Custom Mechanics

Keep these few and sharp. Do not bury Pathfinder under a second game.

1. The Seven Seals (party)

When the party accepts the Reckoning, they share a single seal-band (an iron ring, a length of chain, a set of marks on the map — pick a physical token for the table).

• Completing a Court breaks that Court’s seal. Announce it. Mark it.
• Seven broken seals open the Unwritten Court.
• A Court left unresolved does not break its seal.
• Seals cannot be stolen, sold, or transferred. Greed will try.

Hero Point (optional): Once per book, the party may invoke a broken seal to reroll a check that echoes that Court’s theme (Pride to admit need, Wrath to forgo, etc.). The GM describes how the previous Court lives in the moment.

2. The Inward Gaze (climax of every book)

At the Court’s turning point, the GM calls Inward Gaze. Pause the tactical board.

1. The GM asks that book’s question of one or more PCs (see each book). Use the Session 0 sealed truths.
2. The player answers in character or at the table — but it must be true of the character. No clever dodge. A dodge is an answer: they flinched.
3. Resolve mechanically:

PF2e

• Admitting the truth: the PC becomes Off-Guard until the start of their next turn (vulnerability) and gains 1 Hero Point (or a +2 circumstance to the scene’s decisive check). They may clear 1 Sin Mark of this book’s type.
• Lying to themselves: they avoid the vulnerability. They gain 1 Sin Mark. The Court notices. Future DCs in this book increase by 1.

PF1e: trade a round of being shaken for a +4 sacred/profane bonus on the scene’s key roll — or refuse, take a Sin Mark, and the world hardens.

Never let a save replace the answer. The Will save, if you use one, is to stay standing after speaking, not to skip the speaking.

3. Sin Marks (personal)

A Sin Mark is a named condition: Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath, Sloth.

Gaining: acting in a Court’s pattern at a cost to someone else’s personhood, or flinching at the Inward Gaze.

Spending (the temptation): once per scene, spend a Sin Mark to treat a check as one degree of success better. Describe how the sin helps. Then someone else in the scene pays a small, specific price (trust, a resource, an NPC’s regard).

Clearing: Confession (below), or an Inward Gaze honestly met.

At 3 Marks of the same sin: the PC is claimed by that Court until they Confess. Claimed characters have a visible tell. The Master can speak to them in dreams.

Marks are not alignment. A good paladin can carry Wrath. That is the point.

4. Confession (once per book, per PC)

A PC may Confess a truth about themselves — to the party, to an NPC who matters, or (costlier) only to the GM, which clears less.

• Clears 1 Sin Mark.
• Changes the social weather: an NPC may shift a step. A lie the plot was standing on may collapse.
• Cannot be used to dump a secret the player is not willing to have in play.

If no one ever Confesses, Book 8 is harsher. That is fair.

5. Echoes (campaign memory)

At the end of each book, write five lines (see Overarching Rules). These are not XP. They are the encounter list for Book 8.

When a later Court echoes an earlier choice, give the table the pleasure of recognition. Do not hide the callback so deep they miss it.

6. Doubles (no mirrors)

Once per book, a PC may meet someone who made the choice they did not — a Grey Road traveler, an Unburned Name, a courtier. This is the campaign’s reflection. No glass. No clone fights unless the PC attacks first.

Treat as a social encounter with the PC’s own discarded option. Afterward, offer a free Confession if they speak to it honestly.

7. The Eighth Door

Until seven seals are broken:

• Teleport, plane shift, and scrying toward “the Master” fail as if the destination does not exist.
• Prophecy returns the same image: an iron band with empty marks.
• Killing Maera, burning maps, or speedrunning does not skip the requirement.

When the seventh seal breaks, the door appears the next time the party is in a quiet place together. They may rest first. They should.