Player's Strategic Guide
STILLPOINT
Between Mind and Matter
This is not a game about rolling dice. It is a game about managing what you have, reading what's coming, and deciding — before it arrives — who you need to be when it does.
Before You Sit Down
The STILLPOINT rulebook tells you what exists. This guide tells you how to think about it. There's a difference between knowing the rules and knowing how to play well — and the gap between them is almost entirely about anticipation.
Stillpoint is a game where preparation beats improvisation. Where understanding your resource limits before a scene starts means you'll still be functional at the end of it. Where a character who walks into a building knowing exactly what lies in their Memory performs dramatically better than one who figures it out mid-crisis.
This is not a criticism of roleplaying spontaneously. It's an acknowledgment that the system rewards players who think like their character would think — and most of the characters in Stillpoint have reasons to think ahead. The Mage whose restrictions are carefully considered. The Psion who knows exactly how much Psi they have left. The Ordinary who loaded the right items before leaving.
The fiction is the point. The character is the point. But underneath the fiction is a web of finite resources — Wounds, Fatigue, Psi, Fortitude Buffer, Restrictions, Memory Slots, Carry Capacity, Training Points — that determine what you can do when it matters. Ignoring that layer doesn't make you a better roleplayer. It makes you a character who runs out of options at the worst possible moment.
This guide covers everything players interact with: the character sheet section by section, every resource and how it depletes and recovers, the declarations you can make in structured moments and their strategic weight, preparation between sessions, and the principles of roleplay that make Stillpoint feel like Stillpoint.
The Game Beneath the Game
Every session of Stillpoint is, at its core, a question of whether you have what you need when you need it. That question has two parts: what you have (your resources, what lives in your Memory, your inventory) and what you need (the threats, demands, and challenges the session will create).
The gap between those two things is where strategy lives. A player who understands the gap and manages it intelligently will consistently outperform one who doesn't — not because they're better at dice, but because they have options when it counts.
The Three Loops
Stillpoint operates on three interconnected loops. Understanding them is the entire strategic foundation of the game.
The Preparation Loop
Between sessions or between significant encounters: assess your resources, predict what's coming, shape your Memory and inventory to match. This is where you decide what version of your character shows up next session.
The Expenditure Loop
During play: spend resources deliberately. Every Wound absorbed, every Fatigue box filled, every point of Psi spent, every magic system used is a withdrawal from a finite account. This includes melee attacks — every close-range swing costs Fatigue scaled by your Expertise. Spend with intention. Spend knowing what you're saving it for.
The Recovery Loop
Rest is a resource too. You cannot always rest when you want to. When you can, what kind of rest you take determines what comes back. A Quick Breather doesn't save you if your Wound track is full. A Slumber is a security risk if you can't afford the time.
What "Having the Right Tools" Actually Means
In Stillpoint, your tools are:
The dice you roll in any given situation. A well-matched stat means reliable outcomes. A mismatched stat means you're gambling with bad odds. You can't change your stats mid-scene — but you knew what they were when you built the character.
The named, configured declarations your character can make in a structured moment. You build them in Memory between sessions. The number of Skills you can hold is capped by Insight. Walk in with the right ones for what's ahead — not the ones that felt good last time.
What you're carrying. Weight limited by Might. Items are the bridge between preparation and execution — the antidote you stocked, the extra weapon, the medical supplies. You cannot pull from an inventory you didn't fill.
The character who survives isn't the strongest one. It's the one who showed up knowing what the room needed.
All Five Resources
Stillpoint tracks five distinct resource systems, each with its own fill rate, depletion triggers, and recovery conditions. Knowing all five — not just the ones that apply to your type — makes you a better ally and a harder target.
A single pool of up to 6 boxes scaled by Vigor tier. Fills when the Fortitude Buffer is depleted. Poison and Bleeding drain the Fortitude Buffer first — overflow spills here. When the wound pool is full, the character is down.
Absorbs incoming harm before it becomes Wounds. A higher buffer means more hits land cleanly before injury begins. Critically: Poison and Bleeding drain this buffer first — not the wound pool. Depletes fast in sustained combat or under status effects. Recovers on Short Rest and above.
Physical and mental exhaustion. Fills from melee attacks, movement, sustained effort, and extended combat. Every close-range swing costs Fatigue scaled by Expertise; every movement costs Fatigue scaled by distance. Clears most readily of all tracks — a Quick Breather removes 1 Fatigue, a Short Rest removes 3, a Long Rest removes 6, Slumber clears all.
Psions only. Pool size: 4 / 8 / 12 / 16 by stage. Spent on active psionic abilities. At 0, no active abilities can be used — passive perception remains. Partial recovery on Short Rest (1 pt) and Long Rest (3 pts); full recovery on Slumber.
Mages only. Each rank fills one pip on the Magic Weight track. Pips absorb Backlash — when magic generates a backlash roll, each filled pip reduces the result by 1. Investing in rank early means Backlash hurts far less as your systems become more demanding.
These tracks interact. A character with full Fatigue and an empty Fortitude Buffer is already compromised before a single Wound lands. Resource mismanagement compounds — the deeper you let multiple tracks get, the fewer options you have when the scene escalates.
The Carry Limit (Inventory Resource)
Inventory weight is capped by your Might tier. This isn't a punitive rule — it's a preparation decision. Higher Might means more options in the bag. Lower Might means tighter choices about what you bring.
Before every significant event, review your inventory against your best read of the situation. An antidote you aren't carrying doesn't exist when you need it. Medical supplies you left behind don't treat the Critical Wound you just took. The carry limit enforces the principle: you cannot prepare for everything, so you must predict what matters.
Memory Depth (Tactical Resource)
Your Insight stat determines how many Skills you can hold in Memory at once. This is not flavor — it is the breadth of your tactical vocabulary in any given scene. Skills are shaped between sessions. You cannot add new ones mid-encounter. The more Insight you carry, the more your Memory can hold, and the more options you have when the moment demands a decision.
Walk into every session knowing your Skills in Memory and asking whether they match what you expect. If your Skills are all melee attacks and you're headed somewhere that will require stealth, movement, or social pressure — that's a mismatch you can fix before the session starts. After, it's a constraint you'll have to work around.
Stats & Tiers
Eight stats. Ten possible tiers. Each tier maps to a die. Higher die = higher ceiling and more consistent outcomes. Most characters begin at Average (d6). You are always rolling to beat a threshold — the gap between your die and the difficulty is the entire odds calculation.
What Each Stat Does — Strategically
Speed, endurance, agility. Determines Wound pool size (capped at 6) and Fatigue track size. Higher Vigor means more wounds you can absorb and more fatigue you can accumulate before being limited.
Resilience, toughness, constitution. Determines Fortitude Buffer size — how many hits you absorb before taking real Wounds. Also the first target for Poison and Bleeding ticks. Sets the fatigue cost of Fundamentals — higher Fortitude means those baseline moves cost less effort.
Raw strength, physical force. Scales melee attack wounds. Also determines carry weight limit — how much you can carry before becoming encumbered.
Training, precision, ranged accuracy. Used for ranged attack accuracy rolls and skilled technical tasks. Sets the fatigue cost of all close-range attacks — every melee swing costs Fatigue, and higher Expertise reduces that cost per swing (Deficient: 5, Average: 4, Proficient: 3, Master: 2, Legendary: 1). Heavy attacks add +2 on top of the base cost.
Cunning, speed of thought. Used in Reaction rolls — your ability to respond when others act against you.
Pattern recognition, analysis. Directly determines your maximum Memory slots — how many Skills you can have prepared at once.
Empathy, reading people, emotional intelligence. Governs social perception and the ability to understand others' motivations.
Presence, persuasion, charisma. Active social output — the ability to influence, negotiate, convince.
Insight controls your Memory slots. This is the single most strategically significant stat connection in the game. A character with higher Insight can carry more prepared Skills — which means more options in any given scene. Investing in Insight isn't just about pattern recognition rolls. It's about expanding your tactical vocabulary.
Health Tracks
Damage in Stillpoint moves through a sequence. Understanding the sequence tells you exactly how much pressure you can absorb and when you need to protect yourself or get out.
Fortitude Buffer Absorbs First
Before any Wound is recorded, the Fortitude Buffer takes the hit. High Fortitude = more cushion. While the buffer has boxes remaining, you take no actual Wounds. This is also the first target for Poison and Bleeding ticks — they drain the buffer before reaching your wound pool.
Wound Pool Fills Next
When the buffer is empty, wounds go directly into the wound pool — up to 6 boxes depending on your Vigor tier. There are no severity layers; every wound in the pool is equally real. When the pool is full, the character is down. This is the line you do not want to cross.
Poison & Bleeding — Buffer First, Then Pool
Status effect ticks don't bypass the buffer. Poison and Bleeding eat through your Fortitude Buffer each round, and only overflow hits the wound pool. A character with an empty buffer and active Poison is filling wounds every tick. Treat both the status effect and protect the buffer.
Both status effects drain your Fortitude Buffer each tick, independently of each other. A character with active Bleeding and active Poison is hitting the buffer from two simultaneous sources every round — and once the buffer is gone, the wound pool starts filling. Address these as priorities, not as afterthoughts.
Fatigue — The Second Track
Fatigue is separate from wounds. It fills from melee attacks, movement, and sustained effort — every close-range swing and every step costs from this track. A fully fatigued character is not necessarily injured — but they are limited in what they can do. Fatigue builds fast in active fights and clears faster than wounds, but it still needs active attention.
Movement costs Fatigue. Long distances cost more. So does every melee attack — each close-range swing draws from the same fatigue track, scaled by Expertise. This means aggressive combat and aggressive repositioning both have a price, and they share the same budget. Plan your movement and your attack frequency together. Every step and every swing is an entry in your fatigue account.
Rest & Recovery
Rest is not passive. In Stillpoint, choosing when to rest and what kind of rest to take is an active decision with strategic weight. You cannot always rest when you need to. When you can, you should choose your rest type deliberately.
Removes 1 Fatigue. Nothing else. No wound healing, no Psi recovery, no buffer restore. A pause, not a recovery.
Removes 3 Fatigue. Heals 1 Wound. Restores 1 Psi (if Psion). Fortitude Buffer recovers.
Removes 6 Fatigue. Heals 2 Wounds. Restores 3 Psi (if Psion). Most status effects ease.
Removes all Fatigue. Heals all Wounds. Restores all Psi. Full recovery — but costs the most time.
When You Can't Rest
The most dangerous sessions are the ones that don't allow rest. Back-to-back encounters, time pressure, hostile environments — all of these limit your recovery window. When rest is restricted, resource conservation becomes everything.
When rest is scarce, every melee swing matters. You cannot swing freely and expect to be functional four encounters later. Count your Fatigue. Prioritise heavy strikes and high-damage declarations over volume. Fewer, better hits drain less than sustained pressure. Ranged attacks cost no Fatigue — when you have range and the option, use it to preserve the track.
When Fortitude Buffer is gone, every hit is a real wound. In a no-rest scenario, your buffer is your life. Defend it with movement, positioning, and reaction. Running on an empty buffer through multiple encounters is how characters die.
Reading the Sheet
The STILLPOINT character sheet is built to be a live tactical interface, not just a record of what your character is. Every section has a purpose and a moment when you'll need to reach for it. Knowing where everything lives before you're in a scene means you're not scrambling during one.
Character identity: name, player, concept, campaign, pronouns, background — plus a portrait upload slot and a Character Notes button for longer narrative details. These anchor every roleplay decision you make — not mechanical, but load-bearing.
Select an occupation from the grouped list to see its starting items, starting declarations, recommended stats, and a description. Occupation traits appear automatically in the Traits section. This is your character's entry point into the fiction and their mechanical baseline.
All eight stats with tier selectors and die displays — grouped by pillar (Survivability, Combat, Tactics, Sociability). Each stat has a Train button to spend points directly. The Training pool sits here too, with Solo / Area / Master earn buttons and a live cost reference. Insight shows your Memory slot count in real time.
Toggle Mage / Psion / Meta / Ordinary independently — types can overlap. Each active type expands its own configuration panel: Mage shows Magic Weight and Systems; Psion shows Mind's Eye stages and Psi abilities; Meta shows ability cards; Ordinary shows a note panel.
Three layers: occupation traits (auto-populated), equipped enchantment traits (live, from inventory), and acquired traits (earned through play). Acquired traits are Simple (stat boost), Complex (specific mechanical effect), or Compound (multiple staged effects including granted declarations). Complex and Compound traits can feed directly into Memory as Augments.
Toggle cards for all six conditions: Poison, Bleeding, Slowed, Blinded, Charmed, and Void-Exposed. Each has level or severity controls, a duration tracker with Phase tick button, and a notes field. Keep this accurate — status effects interact directly with the resource tracks above.
Wound pool (set by Vigor, with a live threshold bar: Healthy → Down → Dead), Fortitude Buffer (set by Fortitude), and Fatigue — all bar-click. Armor HP is tracked here too when armor is equipped. This is the most active section during combat. Know it without looking.
One-click rest buttons for all four rest types: Quick Breather, Short Rest, Long Rest, and Slumber. Each shows exactly what it restores and how many phases it locks declarations for. The sheet updates all affected tracks automatically. A rest-lock banner displays when declarations are locked after a rest.
The declaration sidebar, opened via the ⊙ Open Memory button. Organized into five sections: Fundamentals (Punch, Kick, Sprint, Block, Dodge — rank up via Training Points), Techniques (auto-populated from equipped weapons; fatigue cost scales with Expertise), Augments (active while a granting trait or enchantment is present), Skills (your prepared declaration cards, capped by Insight), and Arts (Metaphysical abilities declared from the Metaphysical tab). Each strike card has a commitment mode selector — Standard or Full Commitment — and a configurable FC wound bonus for Full Commitment declares. Configure before sessions.
Opened via the ⊞ Open Inventory button. Three sections: Hands (2 slots for weapons and held items), Body (Helm, Body, Legs, Feet armor slots plus Accessories), and Bag (upgradeable item slots). Each item has a Weight value (1–4). Might sets your weight limit — carry over that limit and Slowed activates, scaling harder the more overweight you are. Bag slots are upgraded via the + button in the Bag header. This is your preparation layer — fill it with intent.
The combat coordination layer. Begin Scenario sets a scene description and win conditions. The Phase Bar shows the current phase, a Phase Pass button to advance time, a declaration budget display, and a live pass-status indicator. Win conditions (Survive, Extract, Escape, Protect, etc.) are tracked here and can be toggled as the scene develops.
Multiple named character slots accessed via the Characters button. Save, Clear, Export JSON, and Import JSON controls sit in the persistent save bar. Save before major decisions. Use multiple slots for different builds or characters in the same campaign.
Before each session, open your sheet and do this in order: check your resource tracks (are any dangerously low?), open Memory and review your Skills (do they match what's ahead?), open Inventory (do you have what you'll need?), and look at your Training pool in Stats (is there anything worth spending before the session starts?). This takes two minutes. It changes how you play the entire session.
Deviant Types at a Glance
Types are not classes. They are categories of metaphysical relationship with reality. You can be multiple types simultaneously — the types are not mutually exclusive, and a character who is both Mage and Psion is not a contradiction. Types determine which additional resource tracks you manage and what kinds of things you can do that non-deviants cannot.
A Mage does not defy reality. They negotiate with it. Magic Weight is your leverage in that negotiation — higher weight means more capacity to bend the rules, more Systems you can run simultaneously. But every System comes with a chain of Restrictions, and every Restriction is a promise you must keep for the magic to work.
The strategic burden of being a Mage is threefold: managing Backlash risk (how hard are you pushing?), maintaining your Magic Weight rank (how much does each Backlash roll cost you?), and maintaining your Restriction chains (one broken link shatters everything downstream).
A Psion's ability is a trained muscle, not a weapon. The Mind's Eye develops through four stages, each unlocking new capabilities and expanding the Psi pool. What you can do grows with investment. Your primary constraint is always the pool — finite, slow to return, and tiered by how far you've developed.
The strategic burden of being a Psion is about conservation and invisibility. Your abilities are undetectable. Use that. Save your pool for moments that require it, not for demonstrations. And know that at higher stages, what you're capable of carries serious ethical weight — Stillpoint takes that seriously, and so will the fiction around you.
No metaphysical capacity. No Weight, no Mind's Eye, no inherent ability sitting at the edge of reality. Just a person. In a game about people with extraordinary capabilities, the Ordinary is not a lesser choice — it is a different strategic posture. Every resource point and every training point goes into the same tracks everyone has. No second track to maintain. No restrictions to honor.
The Ordinary out-prepares everyone else because they have to. Their inventory and their Memory are their entire toolkit. If any character type needs to nail the preparation loop, it's this one.
Playing a Mage Well
Magic in Stillpoint is an agreement. Reality cooperates under specific terms — your Restrictions — in exchange for access to your Systems. The moment you break a term, the chain shatters. The moment you push into Backlash without sufficient Magic Weight, reality pushes back hard. The entire Mage strategy is built around not letting either of those things happen at a bad time.
The Restriction Chain — Design It With Intent
Your Restrictions are not obstacles. They are the contract you wrote. Restrictions that you designed carefully and understand deeply will feel natural to maintain. Restrictions you took carelessly will constantly catch you at the worst moments.
The chain is read from left to right. The System anchor holds everything. Each Restriction links to the next. Break Restriction II in the example above, and Restriction III also fails — everything downstream of the broken link collapses. You're not just losing one restriction. You're potentially losing access to your entire System until you rebuild.
Rebuilding after a chain break costs 4 Training Points per new Restriction. If your chain has three links and you break the first one, all three need rebuilding: 12 Training Points. This is not a minor setback. This is a session's worth of advancement, gone. Design Restrictions that are specific enough to matter and broad enough that you won't accidentally break them mid-scene.
Magic Weight & Backlash
Every time you use magic, there is a Backlash risk. Magic Weight rank (0–5 pips) is your buffer against it — each filled pip reduces a backlash roll result by 1. A Mage with no Weight investment absorbs every backlash roll raw. A Mage at rank 5 absorbs up to 5 points of each roll before it hits the wound pool. Invest in Magic Weight early, before your Systems become ambitious enough to trigger severe Backlash.
| Backlash Level | Die | What This Means in Play |
|---|---|---|
| None | Clear | You're inside the terms. Magic cooperates fully. Stay here as long as possible. |
| Low | d4 | Minor disruption. Ripple in the environment. Barely noticeable, but it's already started. |
| Moderate | d6 | Visible. Someone might notice. Effects are unpredictable. Start thinking about whether you need to keep going. |
| High | d8 | Significant complications. This is where magic stops being your tool and starts being a liability. |
| Severe | d12 | Major consequences. Visible, significant, potentially very bad. You should have stopped before here. |
Before any scene where you might use magic: what is my current Backlash state? How many Magic Weight pips do I have absorbing rolls? Are my Restrictions intact and can I maintain them through what's coming? If the answers are "already elevated," "none," and "uncertain" — you need to address that before the scene opens, not inside it.
Playing a Psion Well
The Psi pool is finite. It returns slowly. The higher your Mind's Eye stage, the more you can do — but the pool grows incrementally compared to what becomes available. This creates the central tension of playing a Psion: you can do extraordinary things, but you cannot do them all the time.
Stage Unlocks — What Each Level Actually Gives You
| Stage | Pool | What Opens Up | Strategic Shift |
|---|---|---|---|
| I · Close | 4 | Voluntary silence. See spirits. Baseline psi perception. | You're learning control. Passive abilities only. 4 points is barely enough for one active use — conserve everything. |
| II · Focus | 8 | Selective perception. Read surface emotions. Awareness of own broadcast. | You become useful in social situations. Read the room without anyone knowing. Still limited for active use. |
| III · Reach | 12 | Active extension. Can affect other minds. Engage spirits. First active danger threshold. | You are now genuinely dangerous. Also: the ethical stakes rise here. What you can do is no longer just perception. |
| IV · Beyond | 16 | Full specialization. Deep telepathy, mind reading, hypnosis, soul interaction. | You are a significant force. But 16 points goes fast. Know the cost of each ability before you reach for it. |
The Invisibility Advantage
Psionic effects are completely invisible to anyone without an open Mind's Eye. This is your greatest tactical asset and it should never be wasted. A Psion who works openly, obviously, and in front of everyone is a Psion who has forgotten what makes them different.
Before a social encounter: read surface emotions to know where the resistance is. Before a confrontation: assess who in the room is afraid, who is confident, who is lying. The information you gather costs Psi — but it converts directly into better decisions for everyone.
Psi spent on convenience is Psi unavailable for necessity. If the question can be answered by asking, ask. If the declaration can be made without your Mind's Eye, make it. Spend Psi on problems that have no other solution.
Playing a Meta Well
Metas have no resource track to manage for their abilities. That reliability is the point. You are what you are, constantly, without expenditure or maintenance. The strategic challenge isn't resource management — it's knowing when your nature is the right tool and when it isn't.
Stat Locks — Building Around the Baseline
Simple Meta abilities lock specific stats at specific tiers. A stat lock at Extraordinary Vigor doesn't need training investment — you simply have it. That frees all your Training Points to develop other areas. The strategic implication: you build deeper, not broader. Your locked stats are given; everything else is what you choose to invest in.
The question isn't what you can do. It's who knows you can do it — and what they'll try to do about it.
Combat Overview
Combat in Stillpoint is turn-based and resource-intensive. Every round you spend in a fight is a round your Fatigue climbs, your Fortitude Buffer degrades, and your special resources deplete. The goal of combat is to end it as quickly and efficiently as possible — not to have a dramatic extended fight. Characters who drag things out pay for it in the session's second half.
What a Combat Turn Looks Like
What's in the room? What are the threats? Who has what status effects? What's your current resource state? Crucially: is this a moment where Full Commitment is worth it — or will being locked for 4 phases after destroy you? This takes a second if you've been tracking properly. It takes much longer if you haven't.
Open Memory. Choose your declaration — strike, move, or react. You know what's there because you shaped it before the session. You know which one fits this moment because you just assessed the room.
Roll the relevant stat die. Meet or exceed the threshold. The result determines success, partial success, or failure — and the fiction determines what that means for what happens next.
Update your tracks immediately. Every Fatigue box, every Buffer point, every Wound. Don't wait until the end of combat to reconcile. Accurate tracking mid-fight is the difference between informed decisions and flying blind.
Do you have any active status effects? Is anything ticking? Bleeding deals wounds each round. Poison deals wounds each round. If the answer is yes, that condition needs to become a priority.
React to others' declarations if applicable. Apply round-end effects. Reassess your resource state. Are you still functional? Is the fight winnable? Is there an exit that doesn't cost you more than continuing?
Memory
Memory is the declaration sidebar — opened via the ⊙ Open Memory button on the sheet. It is not a list of things your character knows abstractly. It is a live interface of everything they can declare in a structured moment: every strike they can throw, every move they can make, every ability they can spend. Five sections, each with its own logic.
The breadth of Memory is not unlimited. The Skills section — your primary prepared declarations — is hard-capped by your Insight tier. Everything else is either fixed (Fundamentals), automatic (Techniques, Augments, Arts), or manually locked in (Arts). Walk into every session knowing what's in each section and why.
I · Fundamentals
The five universal declarations every character carries from day one, regardless of type, occupation, or preparation. They live at the top of Memory permanently and require no configuration. What changes over time is how good they are.
Unarmed strikes. Punch starts at 1 damage, Kick at 2. Each ranks up independently via Training Points: Average → Trained → Exceptional → Expert → Master, adding +1 damage per rank. Both cost Fatigue scaled by Fortitude. Both support Standard and Full Commitment declare modes.
A burst of full-speed movement. Starts at 15ft, adding +5ft per rank. Costs Fatigue scaled by Fortitude. The only movement option available without a prepared Skill — do not neglect it.
Block absorbs incoming damage (starts at 1 reduction, +1/rank). Dodge reduces hit chance (starts at -1, +1/rank). Both cost Fatigue scaled by Fortitude and can only be declared once per round without a trait or ability that extends reaction capacity.
Each Fundamental ranks up independently: Average (free) → Trained (2pts) → Exceptional (4pts) → Expert (6pts) → Master (8pts). A Master-ranked Kick deals 6 damage. A Master Block absorbs 5. These are not cosmetic upgrades. Invest in them deliberately.
All five Fundamentals draw from the same Fortitude-scaled fatigue cost: Deficient 4, Average/Capable 3, Proficient/Expert 2, Master and above 1. A character with Master Fortitude punches, kicks, sprints, blocks, and dodges at nearly no fatigue cost. Fortitude investment pays dividends on every declaration in this section.
II · Techniques
Weapon-based attack cards. Close-range weapons populate Techniques automatically when equipped in Inventory — equip a weapon, its card appears. You can also add Techniques manually via the + add technique button, defining a weapon requirement, declaration type, wounds, fatigue cost, and notes.
Every close-range attack costs Fatigue. The cost scales with Expertise tier (Deficient: 5 → Legendary: 1). Heavy attack variants cost +2 on top of the base. Each Technique card has a commitment mode dropdown — set to Standard or Full Commitment. Full Commitment zeroes your declaration budget, applies a configurable FC wound bonus, and locks all declarations for 4 phases.
Ranged weapon Techniques cost no Fatigue. Instead they roll Wit + Expertise for accuracy — a miss wastes the declaration entirely. On a critical hit, +5 wounds. Ranged Techniques also support Full Commitment for heightened damage at the same phase-lock cost.
Techniques do not use Insight slots. They sit outside the Skill cap entirely. A character with a full Skill list and two equipped weapons has all of those cards simultaneously available.
III · Augments
Augments are declarations granted by active traits or equipped enchantments. They appear automatically in Memory when the granting source is present and disappear when it is removed. You cannot add them manually — they are earned, not configured. The Augments section is hidden when none are active.
A Compound or Complex trait with a Grant Action effect pushes its action into Augments when the trait is applied. An enchantment equipped from Inventory does the same if it carries a grant-action effect. Remove the trait or unequip the enchantment and the Augment vanishes. This means Augments are a live layer that changes based on what your character currently has active — not a fixed list.
IV · Skills
Your prepared declarations — the core of Memory and the most strategically significant section. Skills are built by you, configured by you, and capped by your Insight tier. Every tier of Insight is one more Skill slot. A character at Average Insight carries fewer possibilities than one at Master. Invest in Insight if you find yourself wishing you had more cards available.
Each Skill is one of three types:
Specify range, wounds dealt, fatigue cost, weapon requirement, and notes. Close attacks support Full Commitment. Ranged attacks roll Wit + Expertise for accuracy. Each attack Skill carries its own commitment mode selector and FC wound bonus field.
Might (wounds) · Expertise (fatigue / accuracy)Specify distance. Generates Fatigue proportional to how far you go. Every movement costs something — spend it on purpose. Prepared movement Skills let you declare specific distances immediately without re-specifying each time.
Vigor (track size)A declaration made in response to someone else's move. Rolls Wit + Expertise. One reaction per round without a trait extending that limit. High Wit makes this devastating. Build it for the specific response you most often need — not a generic one.
Wit + ExpertiseV · Arts
Arts are Mage, Psion, and Meta abilities locked in from the Metaphysical tab. They only appear in Memory once locked — you define the ability on the Metaphysical tab, set its cost, then lock it to Memory. The Arts section is hidden when nothing has been locked in.
Mage and Meta Arts spend from the Fatigue track when declared, not Psi. They carry a configurable Fatigue cost set at lock time. Mage Arts also carry Backlash risk — the act of declaring them is still subject to the magic system's Backlash rules. Declaring does not bypass those consequences.
Psion Arts drain from the Psi pool when declared. The cost is set at lock time. If the pool is insufficient, the ability partially fails — the sheet notes the shortfall. Passive psionic perception costs nothing; only active Arts drain Psi. Conserve accordingly.
Arts do not use Insight slots. They sit outside the Skill cap just like Techniques. A Psion with a full Skill list still has access to every locked Psi Art simultaneously.
Declaration Economy
Declaration economy is the principle that whoever gets more done per phase wins. In Stillpoint this isn't just about combat — it's about the full session. Every declaration you make has a cost attached. The player who understands those costs and minimises waste in their decision chain will consistently outperform one who doesn't. At the extreme end sits Full Commitment: trading everything you have left in a phase for maximum damage output. Know when that trade is worth it.
| Declaration | Costs | Returns | When to Use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Melee Attack | Fatigue (scaled by Expertise) · Heavy: +2 Fatigue | Wounds to target (scaled by Might) | Against targets in reach when Might is high. Every swing costs Fatigue — sustained melee drains you. Higher Expertise reduces cost per swing. |
| ⚠ Full Commitment | All remaining declarations in the phase · locks 4 phases | Base wounds + Might + FC bonus | Declare on any strike. Spends your entire declaration budget — nothing else this phase. Deals heightened damage via a configurable FC wound bonus. Locks all declarations for 4 phases after. |
| Ranged Attack | Wit + Expertise accuracy roll · No Fatigue | Wounds if accurate (scaled by Might) | At distance. No Fatigue cost, but requires the accuracy roll to land at all. Miss the roll and the declaration is wasted. More variance than melee. |
| Movement | Fatigue (scales with distance) | Position change | When your current position is a liability. Don't move without purpose — every step costs Fatigue. |
| Reaction | One reaction per round | Interrupt another's declaration | Against high-value threats. Don't spend your reaction on a minor threat when something more dangerous is still coming. |
| Fundamental | Fatigue (scaled by Fortitude) | Base damage / distance / reduction | Fallback when prepared Skills don't fit the moment. Rank these up over time — Master Punch is not nothing. |
| Technique | Close: Fatigue (scaled by Expertise) · Ranged: Wit + Expertise accuracy roll, no Fatigue | Weapon damage + Might bonus | Primary strike when carrying a weapon. Auto-available from inventory, no Memory slot cost. Same fatigue rules as melee — higher Expertise reduces cost. |
| Psi Use (Psion) | Psi Pool points | Variable psionic effect | When nothing else will reach the problem. Do not spend pool on things a strike or movement can handle — those cost fatigue, not Psi, and fatigue recovers faster. |
| Magic Use (Mage) | Fatigue + Backlash risk | Variable magical effect | When the effect is worth the fatigue cost and the Backlash risk. Not for routine problems. |
Reactions are scarce — one per round without special traits. That makes your reaction a limited and precious thing. Don't spend it reflexively — spend it deliberately. If you know something more dangerous is still coming later in the round, hold your reaction for that. A reaction saved for the right moment can prevent wounds that would drain your pool and cost you a rest to recover.
Every strike in Memory — both Skills and Techniques — can be declared as a Full Commitment. Selecting it on the commitment mode dropdown before declaring turns the card red and changes the button to ⚠ Declare Full Commitment. When confirmed: the strike deals its base wounds plus your Might bonus plus a configurable FC wound bonus you set on the card — but it zeroes out your entire declaration budget for the phase and locks all declarations for 4 phases afterward. No reactions. No follow-ups. Nothing. You are committed. Use it when the damage output justifies that price — not as a default, and never when you will need to declare anything in the next four phases.
Status Effects
Status effects alter how you function. Some tick every round, filling your wound track while you try to fight. Others limit your options without dealing direct damage. All of them require a response — the question is always how soon and with what tool.
Drains Fortitude Buffer boxes each tick equal to the poison level. Overflow past the buffer goes directly into the wound pool. Higher levels escalate quickly. Stacks independently with Bleeding — both apply in the same round. Cleared by an Aid item configured to clear Poison, or by medical treatment.
Drains Fortitude Buffer boxes each tick. Overflow past the buffer fills the wound pool. Stacks with Poison — both apply in the same round, independently. Requires physical treatment to stop. Ignoring active Bleeding means your buffer empties faster than combat alone would drain it.
Movement and declaration capacity are both impaired. Blacks out fatigue slots from the right, reducing how much you can do each turn. The number of slots blacked out is adjustable (default 2). A heavily Slowed character cannot sprint, cannot make multiple moves, and has fewer declarations available per round. Cleared by the source being removed.
Cannot perceive targets visually. Comes in three severity levels — Partial, Full, and Total. Ranged attacks fail at Full and Total severity; melee attacks suffer severe disadvantage. A notes field tracks the cause and expected duration.
Under psionic or social compulsion. Roll Intuition + Wit to resist acting against the compulsion — failure means compliance. The sheet displays your current resist roll total live. A notes field tracks the source and what you're compelled toward.
The self is eroding. Abstract thought dims; identity and meaning fade. Comes in three stages — Early, Mid, Late — each representing deeper loss of selfhood. The character rarely notices, because the faculty being consumed is what would allow them to recognise the loss. Caused by chaos casting and similar reality-distorting events. Recovery requires grounding with trusted people.
Poison and Bleeding both drain the Fortitude Buffer every tick and they stack independently. A character with both active is hitting the buffer from two sources per round — before any combat damage lands. Once the buffer collapses, both effects overflow directly into the wound pool simultaneously. Treat whichever is worse first. Treat both if you have the items.
Pre-Session Thinking
The session starts before you sit down. What you do in the ten minutes before the table opens is disproportionately valuable compared to anything else you'll do during it. Here is what that preparation looks like, systematically.
Review Your Resource State
Where are your tracks? If you ended last session with a depleted wound pool or an empty Fortitude buffer, that's where you start this one unless you had time to rest. Know your actual state, not an optimistic version of it. If you're compromised going in, your strategy needs to account for that.
Predict the Session
Based on where the story is and what the GM has signaled, what types of challenges are likely ahead? Social confrontation? Physical threat? Infiltration? Investigation? Each demands different tools. You don't need to be right — you need to make a bet and configure for it.
Configure Your Memory (Skills)
Open Memory. Does your Skills list match your prediction for this session? If you're heading into a social-heavy session with three attack Skills and no movement — reconfigure. You have the time to do it now. You don't have the time when the scene is in front of you.
Check Your Inventory
Review what you're carrying against what you expect to face. Medical supplies for physical encounters. Antidote if poisoning is a realistic threat. Items that support your specific role. If something's missing that you'd reasonably have access to, now is the time to add it.
Spend Any Pending Training Points
If you have Training Points sitting unspent, decide before the session what you're spending them on. Don't let points sit idle while you're in a scene that would benefit from having already spent them. Advancement is a lever — pull it.
Know Your Character's Current Mental State
Stillpoint is a game about who you are, not just what you can do. Where is your character emotionally coming out of the last session? What do they want right now? What are they afraid of? The best roleplay decisions come from having answered this before the scene demands it.
Inventory & Items
Your inventory is your preparation made physical. Every item on your sheet represents a decision you made before the session started about what you expected to need. The carry limit enforces scarcity. The scarcity makes the choices matter.
Categories Worth Thinking About
The dedicated healing layer. Aid is a consumable kind that heals a set number of wounds and clears specific status effects in a single use — configure which effects it clears when you add it to inventory. Without these, ticking status effects will fill your wound track whether or not you win the fight. Running out mid-session is entirely preventable.
Items that expand what you can attempt without a stat roll, or that reduce the difficulty of attempts. A character who brought the right tool for the situation doesn't have to improvise — and improvisation in Stillpoint usually means a worse die and a lower ceiling.
The item you reach for when your primary approach is gone. The second weapon when the first is lost. The extra option that kept you functional at the end of the fight. A carry limit of one weapon is a single point of failure. Plan for that.
The Aid consumable kind combines wound healing and status effect removal into a single use. When building an Aid item in inventory, set how many wounds it heals and tick which status effects it clears — Poison, Bleeding, Slowed, Blinded, Charmed, Void-Exposed, or any combination. One well-configured Aid item can end a multi-condition crisis in a single declaration. The tradeoff: specificity. An Aid item built to clear Poison won't help with Void-Exposed. Configure your Aid items to match the threats you predict. Carry more than one if the session suggests you'll need variety.
The Item Shop
The Item Shop is a live catalog your GM loads before or during a session. It shows what's available to acquire in your current situation — a black market contact, a scavenged cache, a vendor working out of a storage unit. Items don't appear out of nowhere. They reflect what exists in the fiction right now.
Every item in the shop has one or more acquisition paths. Some cost currency. Some are trade-only. Some are both. And some, if you're willing to accept the risk, can simply be taken.
How to Load a Catalog
The GM generates items using the STILLPOINT Item Library tool and exports them as a JSON file. You import that file into the Shop tab using the upload button. Once loaded, the catalog filters by item type and shows everything available. Items stay in the catalog until you clear it — the shop persists across sessions if you don't wipe it.
Three Ways to Acquire
If an item has a price, the Buy tab shows how much it costs and what currency it requires. Currency is tracked as a consumable item in your inventory — each use is one unit. The shop reads your current balance and blocks the purchase if you're short. If the item's price names a specific currency (like "40 red chroma"), only that currency counts. Generic currency items of a different name won't satisfy it.
Items without a price — or items you can't afford — can be acquired through trade. The shop calculates what a fair offer looks like based on the item's type and rarity, then scans everything you're carrying for qualifying items. Consumables expand by use count: three uses of a food item means three individual units available to offer. Select enough items to meet the requirement and confirm.
Always available. Always risky. The Steal tab rolls your Wit and Expertise together against a threshold. A high combined roll means a clean lift. A middling result means you got it — but someone may have seen something. A low result means you're caught empty-handed. The roll is one attempt only. You can't retry. What happens after getting caught is a matter for the table, not the system.
Currency
Currency is a consumable item in your inventory with its kind set to Currency. Each remaining use is one unit — so a currency item with 40 uses represents 40 marks, or credits, or whatever denomination is in play. When you buy something, the shop deducts from your matching currency stack and removes the item if it hits zero.
The shop matches currency by name. If an item costs "red chroma," only currency items named "red chroma" in your inventory will count. This means different economies can coexist — you can carry marks, chroma, and favors simultaneously, and the shop will draw from the correct pool for each purchase automatically.
Trade Valuation
Trade offers scale with the rarity of what you're trying to acquire. A common item might want a handful of food or a basic tool. A rare item will ask for a weapon of equivalent tier, supplies, and materials. Legendary items are expensive in kind — expect to give up something rare to get something rare. The shop shows you exactly what satisfies the offer before you commit, and tracks how much of the requirement you've filled as you select items.
| Rarity | Typical Trade Ask |
|---|---|
| Common | A few food or consumable items |
| Uncommon | A weapon or armor of same category + basic supplies |
| Rare | Uncommon or better gear + aid kits or materials |
| Legendary | Rare gear + armor + multiple consumables |
Theft Outcomes
| Result | Threshold | What Happens |
|---|---|---|
| Perfect Lift | Both dice at maximum | Item taken without a trace |
| Success | ≥ 65% of max total | Clean — item added, no flags |
| Close | Between thresholds | Item taken, but someone may have noticed |
| Caught | ≤ 30% of max total | Fumbled — nothing gained, eyes on you |
The shop doesn't enforce the fiction. It tracks the transaction. What "caught" means for your character in this scene is a question for the table.
Spending Training Points
Training Points are the long-arc resource. They come in slowly — solo training, area training, master training — and they represent the cumulative growth of your character over sessions. Spent well, they compound. Spent carelessly, you'll look back at the end of an arc and wonder why you didn't develop what you needed.
| Investment | Cost | Strategic Return |
|---|---|---|
| Stat (1 tier) | 2 pts | Scales die, improves track sizes (Vigor/Fortitude), increases Memory slots (Insight), improves carry limit (Might). Compounding returns. |
| Stat — Meta boosted | 4 pts | Same as above, but for Meta-locked stats. Higher cost, fixed starting point. |
| Insight → more Memory slots | 2 pts | Every tier of Insight is one more Skill slot in Memory. This is among the highest-value investments in the game for most characters. |
| Magic Weight rank | 4 / 8 / 12 / 16 / 20 pts | Each rank fills one pip on the Magic Weight track. Pips absorb Backlash wounds — each filled pip reduces the backlash roll result by 1. Front-loaded cost, significant long-term protection. |
| Mind's Eye stages | 4 / 8 / 12 / 16 pts cumulative | Expands Psi pool and unlocks new categories of ability. Each stage is transformative. |
| New Restriction (after break) | 4 pts each | Emergency expenditure. This is what chain breaks cost you. Avoid it — but have the points available if it happens. |
| Fundamental rank | 2 / 4 / 6 / 8 / 10 pts | Ranks Punch, Kick, Sprint, Block, or Dodge from Average to Master. Each rank adds +1 damage/reduction or +5ft. Scales independently per Fundamental. |
Ask yourself for every unspent Training Point: what is the thing I most often wish I could do that I currently can't? That's usually where to spend. Don't spread evenly across eight stats looking balanced — depth in the right places outperforms breadth across everything.
Roleplay Principles
Stillpoint is a game that takes fiction seriously. The extraordinary exists in a world that otherwise looks exactly like ours — which means character work happens in the spaces between crises, not just during them. Here are the principles that make Stillpoint roleplay feel like Stillpoint.
Power Reveals Character. It Doesn't Replace It.
What your character can do is almost never more interesting than what they choose to do with it. A Psion who can hypnotize anyone in the room tells you almost nothing. What they refuse to do — and why — tells you everything. Play the limits as much as the capabilities.
The Ordinary and the Extraordinary Coexist.
A scene can be about breakfast. It can be about a difficult phone call, a bad memory, an awkward conversation with a colleague who doesn't know what you are. The magic doesn't have to be present in every scene to be present in the world. Some of the best moments in Stillpoint happen when nothing extraordinary occurs at all.
Secrets Have Weight Only If You Maintain Them.
Most Deviants are hidden. Mages are secret. Psions are invisible. Operating in a world that doesn't know you exist is a specific kind of pressure — and it creates specific kinds of choices. Play that pressure. The moment you treat your secret as a given rather than a thing you actively protect, you lose the dramatic tension that makes it matter.
Your Restrictions Are Part of Your Character, Not Obstacles to It.
Mage Restrictions designed with thought reveal something about who this person is and how they relate to magic. "Cannot use this system while someone in the immediate area is in mortal danger" says something. It creates situations. It forces choices. A restriction that never comes up is a restriction that isn't doing its job.
The Ethical Escalation Is Real.
For Psions especially: feeling what someone feels is invasive. Reading what they think is more so. Rewriting it is a violation of personhood at the most fundamental level. The game takes this seriously. So should the character. The progression from perception to manipulation is not just a power upgrade — it is a moral journey. Where your character stands on that scale is the most important thing about them.
Hold Fast to Who You Are.
The world will offer your character reasons to compromise, shift, drift, or transform. Some of those offers will come from within the story. Some will come from what the table finds interesting. Play the identity with as much attention as you play the mechanics. Because if you lose that — there is nothing left to distinguish the character from everything else.
Tone & Feel
Stillpoint has a specific tone. Not every TTRPG does — some are deliberately flexible. Stillpoint is not. These are the things that make it feel like itself, and not like something else wearing its system.
When a Mage uses their system, reality visibly bends. There is no ambiguity. Something happened. This is why Mages are secret — visible power in a world that doesn't officially know you exist is an exposure risk, not a flex. Play it accordingly. Every use of magic is a choice to be seen.
When a Psion works, nothing appears to happen. An object moves. A mood shifts. A memory surfaces. The invisibility is not a convenience — it is a defining characteristic that should inform how Psions are played. They are never the loudest person in the room. They don't need to be.
The world looks exactly like ours. People have phones and bad days and strong opinions about things. The extraordinary exists inside the ordinary without announcing itself or replacing it. The coffee is still bad. The traffic is still there. The Psion operating nearby is still responding to emails.
Stillpoint is not a game about saving the world. It is about who you are when the world turns out to be stranger than you thought. Character is the load-bearing wall. The extraordinary is weather. Play what your character would actually do. Not what's optimal. What's true.
The game is not about saving the world. It is about who you are when the world turns out to be stranger than you thought.
The Discovery Gap
How you came into your abilities shapes everything about who you are at the table. A Mage might have gone their entire life without knowing they had Weight — their discovery is confusion, wonder, a sudden reorganization of their worldview. A Psion cannot miss their awakening; it hits immediately and without mercy, as overwhelming psionic noise that didn't exist before. A Meta was just always this way, since before they can remember.
These are not cosmetic backstory differences. They are the foundation of how your character relates to power, to danger, to other Deviants, and to the ordinary world they're still operating inside. Carry that origin with you into every scene. Let it inflect what you say and how you say it. That's what makes Stillpoint feel like Stillpoint.
Hold fast to who you are.
Because if you lose that —
there is nothing left to distinguish you
from everything else.
STILLPOINT · Player's Strategic Guide · Between Mind and Matter
Social Encounters
Stillpoint's social layer is not a separate mini-game. It runs on the same stat and tier system as everything else, with the same strategic logic: knowing your tools, knowing the room, and spending your resources deliberately.
Social Stats in Context
Intuition is perception in social contexts. What is this person actually feeling beneath what they're saying? Where is the resistance coming from? What do they want that they haven't stated? High Intuition means you read the sub-text before you respond to the surface.
Charm is output — the ability to affect how others feel about you, your position, your request. High Charm doesn't guarantee compliance; it shifts probability and changes what the room will let you attempt. Pair with Intuition for the full picture.
The Psion Advantage in Social
A Psion with an open Mind's Eye is never in a purely social encounter. They are always simultaneously receiving psionic information about everyone in the room — emotional states, surface thoughts at higher stages, the gap between what someone is saying and what they're actually feeling. This information is invisible. Nobody knows you have it.
The strategic question is how to use it without spending pool on something you didn't need to. Passive perception at lower stages costs nothing. Active extension costs Psi. Know the difference. Let passive perception inform your approach. Save active Psi use for moments where the passive layer isn't enough.
The Meta Complication
Metas are publicly known. This means every social encounter for a Meta has a layer that other types don't face: the other party knows what they are. Some people are afraid. Some want something from them. Some have already decided how they feel before the conversation begins. Read that dynamic first. A conversation that starts with "I know what you are" is fundamentally different from one that starts from a blank slate.