Hey folks! Lots of changes this month. We wanted to provide you with some more detailed notes about what's changed and why.

Updates:

• Updated Fathom action rules
  • Taking action in the UnReal no longer affects the number of dice you roll to take action. Previously, you suffered a -1d penalty for each Fathom depth you were operating on. Instead, it applies a Heavy tag to any incoming and outgoing stress you might take, with the additional caveat that the GM can elect to replace an incoming Heavy tag with an additional consequence of their choice.
  • We've altered this rule because we want Fathom depths to be both exciting and scary, but not to the point where it's hard to DO things, especially early in a drifter's career. This both simplifies the process and makes it more likely that a drifter can build a good pool of dice to take action, but that the result will probably still be swingy in a startling way. The optional rule that lets GMs switch out Heavy tags for consequences gives GMs the chance to be creative when a roll doesn't go a drifter's way if the situation calls for it.
• Changes around the language of the UnReal, the rules of the game, and objective truth
  • There are a number of elements of the game, as-written, that currently read as self-contradictory, such as the Six-Fathom Theory's questionable veracity living alongside the fact that the game has rules for dice based on what Fathom you're on. We've added additional language to stress that the game and the way the world presents itself as two different things, and things like the truth about Fathoms (or other things, like the personhood of UnReal creatures) should not be taken as gospel or unvarnished, wiki-certified truth about the world. If Fathom is ANYTHING, it is subjective.
•  Changes around the language of particular things and abilities
  • Related to the above, we've updated the "Monsters" section to instead be referred to as the "Bestiary", to help try and make it clear that, while people within the City might view these things as monsters, the writers of this itch.io RPG do not think it's that simple.
  • We have also changed the Velveteen ability "Code Switch" to instead be called "Translation Error" to try and reduce the number of bad-faith readings of that playbook's worth as a person.
• Haunts
  • Fixed a typo around what the different types of Haunts were
  • Added a section distinguishing how Valuable exchange works
  • Removed the concept of "Power" from Fixers - a Fixer of any sort can now heal any amount of Stress, to-scale with the Valuable (or Debt) that you pay. More on why in the next section in Fallouts.
• Simplified Fallout removal
  • You no longer need to "downgrade" a fallout to remove it - you can simply visit a relevant Fixer and exchange a Valuable of appropriate size to have them fix your problem.
  • This is a big one. We've made it a lot easier to heal yourself up when you take stress and take Fallouts, and we've done so for a couple of different reasons.
  • One, because we've simplified - and restricted - how many fallouts a given drifter can take (compared to the 5 Harm boxes of a standard FITD character and the myriad fallout a SBR character can have), a drifter can stack up ongoing conditions really quickly. We want them to be impactful, and they should be significant, but they shouldn't completely shut down your ability to operate. After all, you tick the abandon clock AND get a scar whenever you get a Critical Fallout - that's lasting punishment enough.
  • Two, the process for getting rid of a fallout already requires 1) a relevant Fixer, 2) a downtime action, and 3) a relevant valuable. We've removed the fourth requirement of 4) downgrade the fallout to Minor because it seemed like overkill. On top of that....
  • Three, because our fallouts are flat-affect and conjured by the GM, rather than pulled from a big list in the book, "downgrading" a fallout might often not make any mechanical sense.
  • Because we've made this simpler, however, we've also raised the cost of getting rid of a fallout, so that it's not simply trivial.
    • A Minor Fallout costs a D8 Valuable to get rid of
    • Major costs D10
    • Critical costs D12

• Investigation
  • Whenever you gather information, if you get follow-up questions, you can ask them right away, or save them to ask during the job. Neat!
• Stress
  • We added some language to clarify that D4 is the default outgoing stress die.
• The Reaper
  • Minor Ability - Manhunter - Declaring a target to hunt is now a once-per-job ability.