MagnusDice

Sell your Soul. Face your Fear. End the World.

A Roleplaying System based on The Magnus Archives

The Magnus Archives by Rusty Quill is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

 Introduction
“Statement Begins.”

Things lurk at the edges of the world, in the dark and twisted corners of humanity. Frightful things,
horrible things, creatures that would steal your face, rip you apart, drop you into an endless void.
And even all that is but a drop in the bucket beside the true horrors that lurk out there, ancient
primaeval beings. The Powers, Fears, Entities, they have many names and many forms.

It is here, at the horror-laden edges of the world, where the stories of The Magnus Archive take
place, and it is here where the MagnusDice game system tells tales. Players step into the role of one
of the Marked, people who have been touched by an Entity, who draw power from those terrible
beings, yet have not died and completed the transformation to being fully-fledged Avatars.

In less flowery terms, MagnusDice is a fan-created tabletop roleplaying system based on the work
and the world of The Magnus Archives. Players take on the role of characters touched by the Fears,
working to build up their cult’s Ritual to bring their Fear into reality.

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 Table of Contents
Introduction 2

Table of Contents 3

Challenges 5
Example 5
Failing 6
Success At a Cost 6
Failure With a Silver Lining 6
Standard DCs 6
Optional: Contests 6
Aspects 7
Example 7
Strain 8
Injuries 8
Optional: Worsening Injuries 8
Recovery 8
Character Creation 9
Concept 9
Hook 9
Method 9
Face 9
Heart 10
Trouble 10
Final Touches 10

Favour 11

Gifts 12
Creating Gifts 12
Sample Modifiers 13
Examples 13

Progression 14
Action 15
Time 15
Doom Track 15

The Fears 17
Marked Rules 17
The Buried 18
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 The Corruption 19
The Dark 20
The Desolation 21
The End 22
The Eye 23
The Flesh 24
The Hunt 25
The Lonely 26
The Slaughter 27
The Spiral 28
The Stranger 29
The Vast 30
The Web 31
Optional: The Extinction 32

Artefacts, Places, Monsters 33

Concept 33
Legend 33
Face 33
Bane 33
Final Touches 34
Optional: Gifts, Dice, Strain 34
Example 34

Terminology 36

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 Challenges
“If you win, you shall not die.”

In MagnusDice, challenges are resolved through rolling two dice in conjunction, taking the total, and
comparing them against a difficulty number known as a DC. Meeting or surpassing the DC
constitutes a success. Notably, failing to meet the DC is not always a failure to advance, but can spell
a consequence imposed upon progressing.

Dice should only be rolled when there is a significant chance to fail with consequences. Attempting
to find a book in a library would not require rolls, but attempting to find a book in a library while
being hounded by monster dogs would.

The first die rolled is the Mortal die. This represents the physical factors involved in a task and the
mundane aspects of a character. Is there a crowbar to help pry open a lockbox? Does the character
have a certain applicable skill? Mortals will generally have a Mortal die at d4 or d6 size.

The second die rolled is the Supernatural die. This represents the inhuman, magical factors at
work in a scene and in a character. Is a Leitner nearby which the character is using? Has the
character tapped into their Patron by paying Favour? Mortals, again, will generally have the base
Supernatural die at d4 or d6 size.

To modify the dice rolled, players can tap into Aspects of the situation and themselves. Aspects
represent qualities that can help or hinder the success of a task. For each Aspect tapped in a positive
way, the character increases the size of the appropriate die by one. For example, tapping the
Marksman aspect to shoot a target accurately would increase the size of the Mortal die by one.

The Aspects section contains more details on the intricacies of tapping Aspects, what constitutes an
Aspect, and negatively tapping Aspects.

Dice sizes go from d2, d4, d6, d10, d12, then d20. Note, though, that d20 rolls are generally not
available to players outside of extremely special, significant moments. The peak of a Ritual would be
a supernatural example.

The shorthand for dice rolls used is MdX+SdX, where M stands for the Mortal die, S for the
Supernatural, and X for the size of each die. For example, if a character would roll a d8 for their
Mortal die and a d4 for their Supernatural die, this would be represented as Md8+Sd4.

Example
Daisy wants to shoot a monster with her trusty revolver. This is assigned a DC of 8. Her base dice are
Md6+Sd6. She decides to tap into her Aspect - Marked by The Hunt, increasing the size of her
Supernatural die to d8. She also decides to tap into the terrain Aspect of Steady Walls, allowing her
to lean on the wall and increase her Mortal die to d8. Rolling both dice, she comes up with a 3 and 6
for a total of 9, succeeding the challenge.

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 Failing
Above everything else, MagnusDice is a system to tell stories and develop characters. However, what
happens when the dice decide to land against you and stop your plot from progressing? Here,
MagnusDice adopts an idea simply known as failing forward.

In short, failing forward is the idea that rolling badly on a challenge should not put a halt to the
narrative. Failure is a chance to introduce an unexpected complication, to challenge the players and
the characters, to raise the stakes. This does not mean every challenge result should be good for the
characters, simply that any result leads to interesting events.

Each time the dice come up a failure, MagnusDice offers two alternatives to simply failing: success at
a cost, and failure with a silver lining.

Success At a Cost
Instead of failing the task, the player may decide to succeed instead, but introduce a complication.
This complication doesn’t have to be decided by the GM - if a player has a good idea for a
complication, they may suggest it to the GM. For example, if a player attempts to use their Armed
With Lockpicks Aspect to pick a difficult lock and they fail, they may crack the lock but introduce the
Tripped Alarm Aspect to the scene.

Failure With a Silver Lining

The other side of this coin - a failure remains a failure, but introduces an alternative possibility or a
small benefit for the players. As with success at a cost, this does not have to be decided by the GM.
Using the same example, the player may fail to pick the lock, but in doing so notice the plaster
around the door is flaking. This introduces the Weak Frame Aspect for the door, which then allows
the player to simply break down the entire door frame and get into the room.

Standard DCs
Difficulty Easy Standard Challenging Intense

DC 3 6 8 11

Example Hiding from Shooting a gun at a Cracking a bank’s Talking down an

inattentive foes distant target computer systems angry Hunter

Optional: Contests
For GM-driven encounters and action, rolling against a DC set by the GM is enough to adjudicate the
flow of action. However, characters don’t always agree - especially when they are working under
different Powers! So what happens when someone Marked by the Eye tries to read their friend’s
Dark Avatar character’s mind? For these situations, GMs may choose to use Contests.

Both players involved in the Contest roll their Mortal and Supernatural dice as usual. Aspects are
tapped in secret - neither player should know what resources the other is trying to use until dice are
rolled. The totals are then compared against each other, instead of a DC, and the higher result wins.
In the case of a tie, the instigator wins, but to a lesser extent - a glancing axe blow, a minor lead in a
chase, a clue to the masked man’s identity.

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 Aspects
“Like colours, but if colours hated me.”

Aspects are qualities of a situation, a character, a challenge, whether they be mundane like rain or
supernatural like inscrutable darkness, or even an object or relationship to a person. Within the
game, Aspects are tapped into to modify the size of the Mortal or Supernatural dice when
attempting a challenge, influencing the chance and the type of success.

Aspects come in many different types, but as a rule of thumb, they are sorted into two of four
categories. Are they Mortal or Supernatural, and are they Lasting or Transient? The first binary
decides if tapping an Aspect influences the Mortal or Supernatural die, while the second binary
decides what happens to the Aspect after it is tapped.

Tapping into Aspects is when a character utilises an Aspect in order to assist with a challenge they
are facing. The specifics of how a character taps an Aspect is up to the player to describe, but one
ironclad rule is that it must be something the character is physically or mentally doing. You may be
able to tap the Aspect of Marked by The Dark to hide, drawing upon your Patron’s power, but you
can’t tap the Aspect Crowbar to open a crate if you can’t reach the crowbar.

As explained in the Challenges section, tapping into Aspects is done when a character would
attempt to overcome a challenge with a significant chance of failure. Lasting Aspects can be tapped
once per scene, while tapping Transient Aspects changes the Aspect, creating something different
than before to be tapped.

Aspects may also be tapped negatively, imposing penalties on the character’s dice size. This follows
the same limitations as positively tapping Aspects - each Aspect tapped negatively reduces an
associated die size by 1. While negatively tapping Aspects does make a challenge harder, it rewards
the character with Favour from associated Powers, be they the characters Patron or otherwise.

Aspects do not only include physical characteristics, but also character history, traits, equipment,
personality, supernatural Boons and Burdens, and many more.

Aspects do not simply exist to be tapped, but also have passive effects in the world just for existing.
For example, the Aspect of Ray of Light illuminates and makes seeing possible, the Aspect Air Is
Optional allows a character to survive without air.

Example
The GM describes a warehouse which was once an abattoir. The place is dimly lit and smells faintly
of blood, filled with shipping crates. A few Mortal Aspects can be drawn from this, such as Dim
Lighting and Constricted Space. Some Supernatural Aspects can be decided too, such as a Lingering
Bloody Smell. If a character would then switch on their torchlight, they now have a Transient Aspect
of Ray of Light.

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 Strain
“It collapses on top of me, and I collapse with it.”

Strain is a measure of how much the characters have suffered, how close they are to losing their
shit. In other games, this would be their health bar. Strain is not simply a measure of their physical
well being, but also their mental state, how close they are to giving in completely to the Fears, or just
breaking down completely.

Characters initially start with 0 Strain. For each point of Strain a character has, they suffer a
reduction to either their Mortal die size or their Supernatural die size by one. If this would reduce a
dice below the size of a d2, the character suffers a game-ending consequence. Death and mental
trauma are common ones, but each Power has their fates worse than death.

Injuries
When a character would gain Strain, they may choose to spend up to three points of Strain to gain
an Injury instead. Injuries are Lasting Aspects which have a significant negative impact on the
character, representing the long-term effects of strain build-up. Characters may only sustain a
maximum of five Injuries total before they are unable to spend Strain to gain Injuries.

Optional: Worsening Injuries

For GMs who dislike how much control players have over Injuries, MagnusDice offers the following
rules to make Injuries worse. When an Injury could be tapped to cause significant detriment to the
character, it must be tapped to decrease dice size. Tapping an Injury does not generate Favour with
any power - these are purely negative effects, under these rules.

Recovery
Even the most stalwart of hearts cannot go forever; even the hardiest of minds reaches their
breaking point. As long as characters remain some part human, they need rest in between their cult
rites and fighting horrible monstrosities. Strain build up can sabotage even the best dice pool, and
massive numbers of Injuries can cause the toughest character to fall.

MagnusDice offers a few options for recovery rules: session based and roleplay based. GMs are
encouraged to pick the set of rules that best fits their games, or to even create their own rules to fit
their specific game’s needs.

Session-based healing is the simplest option, and is best for GMs who run classic ‘session’ style
games. At the start of each session, characters each heal one point of Strain. GMs may choose to not
give this healing out if not appropriate - for example, if one session ends in the middle of an action
scene, it would not make sense for the characters to heal Strain on the next session.

Roleplay-based healing is a harder option to balance, being more hands-on for the GM, but it can
be extremely rewarding for character-building. The way this works is simple - players may choose
to spend time roleplaying their character recuperating, whether it takes the form of low-stress
activities with friends, connecting with family, et cetera. The GM then chooses how much Strain to
let the player heal - a short roleplay about having a good meal with family may heal one point of
Strain, while a long and complex session where the character gets therapy could heal two or three.

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 Character Creation
“Your perfect body is here. Become all you can be.”

In MagnusDice, character creation starts with a series of six questions about the character you want
to play, distilled into Lasting Aspects that form a quick guide to the character.

Concept
Initially, ask yourself a simple question: Who is my character? Are they a hapless new hire at a
company influenced by the Flesh? Perhaps they’re a soldier who gazed upon something terrible that
sung war in the notes of a bagpipe in one of their tours of duty. They could even be the latest in a
long line of successors to a family cult dedicated to the Vast.

Whatever the case, the next step is taking the answer and crafting a Lasting Aspect out of it - the
Concept. This can be Mortal or Supernatural as appropriate to the Aspect - the Aspect Soldier Who’s
Seen Something would be a Mortal Aspect, while Scion of a Vast Cult would be Supernatural. Write
down the Aspect on your character sheet, and it’s on to the next question.

Hook
After filling in the Concept, the next question is why: Why did my character get involved in the
mystical and supernatural? For some, the path is a conscious choice - a superior introduces them to a
Leitner, they were born in a magical cult, et cetera. Most of the time, it is something unconscious,
almost an accident, but it is still a choice. This covers events such as being haunted by a monster of
the Dark, falling into a cave of the Buried, or even being interrogated by an avatar of the Eye.

Again, the answer will inform the creation of a second Lasting Aspect - the Hook. The Hook is
always a Supernatural aspect, as it directly involves some supernatural meddling. Some examples
include Lost John’s Cave Broke My Leg, Family of The Vast, and Only Survivor of Lanncraig.

Method
The third question to ask is: What does my character do in the face of trouble? Characters are not
passive beings who simply let things happen to them - they take action, they fight back, they have
means and methods of seeking out, dealing with, and avoiding trouble. For a career soldier, being
faced with the terrible and monstrous may prompt them to fight back, while a lifelong coward could
attempt to run away, and a supernaturally gifted person may even invoke their own dark god.

A character’s first reaction when faced with a problem - be it missing information or a monster - is a
third Lasting Aspect, their Method. As with the Concept, this Aspect can be either Mortal or
Supernatural as appropriate to the details - Seek Out Every Secret could be Mortal if it describes the
character doing investigative work, but would be Supernatural if the character is reading minds.

Face
No character is an island, and the fourth question fleshes out the who in a character’s life. Who does
my character know? Generally, this reflects someone human close to the character - a significant
other, a bosom friend, a sibling - but it can also be a supernatural acquaintance such as a
flesh-shaping Leitner owner, or sworn rival they find themselves teaming up with out of necessity.

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This other character is the basis of the fourth Lasting Aspect, the Face. The Face may be Mortal or
Supernatural. Keep in mind knowing someone who, unknown to your character, is supernatural
does mean the Face is a Supernatural Aspect. It functions off what the character behind the Face is,
not what your character knows about them.

Heart
In the world of the Magnus Archives, there are many ways that a character’s humanity can be
compromised, but all characters have to be human at some point. This question, What drives my
character?, fleshes out what part of your character makes them really human - their core desire,
motive, driving force. Even the characters lost to their supernatural powers were humans who
hated, loved, adored, and most importantly feared in their life. Does your character want money?
Adulation? True love? Or do they hate someone so deep that it drives them forward?

No matter the motive, the desire, the Lasting Aspect drawn from this question - the Heart - is always
a Mortal Aspect. After all, the Aspect needs to reflect a core part of the humanity that lies at the core
of a character. No matter if Hatred for The Archives or if they Just Want To Have Friends, the Heart is
something you can find in any other human, something quintessentially mortal.

Trouble
No character would be truly complete without a dash of trouble, the shit on the fan, the fly in their
porridge, the Darth Vader to their Luke. Ask yourself: What force impedes my character? Put aside
the monsters of the week, the one-off baddies, focus on the core antagonistic force against the
character. Is their anger something that consistently gets the better of them? Are they bound to the
code of an institute they despise? Do they have a brother who constantly comes and upsets things?

This sixth Lasting Aspect, the character’s Trouble, can either be a Mortal or a Supernatural Aspect.
Not all things that plague a person are mystical - someone’s Inescapable Crushing Debt can be wholly
mundane, while Stalked By The Others is likely a Supernatural Aspect.

Final Touches
After going through the six questions, tally up the number of Mortal and Supernatural Aspects your
character now has. If they have more Mortal Aspects, they start with a Mortal die of d6 size and a
Supernatural die of d4 size, and vice-versa if they have more Supernatural Aspects. If the numbers
of Aspects in both categories are balanced, then you get to choose which die starts at d6.

Player characters, whether they know it or not, are all Marked, their souls tied to a number of the
Entities that lurk outside reality to prey on fear. Choose one Power to be your character’s Patron, the
entity which grants them their powers and demands a tribute of terror. Choose a second Power to
be a supporting Power, an entity that doesn’t grant power so much as gives little nudges to the
character, helping in a myriad tiny ways according to some inscrutable plan.

Characters don’t start out completely helpless against the myriad terrible entities out there. Gifts
reflect either innate qualities or specific stunts or powers a character may utilise. Upon creating a
character, you may pick up to two Gifts worth no more than 3 Favour apiece. These Gifts must be
from your character’s Patron or their supporting Power.

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 Favour
“I just find my mind already wandering to the next statement…”

Over the course of a campaign, as characters take actions in support of one Power or another, they
accrue goodwill with the Powers, if such a thing is possible for such beings. Favour is a
representation of how in touch with a particular Power a character is and how much goodwill they
have with that Power. Favour is tracked separately for each Power when a character would gain
their Favour. Players may only have ten points of Favour total.

Gaining Favour occurs in one of two ways - either a character takes actions to support a Power, or a
character taps an Aspect negatively to challenge themselves. Depending on the action taken and the
Aspect tapped, any number of Powers could be associated. Characters may only gain Favour for one
Power from any one action or Aspect tapped. The GM has the final say over awarding Favour.

Favour is used by characters to tap into supernatural powers and feats. Tapping a Power grants a
1-die size increase. For Marked characters, tapping into their Patron is detailed in Marked Rules,
while tapping into their supporting Powers costs two points of Favour with that Power. For other
characters, they may still tap into Powers at the cost of two points of Favour with that Power. Apart
from that, Supernatural Gifts generally require the character to spend one or more points of Favour.

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 Gifts
“You see, I am a very restless man.”

In MagnusDice, what a character can do isn’t measured with stats and skills. Lasting Aspects form a
basis for what a character is, their approach, personality, and history. Gifts round out the character
with capabilities and powers they can bring to bear against the terrors they face.

Gifts represent a character’s innate qualities and abilities, whether those are positive or negative,
supernatural or mortal. Are they strong, fast, do they have supernatural senses? Maybe they’re able
to crack a mind open and read it like a book, shoot accurately from a speeding vehicle, or roar so
terribly it stops a foe in their tracks.

Linked here is a list of sample Gifts to use in gameplay.

The list of Gifts above is by no means exhaustive. Players or GMs are encouraged to come up with
their own if the list doesn’t have a Gift that fits what they want for a character.

Creating Gifts
So you’ve looked through the sample list of Gifts, and decided that none of them really fit your
character’s concept, or they aren’t precisely what you wanted. MagnusDice offers guidelines to
creating new Gifts to flesh out your character.

Gifts are rated on two axes - Scale and Deviation. The higher the gift is rated on each axis, the more
Favour it’ll cost. Big magic doesn’t come cheap, after all. Refer to the tables below for examples of
each level on the axes, and determine where the gift you want to create lies. The GM is allowed to
veto your rating of a Gift if they think you are under- or overvaluing a Gift.

Scale Cost Examples

Personal 1 The Gift only affects yourself, such as granting you improved skill with a
gun, or the ability to modify your internal organs.

Other 2 The Gift affects one other person or a single object. This covers anything
from setting stone alight with a touch to compelling a statement.

Group 3 The Gift affects an entire group of people within a specific limit. Casting a
supernatural blindness upon everyone in sight, or inducing a deep
animalistic fear upon those who see your eyes.

Area 4 The Gift affects a large area - a room, a building - and everyone within.
This covers things like omniscience over happenings within an area, or
warping a place to induce social isolation.

Deviation Cost Examples

Mundane 1 Someone normal could do this - shooting accurately, resisting pain.

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 Odd 2 Either the person doing this is particularly skilled, or there’s something
afoot. This can range from compelling a statement to an oddly high leap.

Unnatural 3 At this point, there’s no doubt that something weird is up, but exactly
what is unclear. Examples include copying someone’s face, causing heart
attacks in your vicinity, and inducing madness.

Inexplicable 4 The Gift causes something truly and utterly incongruent with reality,
from summoning a monstrous creature so undeniably alien into the
world to resurrecting the wielder of the Gift from the dead.

Total up the Cost from both the Scale and Deviation axes, then consider what modifiers apply to the
Gift. For each modifier that limits the Gift in some significant way, reduce the Cost by 1. For each
modifier that gives the Gift more power, less limitations, or in general makes it stronger, increase the
Cost by at least 1.

After all modifiers have been calculated, the final Cost is the amount of Favour the created Gift will
cost to buy. What type of Favour needs to be spent is determined based on the effect that the Gift has
- the ability to spew fire would ask for Desolation Favour, while truesight would take Eye Favour.

Sample Modifiers
Limitation: The Gift comes from an artefact that can be stolen or destroyed.
Limitation: The Gift only functions at a certain time period.
Limitation: The Gift has a glaring weak point that can be exploited to negate it.

Enhancement: The Gift has an immense effect on the game that isn’t covered in the axes.
Enhancement: The Gift can be granted to others within the cult at a lower potency.
Enhancement: The Gift cannot be avoided or negated through any means.

Examples
Daisy wants to create a simple Gift that gives her character supernatural skill with a specific rifle,
which she rates as a Personal effect that has an Odd deviation from reality. This would give her a +2
dice size on her Supernatural die for firing that rifle. The total Cost is 3, but she argues that tying the
Gift to a unique rifle is a good limitation, which drops the Cost down to 2 Hunt Favour.

Oliver decides that he wants something big and flashy for his relatively progressed character, and
asks the GM for the ability to come back from the dead again and again. This is judged as a Personal
effect with an Inexplicable deviation, for a Cost of 5. The GM judges this ability to also cost 3 more
Favour for immortality and for being repeatable. Oliver decides to add the limitation that being
killed by a specific ritual knife that his character’s enemies all know about ends the resurrection,
which the GM allows to bring the final cost to 7 End Favour.

Simon wants his character to be able to make a space larger than it is supposed to. While this is
judged to be an Odd effect on an Area, which would have 6 Cost, Simon accepts a limitation that he
needs to set up the room with certain mystic inscriptions, bringing the final cost to 5 Vast Favour.

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 Progression
“There is far more to the darkness than simply being unable to see.”

Characters are not static entities - they change and grow, they suffer trauma, they regress, they are
living, dynamic beings. To represent this change, MagnusDice allows characters to spend Favour in
order to modify Aspects and purchase Gifts.

The first way Aspects can be modified is through adding new Aspects, generally based on events
that occurred during play sessions. By spending 1 Favour of the appropriate type, a character can
gain a new Lasting Aspect, up to a maximum of four. If the character has a Transient Aspect from the
events of their session, they may choose to turn that into a Lasting Aspect for free. Only one new
Lasting Aspect can be added this way per session.

Alternatively, characters can evolve their existing Aspects to better reflect their character and the
character’s development. By spending 1 Favour of the appropriate type - Eye Favour for an Aspect
associated with the Eye such as Curiosity - the player can change the current Aspect into something
broader, more ‘powerful’, or other logical progression for that Aspect. The Boon Aspect Patient Zero
can, for example, become I Am Disease, where the character is in control of the diseases they host.

Favour is also used to purchase new Gifts. Each Gift has an associated cost in Favour, and players
may spend accrued Favour after each session to purchase new Gifts of their liking, or even create
one if nothing catches their eye. Gifts can cost a lot of Favour, though, more than players can gain in
a single session. Players who wish to buy expensive Gifts can pay the Favour needed part by part,
gaining the Gift once all Favour has been paid.

However, no matter if the player is buying new Gifts, adding Aspects, or evolving Aspects, change in
a character doesn’t simply happen out of nowhere. Any Favour spent to modify Aspects must be
justified by in-character reasons, whether they are things the character does in downtime or
changes wrought by events in play.

Justifying a new Gift works similarly, at least for Mortal Gifts. On the other hand, Gifts granted
through a Supernatural source are easier to justify - any Marked characters who goes about their life
terrorising people and feeding their god is going to gain new and stronger powers over time.

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 Action
“His blades were blades and forged for killing.”

Time
Gameplay in MagnusDice, like in many other tabletop RPGs, is divided into three abstract units of
time - Turns, Scenes, and Sessions. These do not measure a quantitative unit of time, but rather a
narrative length of time.

Turns are the length of a roll, whether that is hours spent searching for a book in a library, or the
scant few seconds between dodging bullets from a monstrosity.

Scenes cover extended time periods focused around a single location or group of characters. A
chase through the streets is a scene, a conversation can be a scene.

Sessions are like episodes in a show, scenes linked together that constitute a single play session -
for example, a single statement in The Magnus Archives could be a session.

Doom Track
An unknowable beast, twisting and writhing, is hurtling down the corridor at your character.
Section 34 cops are storming into the cult’s base, guns drawn and ready to kill. The grand ritual to
call the Slaughter requires the backdrop of a terrible and vicious war. Danger lurks around the dark
corners of The Magnus Archives, and the player characters will be inevitably drawn into conflicts
with some, if not all of these foes.

The Doom Track is a way to measure distance and positioning in tense situations, from combat to
pursuit and everything in between. The Doom in Doom Track refers to the threat, whether that’s a
lone gunman with a machine gun, a pack of Hunt hounds, or even environments like an End-tainted
school that induces suicides.

The Doom Track isn’t measured in meters or feet, but rather it describes how close to “danger” - the
Doom - a character is. If the Doom is a Hunt sniper, someone cloaked in darkness and in cover,
would be further away from the Doom than someone else sprinting across an open field.

There are six sections on the Doom Track, from Safe For Now being the furthest from danger to
Doomed being right up close with the Doom. All characters are tracked individually on this.

Safe For Now - The Doom is out of range or dealt with, barring significant changes.
Smell Of Rot - There is a sign of the Doom - a scent, a roar, an aura. Run now and you may be safe.
Watch The Horizon - You can see or sense the Doom in full, and it likely can do likewise.
Marked As Prey - The Doom is close now. It knows you, is after you. You can’t rest easy.
Dicing With Death - It’s almost upon you. Escape from here will not be without scars.
Doomed - It can hurt you. You might be able to hurt it, but at what cost?

Moving away from the Doom can take many forms, but generally they involve a Challenge or a
Sacrifice. Each character generally moves one notch on the Doom Track per turn.

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As the name implies, trying to escape a Doom through a Challenge requires a roll of the dice, with
success moving the character away from the Doom. This does not need to be a roll simply to run
away, but rather any challenge that could put distance between the Doom and the character.
Ducking into cover against a gun-wielding Doom is as valid as casting mystical darkness at the eyes
of an ephemeral Doom.

While Challenges may fail to get a character further from their Doom, offering a Sacrifice is always
successful at doing so. Anything can be a sacrifice, so long as it is significant enough to be a real cost.
This ranges from the straightforward such as taking Strain or the loss of a useful item, to the more
abstract like having a Face Aspect blocked off for a time.

To move towards a Doom requires nothing but courage, foolishness, or both.

16
 The Fears
“There are... entities in this world. Beings of vast, dark power.”

Behind every terrible monster lurking in the dark, pulling the strings of every sadistic cultist, are the
Entities, the Fears, beings of infinite dark power with many names. They influence reality in a
supernatural fashion - or, depending on who you ask, they manifest bits of themselves. Books of
dark and mystical knowledge, locations where the very ground seems hostile, all in service of
reaping fear and terror from all those who encounter them.

When faced with these horrific things, what are people to do? Run, fight, freeze, there is another
option available. With the right knowledge, resources, and even good luck, one can take up the
power of the Fears. The ultimate expression of this is becoming Marked, one of the few connected
directly to a Fear, gaining boons and burdens in equal measure.

Marked Rules
During Character Creation, players selected a Patron power who marked their character. After
picking Gifts, add the Lasting Supernatural Aspect Marked By The [Fear] to your character, replacing
Fear with the character’s Patron. Marked By may be tapped for a 1-size increase in the Supernatural
die for any challenge associated with the Power. Characters may also spend points of Favour to tap
the Marked By Aspect as many times as they spend Favour.

Apart from the Marked By Aspect, characters also gain one Boon and one Burden, additional
Lasting Supernatural Aspects reflecting their new status as Marked of a Power. While Boons may be
tapped positively or negatively, Burdens may only be tapped negatively. As with the questions in
Character Creation, these are freeform for players and GMs to come up with.

Some sample Boons and Burdens for each Power are provided in their individual entries in the
pages below. These are simply starting points, inspiration for your own games.

17
 The Buried
The Centre, The Choke, Too close I cannot Breathe

You are a worm, digging through the dirt, choking, crushing dirt, every millimeter you squirm a
struggle through matter so packed and dense it’s impossible. You are drowning in water so black
you cannot see your hands, cannot feel your feet. You are a child once again, trapped in the closet, in
the cellar, the attic, trying so desperately to escape the confines of a space too small for you.

The Buried is the Entity that deals with the fear of being trapped without enough space:
claustrophobia, but also drowning, being crushed, unable to breathe, the underground, being at the
center of everything without enough air as the weight of the world presses down. It is also
associated with metaphorical weight and the feeling of crushing, such as poverty, lethargy, and
bad-faith moneylenders.

Boons Burdens

Air Is Optional Verified Moleperson

Character needs to breathe less, or doesn’t need When in open spaces, character may be
to breathe at all. weakened mentally or physically.

Knows The Earth Never A Dime

Character has a deep understanding of geology The character somehow always finds
and related subjects. themselves broke when most inconvenient.

Plant Your Feet Stressed And Depressed

Character is supernaturally immobile, An incurable depression has overtaken this
especially when focusing. character, driving them to lethargy.

18
 The Corruption
Filth, The Crawling Rot, Can’t Get Clean I Feel Sick

There is a rot in your soul, an uncleanness that never comes out no matter how much you scrub, not
even if your skin is red raw and bleeding. There grows mold in the dark, damp corners of your room,
and you are sure their toxic spores are going to creep into your lungs and grow. There are a million
million skittering, scrabbling ants under the floorboards, in the pillars of your house, and one day
they will swarm out in their filthy hordes.

The Corruption is the Entity that deals with the fear of corruption, disease, rot, and filth, associated
with feelings of disgust and revulsion, the sensation of a thousand filthy insect legs crawling all over
you. Bugs, worms, rats, vermin are common associations, but it also has power over mold and toxin
and infectious disease. There are elements of twisted, unhealthy love within the Corruption, with
many victims finding comfort in what most would consider vile.

Boons Burdens

Patient Zero Unsightly

Character is less susceptible to disease, but Character is disfigured, diseased, or in some
more likely to carry such. way has a revolting appearance.

Infectious Mood Love At First Bite

Character’s emotions tend to leak out and Character has a deep and unnatural love for
‘infect’ others they interact with. rotten things, pests, etcetera.

Part of the Swarm Revolting Diet

Character has an affinity for insects, especially Character must eat waste or refuse once per
pests like locusts and cockroaches. day or more.

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 The Dark
Who’s There I Cannot See, The Forever Blind, Nightfall

Something is hiding in that dark corner of the room, something great and terrible, something that
will swallow you up, grind your bones to ash and marrow. You know not what it looks like, but in
that tenebrousness it could be anything. Are the shadows moving, just out of the corner of your eye,
outside the safety of your fragile lamp-light? Yes, whispers the child, for out of sight lurks a monster.

One of the most primal of fears, the Dark is the Entity that deals with, well, the fear of the dark, of
what lurks beyond sight, of the monsters that have to be there in the shadows. It is associated with
dark water, shadows, coldness and blindness, and is said to be one of the oldest of the Entities. More
often than many of the other Entities, it preys on the young, for even a child can fear the creatures
that lurk in the dark once their nightlight has been switched off.

Boons Burdens

Cloak of Shadow Technophobic

Character has an affinity to hiding in dark Modern technology reacts badly to the
locations and/or at night. character, often breaking down.

Out of Sight Photosensitive

Specifics about the character have a tendency Character is hurt - physically or otherwise - by
to fade from memory. light, especially strong light or sunlight.

Beware, Child Don’t Look

Through appearance or demeanour, character When directly viewed, the character is
evokes a childhood fear. weakened in some way.

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 The Desolation
The Lightless Flame, The Devastation, Please Stop You’re Hurting Me

Everything burns, is burning, has burnt. The smoke stings your eyes, the heat sears and strips your
cracked flesh from bone. No life remains, the ground scoured and blackened by fire, a painful gaping
wound in the world. There is no comforting light here, nor the mellow warmth of a hearth fire, only
the unthinking, unyielding pain of a wildfire that leaves nothing but terror.

The Desolation is the Entity that deals in the fear of pain, of loss, and unthinking, cruel destruction.
It is all the worst parts of fire without any of the warmth, that primal fear that someone who just
doesn’t care about you will come and destroy all you hold dear. Sadism is a core trait among
followers of the Desolation, with the Cultists of the Lightless Flame gaining power by destroying the
lives of people who still had reasons to live.

Boons Burdens

Tussauds’ Model Burn It All

Character has somewhat malleable features Character has an irresistible urge to commit
when exposed to high heat. arson, especially when least helpful.

Leave No Trace No Comforting Light

Character is empowered to destroy evidence of Fires started by the character cannot be helpful,
crime, at least to mundane eyes. or worse, tend towards self-sabotage.

Uncaring Flame Sadistic Need

Character is highly resistant to emotional If the character doesn’t regularly commit acts of
appeals and attacks. sadism, they are weakened.

21
 The End
Death, Terminus, The Coming End, I Don’t Want To Die

All things die. Buildings collapse, nations crumble, living things breathe their last. Even the universe
will meet its reaper in time, when the last star winks out and the last black hole fades to leave
nothing but raw entropy. Who are you to stand against that most ancient of forces? One ember in the
wind, to be snuffed out in time, as all other lights fade from the sky.

The End practically needs no introduction, as the Entity that lords over the fear of death itself. It is
uncaring and unstoppable and will claim all in the end. Frequently, it manifests through the dead
and through dreams - what is sleep but a trial run for death, after all? If one is unlucky enough to
meet one of its servitors at the moment of their death, they can be challenged to a game to avoid
dying - but the challenger takes on the mantle of reaper should they prove victorious.

Due to the End’s lack of desire to conduct a ritual, and the skewed balance of power that it can grant,
GMs may wish to ban players from selecting the End as their Patron or supporting Power. If a GM
chooses to let a player be Marked by the End, it is recommended that the player and GM work out a
different end-state for the character instead of conducting a ritual.

Boons Burdens

Lucid Dreamer Why Care?

Character can control the content of their Character cannot relate to appeals for life or
dreams, and perhaps other dreams. understand logic involving avoiding death.

The End is Nigh! Eternity of This

Character has a preternatural sense for how to Character is eternally trapped in a state of
cause things to meet their end. decrepitude or agony.

Game Savant Deadly Presence

Character has oddly increased skill or luck at a Character has a deadly aura they cannot
one-on-one game of their choice. control, affecting the Mundane.

22
 The Eye
Beholding, The Ceaseless Watcher, It Knows You

Someone is watching you, stalking you, though you can’t catch even a single glimpse of them when
looking over your shoulder. Something is watching you, taking in every dirty secret, every guilty
pleasure. Everything is watching you behind your back, your privacy but another joke to be laughed
at. You are watching, seeking, pursuing without end, each door and unopened book another secret
to be uncovered, even as the discoveries destroy you and yours.

The Eye is the Entity that deals with the fear of being watched, of having each and every one of your
secrets revealed, of the terrible curse of being known. Conversely, it is also about the drive to know
and understand even if what you seek will destroy you. Eyes are its symbol, whether they are
flesh-and-blood or mechanical such as in security cameras. Apart from eyes, it also can be found in
books of eldritch, cursed knowledge and libraries.

Boons Burdens

Eagle Eyed Voyeur

Character’s vision is not only peak human, but Character has an irresistible urge to uncover all
superhumanly precise. secrets kept from them.

How Do I Know That I’m Being Watched

Character occasionally finds themselves Character always feels a sensation of being
knowing things they don’t remember learning. watched, driving them to paranoia.

Speed Reader Compulsive Oversharing

Character has an uncanny ability to absorb and Character finds it very hard to keep a secret if
understand written information quickly. pressed to share.

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 The Flesh
Viscera, The Waking Abattoir, I am Meat

Your body is not enough, never enough, must be more. Grow, shed, eat, process meat, always meat,
everything is meat, indistinguishable raw meat. Cut your body open and change your meat to be
different, to not be just another pile of meat. At the end of the abattoir line of life, there is only one
result, and that is meat. So twist your flesh, starve your body, build your perfect frame, but in the
end, you will always be meat.

The Flesh is a newcomer amongst the Entities, dealing in the fear of mutilation, having your body
changed or destroyed, being processed for meat like an animal, and the realisation that a human is
nothing more than animated meat and bone. Commonly, it manifests in animals, twisted bodies, and
butchery - especially processing lines. It was, after all, born from the congealed fear of millions of
animals sent to the slaughter week after week.

Boons Burdens

Refined Muscle Narcissus

Character’s body has been shaped to enhance Character has an overwhelming obsession with
their physical strength. their physical appearance.

Feed Unhealthy Appetite

Character’s body can serve as a source of Character’s eating habits are harmful, either in
sustenance for others. excess or in lack.

The Flesh Knows I Only See Meat

Character can read a supernatural amount of Character is unable to differentiate others
information through touch. based on appearance.

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 The Hunt
Teeth, Pursuer, Run It’s Getting Closer

Run, it’s on your heels, run for your life, it’s chasing you and won’t stop, can’t you hear the baying of
the hounds as they snarl and sniff and seek out your flesh, you who were once predator but are now
prey, prey to be chased down and slaughtered, skewered like wild boar, so keep running, running for
your life, running from those maws like steel that snap and bite and rend at prey, at you, for you are
but prey in the eyes of the ever-approaching hounds.

The Hunt is sovereign over the primal, animalistic fear of being hunted, chased, turned into prey and
run down. Naturally, this manifests a lot as predators and prey, animals, and also monsters such as
vampires and wendigo. While this is a fear that doesn’t affect people as much, as humanity has
removed itself from the food chain, this does not mean it doesn’t affect people. After all, when there
are monsters, there need to be hunters…

Boons Burdens

Unceasing Chase Prey Animal

Character never tires when in a chase to catch Character attracts powerful predators and foes
their quarry. by demeanour or otherwise.

With The Pack Return To Nature

No matter where the character goes, they can Character is unable to understand much of
find like-minded allies. ‘civilised’ society and social cues.

Assert Dominance Big Bad Wolf

Character is supernaturally empowered to In a social group, character must always have
instill raw animal fear in weaker beings. one target to pick on and ostracise.

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 The Lonely
Forsaken, the One Alone, Come Back Don’t Leave Me

They left you, you knew they would, each and every one of them cutting ties explicitly or otherwise.
You look at the hundreds of friends on your social media, dozens of online indicators green, but no
messages in your inbox. You’re walking through a misty forest, your friends all lost far behind, and
the cold is starting to set in. You lie awake on your hospital bed, breathing your last breaths, but yet
your family has not come, and will never come to see you.

The Lonely is the Entity that covers the fear of isolation, disconnection from society, of being cut off
and alone in the world. While many, even most Powers prey on the isolated, or use isolation as a
tool, this Power’s goal is isolation and the fear thereof. Common manifestations and associations
include fog, mist, silence, ships, travel, and - perhaps unintuitively - crowds.

Boons Burdens

The Lone Road I’m Fine

Character has a deep knowledge of the ins and Character is compelled to reject assistance,
outs of transport and travel. especially in tough situations.

I Will Have Silence Where Are You?

Character can dampen or snuff out any sounds Character has a tendency to become lost and
in their immediate vicinity. alone if with companions.

Extreme Introversion Distasteful Manner

Character recovers faster both physically and Through some fault of mannerism or
mentally when alone. appearance, character is ostracised.

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 The Slaughter
Battlefield, The Enemy of All, We Are Turned Into Corpses

Bullets fly and shells whiz above your head, violence playing a twisted sonata, whose notes are the
crack of gunfire and the screams of the dying, the damned. The dogs of war are loose, and havoc
spills out, painting in blood and gore. Laugh at it all, as blades flash and explosives flare, and sing the
song of war, of unpredictable violence. You are damned, we are all damned, damned men dancing to
the discordant tune of the piper who whistles war.

The Slaughter is the Entity that deals with the fear of pure unpredictable violence, violence without
motive, not knowing where or how pain will come but that it will. It can be the frantic viciousness of
a serial killer to the dispassionate violence of a firing squad. War is the most common way this
manifests - anything from the frenzied soldiery to those that grow fat off war profiteering - but it
also frequently has musical associations, especially pipe instruments.

Boons Burdens

Smell of Blood Fervour of War

Character is in tune with violence, and can Character is unable to control their killing
sense the presence or remnants of such. instinct when riled up.

Butcher’s Hands I Hear the Piper

Character has greater proficiency with melee Character naturally incites and attracts violence
weapons of a specific type. and conflict.

Soldier’s Dispassion Taste of Iron

Character can temporarily suppress their Character feeds off bloodshed and violence,
emotional response. weakening if away from a fight for too long.

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 The Spiral
Esmentiaras, the Twisting Deceit, It Is Not What It Is

Something is wrong with the world, but no one else will believe you when you tell them, and you
can’t be mad, can you? There is a door that wasn’t there before, and you know it will be not there but
there no matter where you look, and you want to turn the handle. You hear the twisted geometries
beyond the fragile skin of spacetime, and can practically see the cogs turn, and no one else will
believe you, and you can’t be mad, right?

The Spiral is the Entity dealing with the fear of madness, the sense that the world isn’t right, that
something in your mind is lying to you. Fractals, labyrinths, lying, hallucinations, alternative
dimensions, and doors are all part of its portfolio. Clay is a common association with too, a material
that can be shaped and moulded, a material that could be anything the sculptor desires.

Boons Burdens

Already Mad I’m Not Mad!

Character can shrug off mind-based effects with Character is possessed of an ironclad certainty
greater efficacy. that they are correct in their madness.

Trust Only Me Twisted Geometries

With little time, character can gaslight another Character is hampered in any navigation they
to follow their warped vision of reality. need to do, getting lost or worse.

A Little Twist You Don’t See It?

Character’s body has been warped positively by One specific thing is not the same for the
their brush with madness. character as it is for everyone else.

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 The Stranger
Outsider, The Face that is not a Face, I Do Not Know You

Your friend is knocking at the door, but their face is not your friend’s face, their eyes are wrong, their
gait is off. Your mother asks you about your day once you get home - your mother never asks you
about your day, nor do you live with her any longer. You smile at your classmates as a greeting, and
they smile back. They never stop smiling their wide, unfeeling smiles.

The Stranger is the Entity of the fear of the unknown and uncanny, the things that seem like humans
but are not, the creeping sense that something is off. It frequently manifests with mannequins, wax
models, taxidermy, and other things that are so close to being a person yet wrong in some particular
and key fashion. Apart from those associations, it is connected to skin, faces, and identity - stealing,
manipulating, copying, all sorts of things.

Boons Burdens

One Of Those Faces You Are Not You

Character can impersonate other people with Character believes they are an imposter, and
uncanny ease. perhaps is an impostor.

Dollmaker Face Fits Wrong

Character’s ability to create and manipulate Something is undeniably off about this
simulacra is enhanced. character’s appearance.

Smile! Something’s Missing

Character is able to elicit a wide grin by saying Character displays some startling lack in skill
a single phrase, no matter the situation. set or basic knowledge.

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 The Vast
Towering, The Falling Titan, I am too Small

Something approaches in the distance, a great titan, an awesome horror to grand to comprehend.
You run away, hoping beyond hope to catch a better glimpse of the thing’s fullness, of that
overwhelming, all-consuming thing, but each step only reveals yet more of the being. It looms over
all reality, exerting a pressure on all things, a yardstick by which all things are measured, all things
are found wanting. It is immensitude, and you are nothing.

The Vast is the Entity whose domain is the fear of insignificance in an enormous universe, of losing
oneself in too much space, of heights and falling and open areas. Anything terrifying involving
openness, void, falling, and vertigo is likely part of it. Lovecraftian horror - monstrosities too
immense to comprehend that consider humanity like a single ant in the garden - is under the wing
of this Power. It can also manifest in deep water, a point of common contention with the Buried.

Boons Burdens

Area Knowledge Pathetic, Insignificant Ant

Character has a deep understanding of space, Character sees themself as disposable and
the sky, or other associated biome. insignificant.

Lovecraftian Perspective Stare Into The Void

Character benefits from an increased field of Character has looked into some unknowable
vision through extra eyes or similar. void and broke from the strain.

Land On Your Feet Agoraphobe

Character can survive long falls with minimal or If stuck in an open area, character is liable to
no injury. freak out or panic.

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 The Web
The Spider, Mother of Puppets, Why am I doing this

Just another taste, another whiff, another line, another fish falling hook-line-sinker. You fire a pistol,
bought with money you never saw, never knew the origin of, at a person you don’t know. Red
splatters on your hands, incriminating evidence. Who pulls your strings? You don’t know, can’t
know, but the thought lurks at the back of your mind, in your fever dreams. A grinning spider, each
of its eight spindly legs tugging eight more strands of web...

The Web’s domain is the fear of being controlled or trapped without knowing it, of your will not
being your own, of being manipulated for some ineffable plan. As the name implies, it typically
manifests in spiders, spiderweb, patterns like webs, but also puppets and addiction. Hypnosis and
patterns that ‘trap’ attention are also common manifestations of the Web’s power. In contrast to
most other Entities, the Web seems happy with the world as is. As such, GMs are encouraged to have
players who work under the Web figure out a different goal for their character.

Boons Burdens

Look Into My Eyes... Spin A Tangled Tale

By locking gazes with someone, character can Character lies compulsively, even about things
subtly influence their mind. that don’t matter.

I Wouldn’t Lie To You Like Flies To Honey

Character gains increased proficiency at telling Character is addicted to some sort of substance
lies to people who trust them. to a life-destroying extent.

Let’s Make A Deal Pull My Strings

Character can find what other people most Character is subservient to a different, powerful
desire with a conversation. entity and must follow their orders.

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 Optional: The Extinction
The Terrible Change, The Future Without Us, The World is Always Ending

With a push of a button, humanity has become death, destroyer of worlds. Flense the skin of reality,
scour what was from the face of the earth, lay waste to all that we were. What lies ahead are cold
metal angles that cut the fallible human mind, a thousand years of waste plastic, and complete,
catastrophic annihilation. There is no place in this new reality for humanity, no slot in the new
world order for its creators, and so homo sapiens dies, sacrificial lambs at their own altar.

The Extinction is a hypothetical Entity that deals with the fear of catastrophic change, the extinction
of humanity as a species, something else crawling in to take its place. It is especially potent when it
comes to the fear that humanity did this to itself, that our doom came at our own hands. Common
associations are with doomsday weapons like nuclear weaponry, man made catastrophes, code,
numeric strings, and the destruction of human flesh.

The status of the Extinction as an Entity proper is debatable. Some may say it’s powerful enough to
have its own avatars and manifestations, others may claim it’s just a nascent Power, and there are
others that deny the Extinction as a fear altogether, grouping it under a different Power. The powers
afforded to those under the Extinction’s wing may also be deemed ‘game-breaking’ in scope or
power, impossible to run as a PC. As such, GMs do not have to include the Extinction in their games.

Boons Burdens

Nuclear Touch Cut My Mind

Character is able to radiate a destructive, Character’s brain has been modified, causing
corrosive nuclear energy. damage when their thoughts don’t line up.

Embrace Blessed Metal No Longer Human

Character is partially or fully robotic, and gains Character is a mutant, robot, alien, or other
benefits associated with that. nonhuman entity with nonhuman morals.

Without Us There Is Nothing

Character has seen the future without Character has glimpsed the future without
humanity, and gleans knowledge from that. humanity, and it brings them despair.

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 Artefacts, Places, Monsters
“an ornate wooden thing, with a snaking pattern of lines...”

The world of the Magnus Archives is full of all manner of dreadful beings and baleful locations, from
the uncanny pair of Breekon and Hope, the mystical gravitas of the Web Table, to the terrifying
grandeur of the Panopticon. These Artefacts, Places, and Monsters are all represented in
MagnusDice as a collection of Aspects, much like the player characters themselves.

Creating an artefact, place, or monster follows similar guidelines as creating a player character - a
few questions are asked, and the answers are distilled into Lasting Aspects, generally Supernatural
in nature. After all, these are supernatural things being described.

Concept
First and foremost, the Concept - What is the thing in question? Is the place a nexus of power for The
Flesh? Is that knife cursed by the End to always kill its owner? Was the faceless monster once an
ordinary man, but an encounter with his doppelganger changed him? Distil the answer into a single
Lasting Aspect such as House Claimed by The Flesh or A Twisted Man, Once Ordinary and move on.

Legend
Behind every mystical staff, every haunted mansion, there is a story, a Legend. Whether this is
rooted in history and fact, or conjecture and urban legend, it can be hard to tell. The question, What
does this thing do? looks to establish a standard throughline from all the rumours. Urban legends
about the band Grifter’s Bone attribute many things to the band, but a common idea is that the band
Plays Music That Induces Violence.

It is important to note that artefacts, places, and monsters only have one Legend, even if they may
manifest many different-seeming abilities. This Aspect is the core of everything that artefact, place,
or monster does. The Web Table’s Power could be Can Trap Anything, as it is able to trap the
attention of those who look at it and the monster that impersonates Sasha.

Face
The Face in a character is someone the character knows - similarly, the Face in the creation of an
artefact, place, or monster is someone tied deeply to said thing. Ask the question, Who is inextricably
related to this thing? For example, all Leitner books would likely have the same Aspect for the Face,
From the Library of Jurgen Leitner. If the author of a specific book is more memorable than Leitner
in the creation or history of the book, they would be that artefact’s Face instead.

Bane
All things have points of weakness, such as the mythological vampire’s tendency to immolate in
sunlight, or the legendary Achilles and his heel. What can work against this thing? is the last
question on the list. Banes are almost always Mortal, sometimes even trivial. A magical book would
have the Bane of Fire, while a Reaper of the End may have the Bane of Challenge Me At Chess.

While Bane Aspects function as a way for those in the know to overcome their supernatural
antagonists, this does not always mean that a Bane can destroy the thing in question. In fact, it may
seem that Banes merely postpone the supernatural’s eventual victory. Sometimes, a Bane simply

33
wards the monster off, or shuts the cursed board game down for a year. In some circumstances, the
Bane has an unknown side effect, and those that use it are doomed.

Final Touches
All artefacts, places, and monsters are tied to one of the Powers - which specific Power will likely
become clear in creating the thing. The artefact, place, or monster gains the fifth Lasting Aspect, Of
the [Fear], to indicate that it belongs to that Power. Going back to the example of the Web Table, it
would have the Aspect Of the Web.

With those five Aspects finalised, you now have a fully realised artefact of horror, monstrosity, or
haunted location to put in your game.

Optional: Gifts, Dice, Strain

Artefacts, places and monsters don’t always cleave to the rules of reality as we know it, but there are
still many examples that do. For these situations, MagnusDice can model their capabilities with
similar rules to player characters - a Mortal and Supernatural die, Strain track, and Gifts.

Both dice start at d6 in size, then increase or decrease based on how dangerous you want the thing
to be. Something posing a minor threat like a soldier touched by the Slaughter may drop to
Md6+Sd4, while a supernatural terror, fattened on fear may have Md2+Sd10.

Monsters follow the same rules as player characters with regards to Strain and Injuries. Artefacts do
not suffer dice size decreases with Strain, instead having a number of Strain boxes - generally 3 to 8
depending on how tough it is. Once all boxes are filled, the artefact no longer functions. Places do
not suffer Strain, as they are too large to really be destroyed. Note that not all attacks will be able to
damage a monster or artefact - a stone altar would not take Strain from mundane fire.

The vagueness of the Legend Aspect in determining a monster or artefact’s true capabilities can be
difficult to work with. GMs may choose to simply use Gifts to model their terrifying antagonist’s
capabilities, much like PCs. For minor threats, spend 5 Favour among any number of Gifts. Moderate
threats gain 10 Favour instead, while major opponents may spend up to 15 Favour.

Example
John, the GM of an upcoming game of MagnusDice, wants to create a cursed sigil that drives those
who look at it mad. This is a simple idea, which John creates the Concept Aspect Sigil of Insanity for.
Its Legend Aspect comes easily, Stare At This And Go Mad.

However, the Face Aspect is challenging, but then John decides that a rare few people gain
madnesses that leave them able to communicate. This becomes the Face Aspect Cult of the Sigil. John
knows the sigil can be easily wiped away or destroyed, but this doesn’t seem like the sigil’s true
weakness - but sight is a key factor. He creates the Bane Aspect Warped Glasses, reflecting how one
might counter the sigil.

Finally, John adds the Aspect Of The Spiral, reflective of the obvious Spiral nature of the sigil. He adds
a note that it can inscribe itself in the flesh of those driven mad by its power, and is done with the
creation of the Sigil of Insanity!

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 Terminology
Patron - The entities that lurk beside reality, driving all supernatural events in the world. Also: the
Fears, the Powers, the Entities.

Mundane - The untouched and unaware, the masses, Muggles.

Scarred - People who have been touched by a Power, but are unaware of the truth. Most statement
givers are Scarred.

Marked - In the know and claimed by a Power. Sometimes referred to as nascent Avatars. Players
generally begin as Marked.

Avatar - A Marked character who has undergone physical or metaphorical death, and thus become
truly in tune with their Patron.

Aware - Untouched by the Powers, at least directly, but this character has become aware of the
supernatural side of reality.

Aspect - A quality of a character or a situation. These can be anything from supernatural boons and
burdens, injuries sustained, people a character knows, and even an event in the past.

Mortal - Flesh and blood and things under natural laws. Things with the Mortal tag function in
accordance with standard reality.

Supernatural - Things that break the laws of reality, that should not be, that are spooky, weird, and
definitively of the Powers.

true death - Many supernatural things can seem to die, or die but come back. This refers to a state of
death that no supernatural power can overcome.

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The Magnus Archives is a creation of Rusty Quill, and is distributed and licensed under the Creative Commons
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