This is the second playbook preview of the upcoming Advanced Playbooks bundle for Chasing Adventure. This bundle will be purchasable on Itch, DriveThruRPG, and this very site with the web store, all launching on November 1! This preview will dive a bit more into the design behind the playbook itself.
The Monk is an interesting playbook in Chasing Adventure. What exactly makes a monk stand apart from unarmored fighting Barbarians or particularly disciplined clerics? In both history and fiction, the word monk can mean many different things, so when designing this playbook I had to narrow it down to three pillars: Inner Peace, Mastered Skills, and Martial Arts.
You’ve honed your body and cultivated your mind to reach the very peaks of potential. At times you are a gentle breeze, crafting wonders with the lightest touch. At other times you’re a raging storm, unleashing precise blows with devastating speed. The path to enlightenment is narrow and treacherous, and enemies block your path. But you are not afraid, for you’ve already mastered your most dangerous foe – yourself.
The Inner Peace pillar showcases the Monk’s increased endurance and power when they experience emotional balance. But what is emotional balance, and how will the increased capabilities be reflected?
Starting Move – Harmony
When your mind, body, and soul are in sync, you are unstoppable. You begin the game with 2 Harmony, and you cannot have more than 4 or less than 0 Harmony. When you suffer any condition, including from Pushing Yourself, you may spend 1 Harmony to absorb it. Harmony does not count as Armor and so cannot be Pierced.
During the End of Session, ask yourself these questions about what happened this session . For each ‘yes’ gain 1 Harmony.
- Did you deny or hold back from a comfort, goal, or desire?
- Did you practice or exercise one of your Masteries?
- Did you accomplish your Drive?
Unlike most resource points in Chasing Adventure, Harmony doesn’t reset when you Settle In, but is instead adjusted during the End of Session based on how you behaved. There is an small amount of tension in there between wanting to hold yourself back from a goal but also accomplish your drive, and it may be tricky to answer ‘yes’ to all three questions in a single session.
The second pillar, Mastered Skills, reflects that monks often dedicated themselves to artistry and craftsmanship, honing and improving their skills over years or decades.
Starting Move – Disciplined Masteries
You’ve expertly trained in the creative arts. Choose two different skills, crafts, or artistic endeavours that you have Mastered.
When you Ponder or Examine something related to one of your Masteries, acting on the information the first time grants two sources of Advantage instead of one.
Example Masteries: Alchemy, Anatomy, Brewing, Calligraphy, Cooking, Foreign Language, Gardening, Illumination, Music, Sculpting, Writing.
Focusing too much on these skills would slow the game down – this is still a game about fantasy action-adventure after all. So instead of making these Masteries their own rolls, they improve other rolls when narratively incorporated into them.
Some players might not want to focus much on Masteries, which is why the initial bonus to them is relatively small. For those that do want to focus on them though, there are many choices that improve Masteries and let you incorporate them into almost everything you do. Here is a Background as an example.
Sample Background – Solitary Artisan
You spent ages perfecting your masteries and honing your skills, and that fruit now plain to all who see your works. What did you sacrifice for your training?
When you display a Mastery in a conversation, choose one participant. For the rest of the scene you may roll +WIS instead of +CHA to Compel them, and you may spend 1 Harmony to treat them as if they Favor you.
Starting Stats: +2 WIS, +1 INT
Equipment: Bag of Books (5 Uses)
Drive: Express yourself in a new way.
This powerful background allows the Monk to communicate using a Mastery, such as portraying metaphors or lesson, or invoking a particular emotion with their work. Masteries start small, but can be a Monk’s main focus with great success.
No matter what their other Masteries are though, there is one skill that all monks in fantasy seem to have in common.
Starting Move – Martial Artist
You have honed a specific fighting style, choose one:
- Archery: You can reload rapidly enough to effectively ignore the Reload tag on weapons you wield. Additionally, when you Let Fly you can spend 1 Harmony to grant that attack the Area tag.
- Improvisation: When you pick up an ordinary object and wield it as a weapon, choose one tag it gains for the scene: +1 Armor, Fiery, Forceful, Piercing, Unbreakable. If you spend 1 Harmony, it gains two tags instead of one.
- Specialized Weapon: Choose a type of weapon (spear, sword, hammer, sling, etc.). When you Defy to get into to this weapon’s ideal range (getting far enough to shoot, close enough to stab, etc.), you may spend 1 Harmony to treat the roll as a 10+.
- Unarmed: You can harm any opponent unarmed. When you Engage unarmed, you can spend 1 Harmony to increase the result from 6- to 7-9.
This move showcases the final pillar of the Monk and displays their powerful yet adaptable capabilities. Monks start with a single fighting style, but can gain a second one with an Advanced Move, and upgrade one through a different Advanced Move.
The last Starting Move is a small one that helps portray the Monk’s discipline, showcasing the Inner Peace pillar in a bit of a different way.
Starting Move – Old Friend of Suffering
You have trained to endure extreme hardship, are unbothered by days without food, water, or sleep, and can rest in the most uncomfortable environments. You have +1 armor against fatigue and exhaustion.
That’s all for this preview. Check back soon for a preview of the Monster, and keep an eye on the Advanced Playbook bundle coming out on November 1!