Playing at This Table

Your Game Master is an AI, running the same rules a human GM would, from the same records you can read. That changes a few practical things about how a session flows.

Declaring what you do

Say what your character does in plain language. You don't need to name a mechanic — "I want to shoot the one by the door" is a complete declaration, and the GM works out which Test that is.

When you do want a specific option, name it. Every combat action is a record in this project, and mentioning one by name pulls its exact rule into the conversation. "I Aim, then fire" resolves precisely, with no ambiguity about what Aiming costs you.

Same for anything else with a name — a Condition, a weapon trait, a rule you half-remember. Naming it is the fastest way to get the real answer instead of an approximation.

Who rolls what

You roll your own dice. All of them.

The GM states the pool and the DN, then stops and waits. That includes damage: an attack is two separate requests to you — once to hit, once for damage and Extra Damage Dice. If the GM ever rolls a Test that belongs to your character, that's a mistake worth calling out.

The GM rolls for Threats and NPCs, and for a small number of genuinely hidden things.

Counting Icons is the GM's job, and the arithmetic should be shown: which dice became which Icons, what the total was, what the DN was. If a result arrives without that, ask for it — that's not being difficult, it's how errors get caught.

When the GM gets it wrong

It happens. The rules are dense, and edge cases around Shifting, the Wrath Die, and stacking Conditions are where mistakes cluster.

If a ruling looks wrong, say so and say why. Point at the record if you have it. The GM will re-read the rule and correct itself — being challenged is expected, not resented, and a wrong ruling that stands becomes precedent for the rest of the campaign.

Your sheet is live

It updates during play — Wounds, Shock, Wrath, Glory, Conditions, XP awards. Two blocks are worth reading before any significant roll:

• Abilities — every bonus die you're entitled to, from Species, Archetype and Talents.
• Wargear Traits — what the traits on your gear actually do.

Both are assembled for you. Nothing there requires looking anything up.

Complications are yours to author

When your Wrath Die comes up a 1, you'll usually be asked what goes wrong. Take the invitation. A Complication you invent from your character's own history — a bad debt, a wrecked augmetic, a face you hoped never to see again — is worth more to the session than a jammed gun.

The Imperium is not a fair place and your character is not a protagonist to it. Playing that honestly is where the game gets good.

Somewhere to start

@Missing file is the hive world most of this project's material hangs off — a tithe world of manufactorum blocks and transit sumps, grinding out soldiers and munitions for a war it will never see the end of.

@Missing file is the hive itself: where @Missing file was tithed out at fifteen along with four hundred others from her block, thirty-one of whom are still alive. If you want somewhere concrete to begin, begin there. Read the location, read her sheet, and you have a place, a person, and a reason to be somewhere unpleasant.

Your GM will tell you where your own story opens.

Credit

This project's rules material derives from Wrath & Glory, published by Cubicle 7 Entertainment. The core rulebook is still required to play — this handbook explains how to run a character in this implementation, not the whole game, and it is no substitute for the book. Please support the people who wrote it.

Several chapters here were rewritten from a community-assembled Basic Rules Reference Document originally compiled by /u/GerdBerguukion, whose work made the first version of this handbook possible.