Of Yarn and Bone is a conversation-first game of identity with stakes, magic with awe, and play with trust.

WHO IN THE WORLD ARE YOU?

Your character is a product of the world; they start with three Names that describe their place in it. Names are epithets that might be a role they fill, an identity or something whispered about them. They are actionable, used in play, and may change or be awarded (up to six total).

  1. Create three Names that define your character; here are some prompts to help:
  • What role does your character have in the world? eg. Reluctant Captain, Aging Herbalist, The Fixer
  • Anything from their past? eg. Orphaned Princess, Butcher's Daughter, Owes a Blood Debt
  • What trait describes them? eg. Ruthless, Haunted, Unshakeable
  • Do they have a strong relationship? eg. Widow's Son, The Last of My Line, Sworn to Protect Her
  • Are they known for something? eg. The Witness, Ship Thief, Speaks With Stones
  • Do they own something of note? eg. The Good Ship Revenge, My Father's Blade, The Broken Crown
  • Do they have a strong belief? eg. The Land Remembers, No Gods No Masters, The Way of the Snail
  1. Write down three words that describe your character's look, features or vibe
  2. Name your character

Your character has typical gear based on their Names. Consider making extravagant gear a Name.

The GM represents the world. When uncertain, talk it through.

Legendary Names

Legendary Names are earned by legendary actions in play—the things people write songs about—and awarded by the table during Reflections. This can be both good and bad. Legendary Names may not need to roll in certain circumstances and their fame might bring help from admirers. They may also attract wannabes looking to become a legend by defeating one. WATCH YER BACK!

DICE

When a character does something risky—when the cost might be meaningful—roll 1d6; add an additional d6 if they have a relevant Name. Another for a Legendary Name (or don't roll at all). Something changes after every roll.

Highest die determines success:

  • 5-6 SUCCESS! Circumstance might differentiate between levels of success.
  • 4 Devil's Bargain: the player describes a reasonable success or failure; the GM describes the other, then negotiate and balance between the two.
  • 1-3 nuanced failure.

Lower die suggests impact. Use it to scale the result or ignore based on the fiction:

  • Combat: Rolls: 2d6 → 6, 5 you succeed and deal serious damage
  • Climbing: Rolls: 2d6 → 6, 2 you reach the top but you're exhausted and exposed
  • Rolls: 2d6 → 3, 1 you fail and leave yourself in a bad spot
  • No Relevant Name: nobody needs training to slice a throat... but the fictional positioning required likely negates the need to roll the 1d6

Blaze of Glory: a final, desperate act. Like Devil’s Bargain, you get what you want, but your character dies achieving it.

Injuries

  • Bruised: punch, winded, fall, kicked in the tender bits. You might feel this in the morning but rub some dirt on it and you'll shake it off in a few minutes.
  • Bloodied: stab, cut, internal bleeding. Requires a good night’s rest and treatment; take too many and you'll bleed out.
  • Broken: rib, limb, concussed, you're done for the day; maybe the week.
  • Buried: You’re dead, but maybe you can bargain with Death to earn a new Name? It'll be fine... Death is a nice guy?

Help

After a roll, a character may ask another character for help. The helping player rolls (including any applicable Names) and both characters share the consequences.

Die of Fate

The Die of Fate might be rolled to establish the weather, indicate an NPC's attitude, determine morale or any number of other things.

Roll 1D6:

  • 5-6 something good!
  • 3-4 something revealing
  • 1-2 something bad

MAGIC

Magi are born with a gift that requires development. Some learn from tomes and scrolls while others resonate with the world. Magic is like music: some can, some can't; some read, some intuit.

The world is alive and a mage communes with it. Air, tree, stone, ocean, star; all allies of the mage. With proper knowledge, a mage may petition the world for favors. Given their relationship is in good standing, the world is likely to comply.

A mage asks the world to do what it wants to do, deliberately.

  • Stone collects: Ask it to gather and hold.
  • Air carries: Ask it to steal a voice.
  • Water remembers: Ask it to reflect what it has seen.
  • Moon reveals: Ask it to fix its gaze.
  • Vines hunger: Ask them to claim what lingers.
  • Fire consumes: Ask it to leave nothing but ash.

The world grants favors by exaggerating its nature, not by obeying intent.

Promises

Promises are the simplest spells. Often dismissed as cheap tricks, a clever mage uses them to great effect. Ephemeral by nature, they leave no lasting mark on the world, yet they signify an unspoken agreement between mage and world. Small favors between neighbors. Any mage worth their socks should be able to cast these without rolling.

Examples:

  • Turn dust to fog
  • Silence footsteps
  • Obscure in shadow
  • Carry a whisper on the wind
  • Amplify a voice
  • Spark a candle

Casting Spells

Advanced spells require a Totem: something you can physically touch that connects you to what you're petitioning; a relationship.

Touch the thing itself: a vine to ensnare, sand to shift, fire to envelop. Or something that remembers the whole: blood remembers the blade, hair remains of its owner, a dead flower knows death. Can't reach the moon? The ocean's tides may introduce you.

Casting requires speech and your touch.

Example Totems:

  • Stone remembers the wall
  • A king's slipper knows the king intimately
  • Dead flowers know death
  • Saliva carries a language
  • A hanging tree has taken life
  • Ash mourns what was lost

To Cast, roll 2d6 (or 3d6 for Legendary Name):

  • The higher die determines success (see #DICE)
  • The lower suggests impact or consequence
  • A mage feeling a spell failing may accept a Burden and have it succeed instead. Burdens are an imbalance in the world and represented by a random Tarot card. Player and GM use the Tarot card and circumstance to negotiate how the Burden is satisfied. The world will be repaid; immediately, in time or both.
  • Rolling snake-eyes invokes both failure and a Burden
  • Magi who take on three Burdens become lost in the world

Enhancement Spells

Enhancement Spells are woven into a primary spell to amplify it: affect multiple targets, extend duration, or increase intensity. They take time (an extra turn) and compound the risk: a mage who pushes a failing enhanced spell (or rolls snake-eyes) takes two Burdens.

Rituals

Rituals yield unparalleled power but demand patience. Substantial magic takes days, weeks, or months. Rituals change things permanently. A river moved stays moved. The world remembers your working.

The GM and player negotiate requirements based on scope and relationship. Ask: What connections does the mage lack? Without connection, the magic is impossible.

Examples:

  • Cursing an enemy: connection to the target (hair, possession). Their vulnerability (when, where). What knows sickness (grave earth, plague-touched cloth).

  • Warding a village: connection to the boundary (stone from the church, villagers' blood/piss). Gather what protects (salt, thorns, hearth ash, iron). Cast at protective hours (dawn, full moon).

  • Raising a storm: connection to the vessel (timber, sail). Gather what knows the heights (lightning-struck wood) and what knows the deep (crushed shell, whale bone). Coordinate at the convergence (new moon, peak tides).

Summoning

The Fae are the most knowledgeable in magic and enjoy the deepest bonds with the world. If their magic has boundaries, none are known. But with long life comes madness.

Summoning requires an Offering worthy of their attention: a vintage bottle from a destroyed vineyard, a coin that bought a life, a wedding ring never worn, a bottle of silence from a cathedral, or a shadow cut from a thief.

Once present, the Fae will name their price for the work. A Name. Your shadow. A piece of yourself you didn't know you could lose. That price is not negotiable. Refusal may be worse than acceptance. GOOD LUCK!

Only the Fae can restore life to the dead.

REFLECTIONS

At the end of each session, go around the table and reflect on each character. Grant a new Name (up to six) or let one be forgotten when it feels right.

  • Does the world speak differently about you now?
  • Did your actions honor your Names or twist them into something else?
  • Have any of your Names changed, faded, or taken on new meaning?

RULE ZERO

  1. By the powers vested in me (which are none), I give you permission to do anything, change anything or ignore anything that results in a better game for you and your players. Forever.

EXAMPLE PLAY

Combat

  • Serra (Former Royal Guard, Bearer of Ancient Blade)
  • Corvus (Shadow Walker, Brother’s Keeper)

GM: "The Bone Knight advances, his armor clicking like old teeth. What do you do?"
Serra: "I want to engage him directly; blade to blade. As a Former Royal Guard, I recognize his stance and know these > types of warriors."
GM: "Roll with two dice since your Royal Guard training applies here."
Rolls: 2d6 → 5, 3
GM: "With a 5, you succeed! You strike true, but the impact is minor; he’s Bruised."
Serra: "I feint low but strike high, using a technique I learned in the palace guard."
GM: "The Bone Knight's armor cracks where your blade strikes. He's Bruised, but he counters with a sweeping blow > toward your legs."
Corvus: "Can I help Serra? I want to distract him from the shadows."
GM: "Yes, roll with your Shadow Walker Name."
Rolls: 2d6 → 2, 4
GM: "With a 4, it's a Devil's Bargain. What do you think happens?"
Corvus: "I successfully distract him, making him miss Serra."
GM: "But perhaps the noise draws the attention of his skeletal attendants in the next room?"
Corvus: "Yup... that sounds right."
GM: "Perfect. Serra, you see the Bone Knight's blow go wide as Corvus creates a distraction... but you hear the rattling of bones from behind the chapel door..."

Magic

Not every spell needs complications, but when they do, trust your instincts. Some examples:

  • Kael Escape Artist, Owes the Guild

Kael: "I ask the metal to remember when it was ore, before it was shaped." GM: "The lock softens, opens. But it stays soft; melted like wax. It can never be made secure again." Kael: "Anyone can get in now?" GM: "Anyone. Including whatever's chasing you."

  • Senna Shadow Talker, Exposed Thief

Senna: "I ask the vines to snare the wolf." GM: "They writhe up from the brush and bind him. Everyone in the square sees it; sees you command them." Senna: "Shit." GM: "By morning, the city knows: you consort with darkness. People will act accordingly."

  • Mira Seen the Rain, Searching for Her

Mira: "I ask the rain to show me the path they took." GM: "The rain shows you their footsteps. The old mill by the river." Mira: "Perfect." GM: "But rain doesn't choose sides; it shows your steps too. They'll know someone's coming."

  • Farrow Death Becomes Her, Crow's Student

Farrow: "I ask the hanging tree about its last victim." GM: "A horse thief, two weeks back. It shows you every kick, every gasp, the eventual stillness. You feel its pride in the work. When the vision fades, you can still feel the noose tight around your own neck."

Burdens

  • Thistle (Hedge Witch of the Vale, Grandmother’s Student)

GM: "The plague spirits swarm through the village. What do you do?"
Thistle: "I need to create a barrier. I pull out my bundle of dried thornberry branches–my Totem–and begin to whisper the old words my grandmother taught me about boundaries and protection."
GM: "Roll your casting."
Rolls: 2d6 → 2, 1
GM: "Ooh, both low. The magic resists and the spirits are descending on the villagers. You can accept the failed spell or take a Burden to make it succeed."
Thistle: "Yeah, I can’t let the village down. I’ll take on a Burden to force the success."
GM: Draws a Tarot card "You pull The Tower. As your spell manifests, a shimmering thorny barrier rises around the > village...

Burden Resolution

  • Thistle (Hedge Witch of the Vale, Grandmother’s Student)

GM: "The Tower. Destruction of the established. You took on this Burden to save the town. Balance must be restored, now or in the future."
Thistle: "The herb wall. My grandmother and I built it, tended it for years..."
GM: "You’d tear it down?"
Thistle: "Yes. One barrier for another. The scattered herbs might even protect others."
GM: "A fitting price. Show me how you do it..."

Spells

  • Rowan (Wandering Mage, Stone Speaker, Hunted by the Ironwood Clan)

GM: You're trapped in the cave. Thirty goblins outside have piled brush at the entrance and set it ablaze. Smoke is filling the cave. They're between you and the forest. What do you do?

Some magical solutions discussed at the table:

  • Ask cave stone to remember the passage it once was; find the old water channel, create a back exit
  • Ask air to rush outward violently and blast the brush fire to scatter the goblins
  • Ask fire to consume the brush quickly, burn hot and fast before the smoke kills you (risk: might spread to the forest)
  • Ask water seeping through the cave walls to gather and reflect what it's seen: the goblins' positions
  • Combine a LOUD VOICE Promise with rumbling rocks underfoot to scare them off
  • Ally with the trees. Convince them these axe-wielding goblins will be upon them next
  • Ask briars to tangle (with Enhancement to affect enough goblins to rout the rest)

Rowan: I'll use the smoke itself. Ask it to billow and shroud me as I slip out toward the forest. GM: Smart. Roll your casting with Stone Speaker. Smoke isn't quite your specialty but you're working with natural elements.

v1.1.24 by brine
much love to: Wightbred, WoDu, JS&MR, AWoE

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