounter, draw a card four physical labor to collect and
from the needs deck. If you draw dia- brew medicine. Then, you must suc-
monds, choose another member of the cessfully appeal to the sickness to
family who gets sick. treat your family.

Sick family members not controlled by a A week-long journey to collect a rare
player cannot offer help. Those con- medicinal plant (collecting it requires
trolled by players have their maximum a successful appeal at the destina-
awareness reduced by one, just as if tion), followed by another week-long
they'd taken a scar, but with different journey back home.
rules for recovery. Setting the character Once you have cured the sickness, any-
aside for a game won't remove this con- one who has it can recover from it by

!60
succeeding on an appeal in an encounter Crisis
with it.
The Monster
Fixing the Problem It's left hints, clues, puzzles, and signs for
Disease doesn’t spread through the Fifth you to find, toying with you. The truth
World regularly without reason. Sickness has become obvious: something mon-
points to some disturbance in the web of strous has moved into your family's ter-
ecological relationships that your family ritory. It remains only a matter of time
lives enmeshed within. The crisis hasn’t before it strikes and one of your kin dies.
passed until you’ve discovered the un-
derlying problem and fixed it. Until then, Missing Persons
people will just keep getting sick.
At the end of each round, draw a card
Fixing the problem starts with the mys- from the needs deck. If you draw spades,
tery, “What caused this sickness?” The an- choose a member of your family. The
swer to that question will lead you to person goes missing. You can begin
one of two possibilities: a hunt for her, but when you encounter
You discover some creature responsi- her draw a needs card. If you draw a
ble for this damage. You must hunt it black card, you find her body, clearly
down and deal with it one way or killed by the monster. If you draw a red
another. card, you find her traumatized but still
alive. If you haven’t yet solved the mys-
The solution requires a large project
tery, “What sort of monster stalks our ter-
including at least four physical labor.
ritory?” such a survivor immediately
Conclusion gives you a clue, already verified.
If you choose a player's character to go
You can pursue the two paths above si- missing and find her still alive, she has
multaneously or one after the other. four scars.
Once you have done both, the family When a fifth person goes missing, the
remains shaken by the experience — monster leaves your territory, satisfied
even if only the fear that the same world with its bloody work. Your family con-
that they rely on, that provides every- tinues to live in fear of the monster they
thing they want or need, could also kill could never defeat, and wondering if it
them so easily and seemingly without will one day return. You fail the crisis.
warning. You’ve addressed the disease,
but the sickness — that social dimension Hunting the Monster
of the experience and what they’ve gone
through — remains. To successfully re- To hunt the monster, you must first
solve the crisis, you must successfully solve the mystery, “What sort of monster
appeal to your family to help see them stalks our territory?” The answer to this
through this.

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question will tell you a great deal about
the hunt to come.
When you know what kind of monster Other Milestones & Bundles
you have to deal with, you can solve the
next mystery, “How can we defeat it?” The The milestones and bundles in-
answer to this question will lead you to cluded here shift your Fifth
one of two possibilities: World saga into an intergenera-
tional epic. It should give you a
You must journey 100 miles (four good idea of how they work.
days) to learn something or gain a Other Fifth World players add
special item, and then return. new ones all the time. Visit
You must undertake a medium en- https://thefifthworld.com/rpg/
deavor to create a special weapon. saga to find the latest milestones
you can achieve and what they
Then you can embark on a hunt for the
might unlock.
monster. However, the monster poses a
particularly deadly threat. It will not suf-
fice to know the monster to kill it —
you’ll have to know it well.

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Glossary it, aspiring to it, rebelling against it, or
subverting it.

Agenda: One of the three agendas for Encounter: The basic unit of gameplay.
playing the Fifth World (p. 5) An encounter takes place between a
main character and an Other. Encounter-
Ancestor: A revered figure from your ing an Other might mean talking, nego-
family’s history. An ancestor attached to tiating, bargaining, seducing, fighting, or
a custom can refresh that custom when even just passing by.
you make an offering to her at home
(making that custom available again to Family: The basic sovereign unit of the
ask the question associated with its val- Fifth World. A family could mean a
ue). An ancestor attached to a place roaming band of 25 hunter-gatherers or
means that the place generates two a village of 100 or more gardeners. Even
moments of awareness at the end of in the most extended groups, they think
each encounter instead of one, and that of themselves as family first and fore-
in addition to the normal means of most. Families have their own histories
gathering awareness there you can also and customs.
gather awareness by making an offering Help: When a main character in the
to that ancestor. In each case, making an same place as another main character
offering to the ancestor requires you to spends her awareness on the other’s be-
spend a moment of awareness. half.
Appeal: Using the ritual phrase, “I appeal Main Character: A character player by
to [her] [spirit/heart/body/mind]” (p. 40) one of the players at the table. The story
Audience: When you don’t have any oth- told in any game focuses on the main
er part in an encounter, you form part of characters, played by the players present.
the audience (p. 36) Milestone: A goal that players can
Awareness: The main currency of the achieve in a saga. Many milestones un-
game, represented by tokens. Places gen- lock new bundles.
erate awareness at the end of each en- Needs Deck: The four aces in a deck of
counter. Main characters can gather playing cards, representing different
awareness at those places by acting in needs that people in the game might
accord with its unique spirit. They spend have (p. 9).
awareness to accomplish difficult things,
Other: The person that a main character
avoid danger, and ask questions.
faces in an encounter.
Bundle: A set of related, additional rules
Person: Someone that you can have a
that you can unlock in a saga by achiev-
relationship with, human or otherwise.
ing a milestone.
Persons Deck: The kings, queens, jacks,
Custom: A family has a number of cus-
and jokers in a deck of playing cards,
toms. Each custom reflects a particular
representing the main and secondary
value. Each member of a family relates
characters in a game (p. 9)
to a particular custom, either embodying

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Place: A place where something happens one of the circles for awareness on your
in the story, represented by a card from character sheet. If you have five scars,
the places deck. Places can sometimes your capacity for awareness has dropped
count as persons (and often do). to zero, making you incapable of impact-
ing the world — usually meaning that
Places Deck: The numbered cards in a
you’ve died.
deck of playing cards, representing
places in the game (p. 9) Secondary Character: Any of the charac-
ters in a game not played by one of the
Principles: One of the nine principles for
players.
playing the Fifth World (p. 6)
Setback: If you try to make an appeal
Question: You can (and should) ask any
and fail, the person playing the Other
question you like at any time, but if you
will choose a setback that you suffer
ask one from a specific list of questions
from a list.
and spend a moment of awareness, the
answer establishes a defined truth in the Value: A moral virtue upheld and re-
story, closing off all other possibilities spected by families across the Fifth
and moving you closer to the conclusion World. Each custom reflects a particular
(p. 40) value, and each character has a value
that she holds in the highest regard (p.
Random Encounter: An encounter with
20) Mechanically, your value adds a fifth
an Other determined by drawing a face-
question to the list of questions that you
down persons card.
can spend awareness to ask. Your fami-
Ritual Phrase: One of several defined ly’s customs provides an exhaustible pool
phrases which engage specific rules of resources, allowing you to ask the
when spoken (p. 37) questions of values that you don’t hold
Role: A player’s current role in the game. in the highest regard yourself, on a lim-
Depending on how we set the en- ited basis (p. 41)
counter, you might play your own char-
acter, a secondary character, the Other,
or form part of the audience (p. 32)
Round: A round consists of each player
setting one encounter.
Saga: An ongoing, intergenerational story
of a family dwelling in its land, made up
of several interconnected game sessions,
generally played by a group of friends
meeting to play on a regular basis (p. 43)
Scar: The loss of one of a main charac-
ter’s slots for awareness, reducing her
capacity for awareness permanently by
one. When you take a scar, scratch out

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FAMILY DATE

KING OF CLUBS KING OF HEARTS KING OF DIAMONDS KING OF SPADES
THE PRIEST THE AMBASSADOR THE GUARDIAN THE TEACHER
MASTERY OF SPIRITUAL LIFE MASTERY OF EMOTIONAL LIFE MASTERY OF PHYSICAL LIFE MASTERY OF MENTAL LIFE

IDENTITY IDENTITY IDENTITY IDENTITY

CONCEPTS CONCEPTS CONCEPTS CONCEPTS
Ecstatic prophet, ritualist, heirophant, Diplomat, big man, Berserker, experienced scout, protector, Philosopher, mentor,
psychopomp, thaumaturge mediator, trader, herald warchief, pillar of the community scholar, logician, recluse

QUEEN OF CLUBS QUEEN OF HEARTS QUEEN OF DIAMONDS QUEEN OF SPADES
THE HEALER THE GRANDMOTHER THE HUNTRESS THE STORYTELLER
MASTERY OF SPIRITUAL LIFE MASTERY OF EMOTIONAL LIFE MASTERY OF PHYSICAL LIFE MASTERY OF MENTAL LIFE

IDENTITY IDENTITY IDENTITY IDENTITY

CONCEPTS CONCEPTS CONCEPTS CONCEPTS
Doctor, seeress, witch, Matriarch, counselor, clan elder, Provider, hunter, Amazon, Bard, lorekeeper,
herbalist, wise woman matchmaker, midwife beast master, wild woman artist, griot, musician

JACK OF CLUBS JACK OF HEARTS JACK OF DIAMONDS JACK OF SPADES
THE SEEKER THE ADVENTURER THE APPRENTICE THE SCIENTIST
PURSUIT OF SPIRITUAL LIFE PURSUIT OF EMOTIONAL LIFE PURSUIT OF PHYSICAL LIFE PURSUIT OF MENTAL LIFE

IDENTITY IDENTITY IDENTITY IDENTITY

CONCEPTS CONCEPTS CONCEPTS CONCEPTS
Disciple, apprentice magician, Warrior, daredevil, Student, tenderfoot, prodigy, Researcher, investigator, tinkerer,
ascetic, pilgrim, monk romantic, explorer, rebel innovator, craftsman empiricist, inventor

RED JOKER BLACK JOKER
THE MAGICIAN THE FOOL
TRANSGRESSION OF TRADITIONAL LIFE SUBVERSION OF TRADITIONAL LIFE

IDENTITY IDENTITY

CONCEPTS CONCEPTS
Wizard, sorcerer, shapeshifter, Trickster, wise fool, village idiot, comic
warlock, mystic relief, clown (sacred or otherwise)
PLAYERS