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Fate's Edge — Quickstart

15-minute read One table, one session

This is everything you need to run a one-shot tonight. It skips the full Fatigue/Harm tables, armor conversion, and advancement math — for the complete rules, see the Essential Guide. For a ready-to-play scenario, jump to The Lantern at Dusk.

"The coin that never spends is the one you don't remember taking." — Serafine of the Velvet Touch

1. What This Game Is

Fate's Edge is narrative-first: dice never just mean pass/fail, they push the story somewhere. Nothing stalls at the table — a miss escalates instead of dead-ending, and a success can still cost you something.

2. The Core Loop

1. Say what you want and how. ("I want to sneak past the guard, using Wits + Stealth.")

2. GM sets Position & Difficulty (DV). See tables below.

3. Roll Attribute + Skill in d10s. 6–9 = 1 success, 10 = 2 successes, 1 = 1 Story Beat for the GM.

4. Compare successes to DV using the Outcome table.

5. GM spends Story Beats for complications; player marks Boons.

Difficulty Value (DV)

DV	Situation
2	Routine, almost guaranteed
3	Default — mild opposition, some risk
4	Hard — serious opposition or bad angle
5+	Extreme — major boss or dramatic gamble

Position

Position	Frame	Effect
Dominant	You press the advantage	Re-roll one failure
Controlled	Balanced, normal	No re-rolls
Desperate	You act under duress	Re-roll one success

Spend 1 Boon to improve Position by one step before you roll.

Outcome

Result	Outcome	What Happens
Successes ≥ DV, no 1s	Clean Success	You get what you wanted, no complication
Successes ≥ DV, some 1s	Success + Story Beat	You get it, but the GM spends SB on a complication
0 < Successes < DV	Partial	Progress made; you gain 1 Boon
0 Successes	Miss	No progress; you gain 2 Boons; GM escalates

3. Boons & Story Beats

Boons (yours): earned on Partials, Misses, and playing your Bonds. Spend to re-roll a die, improve Position, or activate an Asset. Hold at most 5; drop to 2 at the end of a scene.

Story Beats (GM's): earned whenever anyone rolls a 1. Spend 1 SB for a minor complication, 2 for moderate, 3+ for major. Be aggressive with them — unused pressure is wasted momentum.

4. Build a Character in 5 Minutes

Fastest path: grab a pregen below, or build from scratch with 32 XP:

One sentence concept (origin + profession + trait).
Attributes (Body/Wits/Spirit/Presence, base 1): put one at 3, one at 2. (~21 XP)
Skills (0–5): 2–3 key skills at 1–2 each. (~8–12 XP)
0–3 Talents if any XP is left — optional, not required to be effective.
1 Bond with another PC (+2 XP), optionally 1 Complication (+2 XP).
Starting gear: clothes, a weapon, light armor, adventuring kit.

5. Grab-and-Go Pregens

Name	Concept	Best At
Levi	Soldier — once a legionary, now a sellsword	Melee combat
Lyra	Scholar — expelled for forbidden research	Lore & investigation
Sera	Shadow — former guild thief	Stealth & subterfuge
Mira	Healer — accused of witchcraft	Medicine & insight
Kael	Runekeeper — wanderer sworn to a patron	Magic (optional, Tier II)

Full stat blocks are in the Essential Guide, Chapter 4.

6. Table Safety, Fast Version

Keep an X-Card visible — anyone can say "X" to skip past uncomfortable content, no questions asked. Agree on Lines (hard no's) and Veils (fade-to-black moments) before you start.

That's the whole game. Everything else — Fatigue, Harm, armor, magic paths, advancement — layers on top of this loop without changing it. Run it in the browser toolkit: dice, character sheets, and timers included.