Weaver Dice

Char Creation Gameplay Rules Equipment Misc.

Introduction
The ‘Wormverse’, the fan name for the setting of Worm, has a particular mood and style. Powers fall
into certain patterns and styles, and the source of one’s power, the trigger event, is typically a
horrifying and life-changing event - activating the latent ‘shard’ or ‘passenger’ which rests within them.
The powers that result and the impacts on the individual, coupled with the stresses of superpowers,
tend to set the denizens of the Wormverse apart from the typical Marvel or DC superhero.

These rules are essentially a way to help create powers and backgrounds that fit the setting. They’re
fairly nonspecific, and there may be some stretching or improvising to make the resulting character fit
a given system, but the general vibe should be right. At the core of it, the ideas are simple.
Something bad happened to the character, they don’t get to decide what that something bad was,
they don’t get to decide what powers resulted, and (tying into the previous points) things aren’t
necessarily fair. The important thing is how the player uses what circumstance gives them.

Mover, Shaker
Brute, and Breaker,

Master, Tinker,
Blaster, Thinker,

Striker, Changer,
Trump and Stranger.

Above we see the broad classifications for ‘capes’, rendered into verse by the PRT squaddies and
later adopted by Parahuman Sciences researchers and by the public. These serve as our broad
groupings for powers. Each classification refers to a different expression of power, and each has a
strong tendency to come from certain kinds of trigger.

To accommodate other styles of play and cover more of the bases, we include rules for drafting
powers, to allow a bit more control, and the ‘Cauldron’ rules for buying powers from a clandestine
organization, getting more control, but at the cost of a deal with the devil.

(Be sure to click on View -> Show Document Outline, if you want to access a table of contents.)
Character Creation: Trigger Events
It’s the worst day of your life, the worst moment. Then it hits you like a seizure, so brief you don’t
even lose your balance, but more profound: a series of flickering images, a sense of something
immense, and it leaves you changed. The memory of exactly what it is that you saw slips from your
mind, but in its place is a knowledge: that now you have power, or powers, along with an instinctive
knowledge on how to use it.

Trigger events can be from any number of scenarios. Sometimes it’s from staring down the barrel of a
gun. Sometimes it’s realizing your idiot brother has sunk the family business and cast you all into
homeless poverty. It can be the realization that the lie you’ve been telling about yourself for years has
finally been revealed, the latest note from your stalker being the straw that breaks the camel’s back, or
seeing the fire spread at an industrial site and knowing there’s no way you’ll escape before it goes.

There’s no need for any spiders to be radioactive. There’s no requirement that the chemicals you get
doused in do anything except give you the worst day of your life. That said, there are patterns that
unfold, based on the events. Broad categories of events link to broad categories of power.

If you know the game system enough to figure out the mechanics for the powers (or you use another
game system), then you can start & stop with this general guide:

● Movers have powers that grant them enhanced mobility: flight, teleportation, speed,
jumping. Their triggers tend to be a pronounced need to escape.
● Shakers have powers that manipulate the battlefield, put (inanimate) things or variables
on it, or cover large areas. Their triggers tend to be from environmental stressors.
● Brutes have powers that give them staying power on the battlefield; armor, muscle,
shields and personal forcefields. They trigger from being physically harmed.
● Breakers can swap to another state where they have powers and/or operate by different
rules. Trigger from ironic, inverted, or distorted triggers, drug, illness, and madness.
● Masters have powers that create minions or influence/control others. They trigger from
social loss: isolation, ostracization, loneliness, or the loss of loved ones.
● Tinkers have powers that let them make science-fiction technology and gear.
They trigger from long-term (months, years) dilemmas that come to a head.
● Blasters have powers that are offensive and long-ranged. Beams, artillery, turrets and
shotgun-like blasts, among others. They trigger from hostile threats at a distance.
● Thinkers have powers that give them enhanced information gathering or perceptions.
Clairvoyance, future-seeing, or enhanced vision. They trigger from short-term dilemmas.
● Strikers have powers that are largely offensive and melee or touch-based. Freezing touch,
energy swords, etc. They trigger from hostile threats in arm’s reach.
● Changers have powers that let them change physically to another form. Reptile body,
mutated arms, etc. They trigger from crises of identity and image.
● Trumps have powers that interact with other powers. They may grant powers, warp them, or
hamper them. They trigger from situations involving powers, and are rare.
● Strangers have powers that enable infiltration, stealth, subtlety and subterfuge. Examples
include invisibility & baffling foes. They trigger from unwanted attention.

The rest of this rulebook helps inform nuance, cover generation methods, and avoid traps.
When a cape ‘triggers’ they are at a critical moment in the worst day or moment of their life. They
black out, see flickering images, then promptly forget what they saw. When they come to, they have
powers. They’re primarily limited to people between ages 9 and 32.

An underlying theme here is that we don’t get to choose the powers we get, we only decide how we
use them.

The broad-strokes process of character creation here is to…

● Have each player and the GM come up with a trigger event. If players want a bit more
flexibility, they can each write two. More details on this in the next subsection.

● Players distribute triggers among the group. Each person gets a random trigger or they get
two random triggers from the pile and pick one. Having extras (the GM’s contribution) can be
good to have quick alternatives in case of vetos.

● Work out the powers, one at a time. The player who is having their power made should stay
silent, except to break ties or request cosmetic changes (“Hey, can we make my character a
girl instead? Flip the genders involved?” “Can we de-age this guy to high school instead of
university? I think the trigger stays the same.”) A later section goes into some depth on how
to generate the powers. Don’t focus too much on hard rules yet at this stage.

● The player who is having character created for them can speak once the concept is hashed
out. The player can (loosely!) outline the particulars of their goal, role, concept, identity.

● Roll two four-sided dice (2d4) for perks and flaws.

1: Life Flaw
2: Power Flaw
3: Life Perk
4: Power Perk
A player can get two perks, a perk and a flaw, or two flaws.

This is the Wildbow-made, ‘official’ list. Use a random number generator to get a result from
1-47, and count down from the top.
This is the fan-made, vetted list. It’s honestly better, but requires more fiddling with the
random number generator: random numbers are 1-62 for life perks, 1-55 for power perks, 1-63
for life flaws, and 1-49 for power flaws.

A better mechanism for rolling Luck (a webpage) is in the works. (?)

The GM may, as with triggers, allow for multiple rolls (roll two life flaws, pick one) and vetos.

● Adjust the power as required by the luck results. The GM or the play group can finalize the
technical rules for how the power works, either during or before the introductory session. The
player should complete their character sheet.
The group and trigger will decide general background and the power (with only cosmetic changes
from the player that keep to the trigger’s sentiment), but the character, stats, equipment, disposition
and who the character became in the time between the trigger and game start are up to the player.
On Trigger Events & Player Comfort
The premise of Worm is that the worst days and moments in a character’s life lead to them getting
powers. This is something that may happen in other superhero works (a person gets bitten by a
genetically altered dog, gets dog powers), but in Worm, the rules for how it happens are universal
across the setting, it can be any sufficiently bad or traumatizing event, and the resulting powers are
tied into individual and power without being quite so on the nose.

The problem is, when players have a character who has these horrifying moments as defining points
in their background, points that shape them going forward, it’s possible that these moments are called
back on or repeated over the course of a campaign. The person who caused this trigger could still be
in the character’s life.

Weaverdice is based on Worm, which is a work with content warnings, and Worm’s nature as a book
lets readers put the work down without much (or any) social pressure to keep going. In a gaming
group, however, the social dynamics can complicate this escape or take an unpleasant or
uncomfortable thing and make it more uncomfortable by the fact that it’s repeatedly touched on by the
GM or group.

This is further complicated by the fact that we tend to write triggers based on what is familiar to us, so
it is easier to try to think of something uncomfortable and write a trigger that falls into another player’s
zone of discomfort, vulnerability or the stresses they’re presently dealing with at home, at school, or at
work. This can include deep loneliness, depression, uncomfortable relationships, and mental,
physical or sexual abuse, among any number of things.

So, right off, sexual abuse and topics are off the table, as a blanket rule. It gets sketchy far too easily,
and tends to set up uncomfortable end results, be it interactions with NPCs or the powers that result
from the trigger.

GMs should take further caution to either talk to players beforehand and figure out what’s off the table,
solicit anonymous feedback, or give players the ability to anonymously veto the triggers. Even events
one person might dismiss as ‘not worthy of a trigger’ might echo another person’s experiences and
resonate to an acute degree, so respect any and all feedback.

Taking the option of giving players choices of several options is a ‘softer’ approach to things, where
one person might be handed two triggers with associated backgrounds and choose one, or use the
drafting option. Be mindful that some vetos may still be required; if Alice’s mother had a bad spell with
breast cancer in the last year, Alice might find the game less enjoyable if the player sitting to her right
has cancer powers.

Players are strongly advised to avoid making or utilizing triggers that come from their own
experiences. In the course of playtesting and various campaigns, we found it doesn’t tend to go well;
it’s too personal for the individual, they may come to feel ‘they’ or their feelings aren’t being fairly
represented, and the blunt reality of the matter is that creating powers that are rooted in a person’s
trauma requires a bit of a twisting of the knife.

Adjust depending on the players, how well the group knows each other, but generally assume
anonymity is best for vetos. The point is to explore the power, identity, and become great heroes,
villains, mercenaries or monsters... not to put people on the spot or open old wounds.
Trigger Events: Writing Triggers
A trigger event will provide some context, background, the relevant and inciting incidents, and the
moment that things came to a head. Example:

After a gang event killed your parents, you developed ⬥ Context, starting point.
agoraphobia. You spent your high school years locked in
your room or staying in mental hospitals, afraid to step
outside. Your only constants were the visits from your
childhood friends Jasmine and Ren. Jasmine was like the
angel on your shoulder, supportive, caring, telling you about
the days at school you missed. Ren… it hurts to admit, but
he was something of a devil. He got into gang stuff, and used ⬥ Background, relevant
you as a confessional of sorts, knowing you weren’t in a people.
position to tell anyone. You heard tales of his long, slow
decline into debauchery and cruelty. It didn’t feel like a world
you were a part of, little different from shows on the TV or
internet.
⬥ Inciting incident, turning
That is, until he told you he tricked Jasmine into trying meth. point.
That she’d been looking down on him and acting superior, but
now that she’s ‘on his level’, it feels like the old days, when ⬥ Emotions are good points
you were all friends and life was golden. He sounds happy, to hit on & describe.
and you’re horrified… and helpless. He leaves when you
begin to shout at him, but you’re unable to leave your ⬥ The moment that things
apartment to chase him. Trapped by your own fears that come to a head.
were reinforced by years of routine, stewing in self loathing
for yourself, hatred of Ren, and desperation for Jasmine’s ⬥ Final beat.
sake, you trigger.

It’s fine to start from the end (an agoraphobe stuck in his room, unable to save a friend) then work
backwards. Who are the friends? What’s the situation? What’s he saving her from? Feel free to
tweak, or change the situation around a bit as the idea develops. The same starting point could be
someone in prison, helpless to affect the outside world.

Another good way to map it out is to think where do they come from, what’s their current situation, and
what happens? The list of classifications and the triggers tied to those classifications appears on this
page. These can serve as inspiration (and the GM may even say something like “We haven’t done a
lot of Mover triggers, does anyone want to try writing one?”, or do it ‘highlander style’ - the group
writes one trigger for each classification. If there aren’t enough people to do all classifications, it’s
recommended that the group skip Trump, Breaker, and Tinker, in that order, as they’re complicated to
make or run.

If writing for a specific classification, the process might be something like...

● I want to write a mover trigger. Mover powers involve people who want to escape.
● Where do they come from? They’re a single, teenage mom with no outside support.
● What’s her current situation? Look at connecting the two thoughts. She’s financially stuck,
can’t escape an area with minimal employment without money, can’t get the money without
employment… it’s a catch-22.
● What’s the inciting incident? What drives the situation home? She finally gets the money
together through blood, sweat, and tears, only for her daughter to get sick when the car is
loaded for them to go. She triggers as she pays the hospital, cleaning out her accounts and
sinking into debt, knowing it will be a long, long time before she gets out.
The Dos and Don’ts of Writing Triggers
Do Think About What Makes the Individual Special - Are you describing an event which happens a
hundred times a day? Pregnancy complications, cancer diagnosis, financial hardship? If so, think
about what might set this individual apart from the rest. Could be part of the ‘where do they come
from’ thinking, added drama/complications, or other personal details.

Do Insert Hooks - External motivations, implicit goals, other people who matter to the resulting cape,
stuff for the player and the GM to use for future story & roleplaying. Adds depth to the character.
Do Suggest Emotion, Personality - Frame things for the others at the table, don’t assume.

Do Make Them More than their Issues - A person with mental illness or an eating disorder (for
example) should be a person above all. Research & be sensitive, or go another route.

Do Think Outside Your Sphere - If your play group is all upper-middle-class types, think about
writing triggers detailing the perspective of someone in poverty, or in neighborhoods very unlike your
own.

Do Remember Someone Has to Play It - Especially repulsive or loathsome triggers can be

uncomfortable or vetoed even if non-sexual… if the thought of your play buddy having to deal with that
background or trigger isn’t a deterrence, remember that random chance can deal you the trigger you
wrote for others. Would you want to play it?

Avoid Sexual/Sex Abuse Triggers - Already mentioned above. Too prone to being uncomfortable or
harmful, and having any related individuals recur as characters can be ugly.

Avoid Depression & Suicidal Ideation - These topics tend to be both really common as triggers
people write, because we relate to them, and are problematic on a few levels. They don’t lead to fun
characters when the character has minimal motivation or drive (if played accurately), they tend to
produce the same powers over and over again, and they get vetoed a lot.

(New Players Should) Avoid Trump Triggers - Trigger events involving powers, Endbringers, or
other in-universe staples are best avoided at first. The reason is that writers of these trigger events
often focus on the wrong parts of the trigger and the results are often very shallow. The person writing
them focuses on the cool power and ignores the person at the center of the trigger. In addition, such
powers are hard to link into the setting and don’t provide as many hooks. A good trigger and resulting
power tend to have character, background, and power inexorably tied together… while trump powers
(powers that involve other powers) are disconnected from all that. Other triggers touch on the
aftermath of (or metaphorical impacts of) real events that we or people we know could run into, and
that’s a little more interesting to explore.

Avoid Dead Kids - Mom and dad leave the kid unattended, kid drowns in the pool. Kid picks up an
unattended gun and gets shot. Kid eats a peanut and dies of peanut allergies. In playtesting, these
triggers came up so often we had to ban them. It just tends to be what people think of when thinking
of horrifying moments, leading to similar-ish powers cropping up a lot.

Avoid Peanut Allergies - Person has a food allergy (often peanuts), accidentally eats the food
they’re allergic to, and they trigger. Hinted at above, sounds dumb, but again, came up in playtesting
and early Weaverdice campaigns far too often. Has no ‘hook’, often shallow.
(Seriously, at one point in playtesting we had a list of 100 triggers, and 18 had something to do with
peanuts or dead kids. They really tend to get overdone)
Trigger Capes: Creating Powers from a Trigger
The intended goal here is to get a power that’s usable, relevant to the character, and that makes
sense in-universe. The players at the table and any guests (or a chatroom if playing online) can work
together to figure out a good power. These bullet points get explained in more depth with their own
headings on the following pages.

Some suggested steps to follow:

1. The group should brainstorm keywords and themes. We go through the trigger, and we pull
out the background elements, recurring ideas, and single words that seem important to this
trigger. This serves two purposes: it encourages people to read the trigger beyond just the
surface level, and it gives us the tools we’ll use to fill in a later part of the power in step 4.
Examples include ‘rage becomes regret’, ‘gold’, ‘chains and chain link fences’ and ‘rooted in
place’.

2. Work out the classification(s). Very often the last lines of the trigger will point in the right
direction for this. The broad categories are listed in a subsection below. Most capes will have
one classification, but:
a. If the trigger has multiple parallel issues that don’t blend in together and are
trigger-worthy on their own (even if they don’t lead to a final moment), it could be a
combination of powers. A person who flies and shoots lasers, for example.
b. If the trigger has two issues that point to different classifications, but they’re intertwined
together to a point the trigger wouldn’t make sense if one was removed, it may be a
blend of two classifications. A person who gets their face blown off by a shotgun might
get a power that’s part brute (because of the wound) and part changer (because the
damage is done to the face, intrinsic to identity). This does not have to be 50-50; it
could be a brute who gets their toughness from general, minor mutations.

3. Figure out the core dilemma or crisis. This determines the broad shape of the power. For
blasters it’s whether they’re shooting a beam, lobbing artillery, or firing a constant hail of shots.
For a tinker, it’s how they build. For a thinker, it’s how their head or new perceptions work. We
don’t get into too many details or nuances here. A good power will have an ironic interplay
with the trigger, so we try to draw parallels. Some example lines to think on:
a. Was it a single threat or many? The loss of one important person or a group? One
obsessive focus over a long period of time, or a variety? This might determine how
focused the power is; a blaster power that’s great at taking out one target vs. one that
hits whole groups, or a master power that has one singular minion vs. a horde of lesser
ones. A tinker who is good at making one type of thing, vs. a broad specialist.
b. Were there big question marks around the trigger? Confusion or unknown factors or
attackers? Consider a power that gets a bit more of a boost, but is unreliable or
introduces question marks for the user, like a changer who doesn’t know exactly what
they’re going to turn into until the moment they change, or a blaster who doesn’t know
the exact output their blast will take until they start shooting. Usually these things are
drawn from a limited set of possibilities.
c. Was a need for money, resources, or materials a factor? The parallel could be that the
person using their power needs fuel or some outside factor, such as a shaker who
needs a nearby source of water to start influencing the battlefield, or a thinker who
needs basic technology to extend their altered perceptions through.
4. Figure out the other part of the power. This is where the terms outlined in step 1 often turn up.
We continue to draw parallels, but here we draw on the props, character background,
emotions, and symbolism in the trigger.
a. For a lot of powers, this will inspire what we call the element. Juicy Anger, intensity,
simmering resentment, or props like ongoing riots or another violent, out of control
situation? Fire. Numbness, inability to act, being stuck (frozen?) in stasis? Cold.
There’s room for exploring other types of element, or inventing your own. The
compulsion to babble, being induced to rage, dark lightning that raises corpses as
zombies, poisonous barbs, etc. These are what happens when a striker or blaster
attacks or makes contact (whereas step 3 figures out how they make that contact or
attack), or what kind of effect a shaker might have on the environment (or what type of
environment they affect). Some mover powers might use elements, as might some
brute or breaker powers. Some strangers and trumps might pull on specialized or
tweaked elements for a specific purpose.
b. For other powers, one might look for mutations. These are universal in changers,
occasional in brutes and breakers.
c. For a tinker, it’s their specialty. A tinker can have one way of building, but one focus on
electricity vs. one focusing on cloning will have very different outputs.
d. For a thinker, it’s their inspiration. A twist or subfocus that clarifies their power use. A
combat thinker might get perceptions that enhance their abilities in a fight, but one’s
ability to get the most out of those abilities could be contingent on their opponent
already being badly wounded or debilitated, vs. one contingent on fighting alongside
animals, leaning on pets and animals they bring with them or find nearby on the
battlefield.
Remember that a good power has parallels and/or irony with the trigger.

5. The player rolls Luck, generating some perks and flaws. This can be random (giving a
character two flaws, another character two perks), or the GM can dictate something more ‘fair’.
If power perks or flaws come up, we tweak the power.

6. The power is finalized and given rules.

Keywords & Themes

The group may wish to take an around-the-table approach, or brainstorm on paper and then compare
notes. Either way, the more there is, the better, but don’t let it get in the way of the rest of character
generation - five minutes or less is fine.

Let’s look at an example trigger:

Callie looks like the kind of teenager who gets into trouble. The expression on her face, the way
she dresses. The kids who give her wary looks in the hallways would never guess she’s a devoted
caretaker. It began when she was in middle school, when her parents were busy working and
couldn’t consistently look after her grandmother. A nurse who had promised she would arrive in ten
minutes didn’t show up at all, and Callie looked after her grandmother the entire time. She gets
along with her grandmother and is one of the few who do, so she makes a good bit of spare
‘allowance’ as payment for caring for the woman.

They developed a bond, and the process of caring for someone in ill health led Callie to
explorations in theology, religion, and digs through her family history. She thought she was ready to
let go, as her grandmother’s mind and health steadily slipped.

She wasn’t. It happened all at once, a choking sound from her grandmother, while they were out for
a walk. Her grandmother flipped from placid to panic. With a strength borne of adrenaline and a
sheer lack of self preservation, not recognizing Callie, her grandmother fought her and screeched.
Bystanders jumped in, immediately assumed the intense looking teenager with the minor scratches
and bloody nose was attacking the old woman, and pulled her away, holding her around the arm
and neck. Desperate to save her suffocating grandmother, with nobody listening as she tries to tell
them about the dropped inhaler that would let her grandmother breathe again, Callie triggers amid
the shouted condemnations of the angry bystanders.

When extricating the keywords and themes, there are some questions to ask:
● Could you sum up the trigger as a whole in one word or phrase?
○ Example: “She’s a book judged by its cover.”
● Are there any key ideas that appear in the entire trigger, or through most of it?
○ Death. She’s coming to terms with death (even studying theology) and the
grandmother’s imminent death.
○ Blood (Lesser example). In the sense of blood by relation, bloodline (even tracing
back through her family history), and the bloody nose.
○ Noise and voices: suffocation, unheard words, shouts of the crowd.
● Are there any contrasts? Dichotomies where two seemingly opposing elements come into
conflict
○ Appearance, as mentioned above. Caring vs. appearing intimidating. Appearing to be
the attacker while trying to help.
○ Instinct vs. Rationality - The grandmother and the crowd are acting on instinct, with
very basic fight or flight stuff going on.
● Are there any props? Any objects or items that appear throughout or have a lot of
importance? Any environments? If you had nightmares about this event, would any objects or
places recur?
○ The inhaler, ties into the idea of suffocation or restriction, as Callie is held & held
around the neck.
○ No environments in this trigger.
Keywords and themes can be something that the group goes back to if they find themselves stuck for
inspiration, but they can also affect aesthetics and secondary components of a power.

Take the trigger above and compare it to…

It was a classic romance. Meeting at work, him a hospital insurer, her a nurse. They dated, got an
apartment together, he met the parents. Their values aligned, they were close, and aside from
some stubbornness when arguing, things were great. When they had work events at the hospital,
Thom and Laila were stars. When Laila got pregnant, they agreed to get married.

Three years into the marriage, Laila found religion, reconnecting with distant family members and
sliding into a strict religious mindset. Stubborn arguments became more common, especially over
the raising of their daughter. After a year-long battle, he won full custody, largely due to his wife’s
unwillingness to compromise.

An ordinary, sunny day turned into horror, when he went to pick up his daughter from kindergarten,
and found his ex-wife had picked her up. After a series of angry and frantic calls, he tracked her
down, found out she was intent on taking their daughter to another country, where authorities would
side with her. Where she might be surgically altered, arranged for a child marriage, and made to
live her life under a veil- all things his wife had vehemently argued in favor of. He sped after them,
caught up at the port, and came face to face with the religious fanatics that had sucked his wife in.
His efforts to get to the boat were stymied by the crowd, who dragged him down and kicked him, he
hollered his daughter’s name, and watched the boat leave. In the end, he sees his ex-wife with two
of the patriarchs, holding his daughter in a clawlike grip. Tom triggers as his daughter disappears
from view, possibly lost to him forever.

At the core of it, the baseline trigger is very similar - losing a loved one forever, while clawed at and
fought by an unreasonable crowd. It would not be unreasonable to give both the same kind of power:
perhaps a striker with some master beats, or a master with striker mechanisms.

But the context, environment, background and themes are all different. The underlying image for
Tom’s trigger is a widening gulf- the pulling away of the ex from a perfect marriage into the
irreconcilable, the boat pulling away from port. The idea of toxic faith is pervasive, in contrast to
Callie’s trigger where death is so marked. If he were to have nightmares in the years after, he might
dream fitfully about the boat, or pull on the medical notion of FGM and their background as workers in
a hospital.

Except, in the Wormverse, it’s not recurring nightmares, but instead the power that he is (or Callie is)
handed, that can remind him of these motifs every time the power fires up. These keywords and
themes determine the flavor that the power ends up with.

If the group making Callie’s power were to make her a striker, they might give her a keening banshee
wail that goes with the sword strikes. If she were a master, it would determine the flavor, look, and
approach of the minions. If she were a changer, it might be becoming a banshee in some form,
through mutations. Thinkers may have secondary focuses or aspects that draw on the themes, and
Callie’s could focus on the death, noise, or even instinct vs. rationality, depending on what fits with the
thinker power, while a tinker would draw on themes for their specialty. These are the things that
keywords and themes influence; flavor, both general and the practical aspects of ‘flavor’ that affect
how the power works.
Example Elements that could be drawn from themes…

Primarily for blasters, strikers, shakers, some brutes and breakers.

Simple Elemental:
Fire Shock Air Cold Water Crystal Earth Steel Wood Steam

‘Light’ Elemental:
Ember Static Puff Snow Spray Glitter Sand Shards Leaf Mist

‘Heavy’ Elemental:
Magma Volt Tornado Glacier Tsunami Mirror Crag Blades Forest Scald

‘Mixed’ Elemental: (ex: Fire + lightning, air + cold…)

Energy Storm Winter Slick Reflect Spike Binding Forge Pollen Smoke

Esoteric (Not tied to the ‘core’ elements)

Flash Beam Irradiate Dark Ghost Zombie Slow Rewind Stop Shrink
Twist Swap Poison Plague Parasite Acid Gun Missile Gravity Song
Heart Flesh Blood Bone Machinery Disintegrate Black Hole

Stranger (For stranger powers or powers with strong stranger flavor, often minor afflictions that open
up vulnerabilities, opportunities, or offer utility)
Weaken Hamstring Clumsy Blind Silence Brain Damage Fragile
Bleed Stagger Disarm Dazzle Images Deafen Madness Amnesia Sick

Master/Emotion (For emotion blasts/strikes/nukes of a given flavor, or master powers)

Has some overlap with strangers, especially in the second row.
Fourth row is mixes of other emotions (Joy & trust = love, etc.)
Joy Trust Fear Surprise Sadness Disgust Anger Attention
Laughter Pacify Anxiety Distract Solemnity Apathy Annoy Intrigue
Ecstasy Admiration Panic Amaze Mourning Loathing Berserk Vigilance
Love Submit Awe Aghast Remorse Contempt Hate Optimism

Minions, Changer, & Mutation Categories

(For deciding what they look like & how they operate)
Muscle Gun Prowler Toad Tumor Container Beetle
Forge Bird Rose Brood Gross Candle Fold
Mane Moth Doll Skeleton Skinny Kraken Pincer
Chess Putrid Eel Trash Machine Reptile Geometric
Classifications: Templating the Cape
The very last lines of a trigger will often point to the classification, following the logic for what category
of power to choose listed at the start of this section here. When making a power from a trigger, we’ll
want to first start with the broadest strokes, and then narrow down.
Variations & ‘templates’ can include:

Ex. Shaker
Straight
Trigger is straightforward, points to clear classification
Classification
Stick to the classification as best as you can.

Ex. a ‘flying artillery mover/blaster’ or Master/stranger.

There are two clear trigger-worthy storylines concurrent in the trigger.
Dual
Classification Gen two (simpler, weaker) powers. Character gets two complementary
powers. The one that ends the trigger may be stronger. (70/30 or
60/40 split in focus/power.)

Ex. Blaster-master or breaker-tinker

The classifications are intertwined in the moment of trigger. Touched on
in keywords & themes above.
Mixed
Classifications Power should intertwine two classifications for role & approach. The
blaster-master can be a blaster who shoots master parasites. The
breaker-tinker uses tinkertech to go breaker and the breaker state to
power the tinkerings. Neither part works without the other.

Ex. Breaker(Blaster), Changer(Mover), Tinker(Striker)

The trigger event paints a [Breaker, or Changer, or Tinker, etc.] situation
within which the trigger happens. Super common with breaker, &
Container stranger triggers (to the point of being almost default).
Classification The character uses one power to access the execution of the other.
The breaker enters the breaker state, at which point they’re a blaster.
The changer mutates to grow the parts that make them a mover. The
tinker builds only melee weapons.

Ex. Thinker/Blaster/Brute with two others with similar sets.

When multiple people trigger at the same place & time, the powers are
Multi-triggers
interlinked.
(or ‘Clusters’)
Each gains a very weak set of powers, with ‘theirs’ being emphasized.
The group may be linked by a gimmick.

Ex. The son of Firebreather triggers as a striker.

The character who triggers is a child or close acquaintance of someone
who had powers.
Second Character gains/inherits a good portion of the parent’s power. If multiple
Generation parents, takes something from each parent. If trigger points to another
Powers classification, may take the element/skin/mutation from the parent. If
the same classification, may get a similar but different execution of that
power (ex. a fire beam vs. firebreath) or a subtly different element
(napalm breath vs. firebreath).
Some things to mind when incorporating classifications:

1. Keep it simple.
If you see the threads of four different classifications in a trigger event, don’t try to create four powers
for the one cape. It’ll end up choppy and messy. A note of a classification being present doesn’t
mean it needs to be a sub-power. Try to use the keyword/theme approach and pick an element that
captures the smaller parts.

2. But don’t get too fixated

In the process of power gen, it’s easy to have discussion and debate over what fits and what doesn’t.
The group may find itself split on whether a trigger is master or stranger. It may be worth stepping
back and asking if it’s both master and stranger (dual or mixed classification), or if the two can be
blended.

3. Be careful of classifications that tend to ‘override’ others.

Some classifications can get emphasized by a group, until they start appearing in most powers, or
crowd out other classifications. As an example, a changer has a crisis of self identity as their big
issue. These crises tend to happen over time. If we default to mixing ‘long term issue’ with ‘crisis of
self identity’, we end up with nearly every changer having tinker in them. It’s better to just make them
a changer and look for very specific excuses to make changer-tinkers. Another common trap is the
thinker-breaker (where the delirium and confusion peak with something thinker-like). If unsure if the
power is falling into this trap, ask if most/all powers in a classification would incorporate that other
classification, using the justification your group/player is putting forward. (ex. “If we make this guy a
master-stranger, won’t all masters be master-strangers?”)

4. Remember the end-goal

The power should, in the end, be a reflection of the character’s trauma. In an ideal world, we want a
dose of irony and a power that essentially and metaphorically means the cape is carrying the
traumatic moment with them for years. If the process of working out classification gets too
complicated, or too fixated, or if people get stuck on the notion that it has a time component so it
needs tinker in there, it’s possible that the group may lose sight of this goal, so be sure to step back
and assess if it applies or works on any level.

5. Go with what’s fun & easy

A good rule of thumb is ‘this would be neat’ trumps what the rulebook says. If the group has an idea
and that contravenes the prior rules or specific classifications, that’s fine. Go with that. If the
breakdown or discussion of classifications gets unfun, just pick something and move on. Fun > the
irony/metaphor > the specific rules.
Core of the Power
The core of the power is where we determine the main thrust or execution of the power. We’ve
decided on the classification, we can look at the scenario that drives the trigger (often the last
sentence and immediate context) to further narrow it down. Blasters hit things at range, but there are
different types of blaster: ones who do a lot of damage, who lob artillery, who turn weapons into a
means of firing off beams… we’re looking for ways to make the power parallel the trigger even.

For example:
● A sudden, immediate moment of crisis in the trigger might lead to a power with a very sudden,
immediate expression. A changer can have their crisis of identity hit all at once, as they
realize what a fool they’ve been, and become a changer who mutates very quickly, and uses
that to their advantage. A blaster could have a front-loaded expression of ranged force, with
moments of pause that follow as they recharge.
● Higher risk situation with people dying or getting hurt all around the cape (far above and
beyond what’s normal for that classification?) - higher harm power that escalates the situation
and surrounds the cape with people who are dying and getting hurt all around the cape.
● A situation laden with confusion, where it’s unclear what’s going on? Leads to a power that
hands the cape multiple weaker or narrower expressions of a power, that constantly forces
them to make decisions and assess what’s going on.
There are too many possibilities to go over in any detail. Keep in mind that at this stage, we’re not
looking for specifics on what the power does, but rather on the broad strokes of how. It’s good to
identify two key aspects that can play off one another: a cape with a sudden trigger where a lot of
people die around them gives us a pretty clear expression: a sudden, initially violent expression of the
power, that might be weaker in the aftermath of that initial show of force. If they’re a mover, that could
be a brutal takeoff that tears up people & things in their immediate vicinity. If they’re a brute, they
might get a lot of initial tenacity and raw power that drops away, possibly as armor gets broken or
muscle dwindles. Once we’ve decided that, we move on to the next major step of the power
generation, which is filling in the blanks.

Specific to the types of classification, we can note...

● With dual and cluster capes, who have two (dual) or more (cluster) powers, we probably want
to keep it simple for the secondary powers, at least, so identifying one thing to determine the
thrust of the power is good.
● Mixed classifications will want a broad expression of power that fits both classifications at the
same time.
● For container classification capes, we start with identifying the triggering context and working
out the way that is expressed. For example: Breaker has ‘They trigger from the weird shit,
often drugs & mental illness.’ Which/what situation is this and how does this impact the
breaker state? Then we work out the same for the power they have while they’re in breaker
state.
● For second generation capes, decide if they have a similar enough trigger to their ‘parent’ that
they get the same expression (skipping this step), if they have a riff on that expression, or
something totally different. If the last case, the next step is probably skipped (the secondary
aspect of the power, drawing on keywords and themes).

The following pages may have some suggestions on directions to go for specific classifications.
Breakers

Breakers are those who access a ‘breaker state’ to use their power, swapping their bodies (usually
whole-body) over to a form that defies normal convention and function. Unlike changers, the swap is
often instantaneous and the new body may operate by different rules or be formed wholly of
powerstuff. While in this form they follow special rules and/or have access to certain powers.
Changers use their powers to alter themselves. Breakers alter themselves to use their powers.
Breakers trigger when certain effects or events warp the conventions of the trigger: drugs, delirium,
sickness, inverted intent, disconnection, warped thoughts or brainwashing. Whatever the normal case
for a trigger event, the trigger events that lean breaker had a wrench thrown into the works. Breakers
are a good go-to for the ‘miscellaneous’ triggers that don’t easily fall into another classification.
Breakers are primarily a container classification. In approaching the design of a breaker, extract the
weird part of it and analyze it without that part. What classification would the power be, or what’s the
most fitting? That is the kind of thing they’ll do while in the breaker state.
Polly’s anxious obsessive-compulsive thoughts build a scenario where her house is going to go
up in flames and she and her disabled parents die before they can go out. When her routines and
patterns get disrupted, she catastrophizes, imagining the worst has happened. It’s going to be a
shaker power expression, even if the event wasn’t ‘real’.
Briar has celebrity parents and stumbles into the limelight after an unwilling appearance in a film,
but hates it all and wants her childhood back. Her attempts to derail her career become her focus,
and these attempts are frustrated by how people seem to be able to forgive her anything. Doing
everything right seems to drive people away and being antisocial is ‘counterculture’ and brings
people closer. In the mixed up, topsy-turvy world of film and tabloids this kid triggers amid an
inversion of usual rules and ideas. Too blurry a scenario to clearly point to stranger, thinker or
even shaker, we note the classifications that would apply and put her in the ‘breaker’ basket.
Primarily, she’s someone who wants to meet the conditions that others would consider grounds for
a master trigger, or possibly stranger.
Martin is an active drug user, midway through a long ketamine trip in the bad end of town when
some neighbors break in, looking for heroin. Frustrated that he doesn’t have any (it’s not his drug
of choice), they take what he has to resell and stab him multiple times before fleeing.
Dissociating, he’s not capable of defending himself, he doesn’t feel the pain even though he’s
dimly aware of it, and the drugs affect his ability to even remember the event. Adrenaline and
physiological reactions bring him around enough to vaguely register the harm and trigger. He’s
going to have a brute power expression, though there’s a lot of facets missing.

We don’t discount the weird aspect, however, but return to it, for the breaker state itself.
The breaker form itself often has different gameplay rules. One breaker power may turn an individual
into an amorphous, human shaped mass of pyrokinetic electricity. Others may construct an alter-ego
out of powerstuff, a holographic cape identity that they adopt in a whoosh of altered time, that bears
little to no resemblance to their normal self. Others may appear normal or mostly normal, but with
veins of gold spreading across their body, color leeching away to make them monochrome, or their
bodies becoming transparent and red-tinted to mark the fact that they have a different relationship to
causality, gravity, or other fundamental rules.
As a consequence, each form has rules about how they enter the state (most often, just an action or
even a quick action to adopt the form), how long it lasts or what the conditions are for leaving it, and
any alternate rules they operate by while in the state. They may have more limited movement, limited
durations, resources, and most don’t have access to usual equipment, borrowing only trace aesthetic
and some limited functionality. An example:
Polly’s breaker form turns her into something of an elemental with a standard action. She
becomes an agitated phantom of dripping oil, oily black smoke, and an ephemeral core body that
holds her general silhouette. Wearing armor before entering the form means she keeps the horns
from her helmet, but it doesn’t really act as armor, exactly, just durability; she loses access to
equipment, belt items, and the non-aesthetic benefits of costume.
In her breaker form, Polly can’t take full actions, she can’t sprint or full attack, and she doesn’t
have access to stamina, focus, or recovery. In fact, if she would be forced to lose stamina, focus
or recovery, she’s forced out of her state. While in the state, she has energy equal to the number
of available stamina, focus, and recovery pips she had, +1 per armor she had. Moving, attacking,
and using her shaker power costs energy, and when she runs out, she returns to being human
and translates lost energy to spent effort, exhausting herself. This stacks both with the regular
exhaustion of running around in her human form, and with the fact that while in the state, any
wound she takes exhausts her energy reserves, translating to exhausted stamina, focus, recovery,
or warped armor when she becomes human again, with a chance of unconsciousness when
entirely spent.
Polly’s upside is that she doesn’t accrue wounds as easily, and if she can control a situation she can
ensure she’s only in danger while in the breaker state. Her shaker power may be more powerful,
compensating for the fact that it’s available for more limited windows, and she likely gets some other
benefits for being made of living fire and smoke: not suffocating from smoke would be a good one,
and we can say she’d be hard to grab or grapple without being burned.
The nature and feel of the breaker form and its relationship to the character’s human side can and
ideally should reflect the trigger and circumstances. Alternate rules may be dramatic or minor, and
should be customized to the breaker part of the trigger. Progressive deterioration may indicate a
breaker state that is strong initially but diminishes fast, setting a time limit. Disconnection in a case
like Martin’s, above, could point to a breaker state that doesn’t have much interplay with the human
state, but has other conditions for entry/leaving. Powers could be made less breaker (and the states
correspondingly less extreme) if the breaker part of the trigger is small. They can also be given
conditions to meet or dependencies and variables. Briar’s very socially-minded trigger could play into
a shift in what it does depending on if there are people around her.
Generally speaking, note that it shouldn’t be doable to stay in the breaker form indefinitely. Costs,
durations, balances of differing vulnerabilities in differing states, and limitations of the alien breaker
body should give reason to swap. Mind, also, that you don’t create a character with two health bars -
one human and one breaker, as this makes characters too durable and makes combat a slog.
When the breaker form is worked out, it can be combined with the power. Keep power expressions
somewhat more simple and straightforward. Form should be intermingled with the power in aesthetic
and function. One’s own manton exception that normally protects them from their power is in full,
exaggerated effect here. A cape with subtle adaptations and benefits that make them immune to
suffocation will take on features and function that turn those adaptations up to 11. They might float or
have no mouth or nose. The power use can be automatic, exaggerated, or amplified, making up for
the fact it has the breaker state as a prerequisite.

● Dream
● Drug
● Contradiction
● Subversion

As a final note, breakers can be complex to design. It is entirely alright for GMs new to Weaverdice to
put off designing one and go with something else that works with the trigger. Polly, above, could be a
tinker dealing with a years-long problem, Briar could be a no-nonsense stranger or master (or even a
thinker, emphasizing the dilemma of trying to escape that life), Martin could be a brute.
Work in progress- more to come!