Stemming from mystical techniques which explore the Light, a principal tenet of the Avodai religion is that life energy unifies all pieces of Creation together and this can be used for healing. Originally, only religious Rebas were authorized to manipulate these life energies in esoteric and guarded rituals, but over time a class of healers called the Society of Rafa assumed responsibility for fortifying health amongst the masses. As the Rafa started caring for people beyond the Avodai faith, their energy bending techniques became known more colloquially as Rafa Skills.
These techniques manipulate life energy to influence physical health, as well as for metaphysical and spiritual purposes. They can control physical objects, heighten senses or stimulate new ones, facilitate greater understanding with other sentient creatures, or establish boundaries preventing harm. Skills consume the users’ own life energies, with limited exceptions.
Life Energy #
Every being has a max life energy and current life energy. Humans develop a max of 13 life energy in their youth while seniors and babies often have less. Generally, spirits may have much more, and animals may have less, at the Storyteller’s discretion.
Each patient has their own max life energy, which players can look up on the patient’s medical record. At the Storyteller’s discretion, non-player characters may start a scenario with less than their max life energy depending on their illness. You may only heal a patient up to their max life energy. The storyteller will track patients’ health, while players track their own life energy using the provided life energy counters in the character sheet.
All Rafa characters start with the max 13, although players may self-limit this for creative reasons. Unless otherwise stated on a Skill, Rafa expend 3 of their own life energy to perform any Skill. This roughly means that on a given scenario, they can perform 4 Skills before needing to find ways of creatively managing their Energy. Each Rafa can refresh their current energy in a few ways:
- Full night sleep: 13 life energy
- Eat a hand pie or other food: 3 life energy
- 1 hour nap: 6 life energy
- Specialty Boons: Some specialties have Boons that enable them to refresh their own life energy or that of others once per session. See specialty pages for more.
The primary exception to the costs of a Rafa Skill occurs if the Rafa character has a disability that relies on a skill for accommodations. At that point the skill costs nothing, because it integrates into natural expressions of their life energy. One such physical accommodation is when mobility-impaired Rafa regularly use Telekinesis, that skill costs no life energy to that particular Rafa. Be creative with accommodations!
Using a Healing Skill #
Once your Rafa characters acquire skills, you readily recall and use them fluidly. Each skill contains a brief vignette that helps players and Storytellers interpret how the skill works. We encourage you to interpret skills liberally, creating narrative and interpretative reasons to expand their effects.
At the highest level, to use a skill, roll 3 ten-side dice (3d10). Each die represents either a success (6+), a neutral failure meaning nothing happens (2-5), or causes a negative side effect (1). (Sidenote: some ten-sided die use a 10, but if yours has a 0 instead treat it as a 10.)
Let’s look at a practical example of applying a Rafa Skill called Ease Pain:
- Reduce Rafa’s Life Energy.
- Player rolls 3d10.
- If Rafa has expertise, optionally re-roll 1d10.
- Storyteller increases patient life energy by # of successes.
- If any Side Effects, Storyteller rolls 1d4 and references Skill to decrease patient’s life energy by corresponding amount.
- Storyteller describes outcome narratively.
Let’s explore that more naturally in a Scenario:
Example: Using Ease Pain
The Storyteller tells players that Baker Ahava has come to the Rafa with a burn from the Communal Oven. The players indicate they will cast Ease Pain and then use a bandage from their Rafa Bag to keep the injury from becoming infected.
Step 1: Reduce Rafa life energy. There are no mitigating circumstances in this example, and this was the first Skill used in this scenario. So, 13 max life – 3 cost = 10 current life energy on Rafa player character.
Step 2: Roll 3d10 to determine successes (6+). The player rolls a 10, a 5, and a 1, representing one success and one negative side effect.
Step 3: If your Rafa has expertise, optionally re-roll the worst die. For example, re-roll the negative side effect (1) before the neutral fail (5), but never re-roll a success (the 10). The player doesn’t have expertise in Ease Pain yet, so skip this step.
Step 4: Increase patient’s current life energy by number of successes. In this case, there was one success, so if the patient currently has 5 life energy, increase to 6.
Step 5: Apply any Side Effects. There was one Side Effect rolled by player above, so Storyteller rolls a four-sided die which results in a 4. By looking at Ease Pain, the Storyteller tells players this roll corresponds to the patient developing a Side Effect of Brain Fog at the cost of -1 life points. Following our example, the patient returns to 5 current life energy.
Step 6: Storyteller describes outcome narratively: “You carefully bandage the burn to ensure that it is protected from the elements and germs. Baker Ahava isn’t paying attention to her hand anymore but looks a bit dazed and confused.” If players don’t respond at all to Ahava’s new brain fog symptom, perhaps she slumps into a sitting position on the floor.
Using Discovery Skills #
There are some energy bending skills that do not directly affect patients’ health, such as diagnosis and communication skills, categorized as Discovery Skills. Unless mitigated, they still cost 3 life energy to the Rafa to use. Such skills automatically succeed, but at least in part the Storyteller determines how.
Example: Performing Ailment’s Origin
Player: “I want to see what is causing my patient’s illness, so I perform divination via Ailment’s Origin. I take out my bowl and melt some wax into it.”
The player moves their life energy counter down by 3.
Storyteller: “The wax falls in delicate, ethereal strings that turn green like a ghost’s aura. The patient’s malady is due to a spirit. The spirit starts squirming in the patient’s hair. The patient shakes.”
Discovery skills are listed as automatically succeeding, but players should understand that they may not always characterize exactly how. For example, when using Find Lost People skill, sometimes the results will be exactly what player intended and other times it is but a clue from the Storyteller. Different stories may offer different levels of specificity to locating someone, such as “The person is in their bedroom at home” or “visiting the Frog Scholars” or “outside of the village, in woods somewhere southwest.” Sometimes this will be useful, and sometimes players may have to start searching and expend more time and energy trying to refine location iteratively.
Crafting Skills #
Remedies are essentially Apothecary medicines that can ameliorate symptoms of disease while lightly strengthening patients. Amulets, meanwhile, ward off spirits before they can possess people or otherwise cause harm. While the purposes of the two are different, they are very similar in how they play and are discussed together below.
There are two crafting skills in the game: Make Herbal Remedy and Make Shielding Amulet both create physical items to protect patients. Each player with the Make Herbal Remedy skill has access to all of the Herbal Remedies provided in the game, and likewise Make Shielding Amulet can craft any of the three types of amulets. Both skills cost the normal 3 life energy to use during any scenario, although the patient receives benefits without any dice rolls. You may also start the Scenario with pre-crafted Remedies or Amulets at no cost to your character’s starting life energy.
Players may assume that they can collect all common materials for crafting at the House of Healing, but some rare materials (as denoted in the Remedies recipe) may not be available per the Storyteller’s Discretion. Of course, Rafa characters can collect necessary materials in many narratively relevant ways, by foraging or shopping or schlepping materials from the House of Healing in their pouches.
Make Herbal Remedy #
While using a remedy you’ve prepared, it heals the symptoms clearly expressed by its name. Not all Herbal Remedies automatically increase a patient’s current life energy, but the recipe will tell you if there is an effect.
When preparing your remedies at the start of a Scenario, choose two remedies to start with at no cost to your starting life energy. Any time you are in the House of Healing, you may also stock up on any common ingredients you wish. Some rare/expensive ingredients (as denoted in the Remedies recipe) may not be available per the Storyteller’s Discretion, but you can also forage or shop for new materials as well.
Using Make Herbal Remedy doesn’t involve rolling, you will automatically craft a remedy with the prerequisite materials. So, expertise in this skill has a special effect, granting you the ability to prepare two Herbal Remedies for the same cost (life energy and ingredients).
Example: Making an Anxiety Tincture
Your patient is experiencing a moderate anxiety attack.
Player: “I’m going to try and make an Anxiety Tincture.”
Player uses vervain and alcohol in their possession, and the Player subtracts three life energy from their current.
Player (to Patient): “Here, try this.”
Storyteller: “Do you have expertise?”
Player: “No. I’ll only make one tincture.”
Storyteller: “Your patient calms down slightly. Their eyes no longer violently bounce around the room but settle on you for the first time. Their current life energy goes up by 1 point.”
Make Shielding Amulet #
Per the skill’s description, amulets shield from either a) the Evil Eye, b) possession, or c) malevolent external spirits, but never all three at once. As such, each amulet is powerful but very specific in its usage. Keep in mind that your Storyteller should ensure your amulets have a strong effect, but they shouldn’t resolve a Scenario outright. Likewise, recognize that amulets can provide peace of mind to other characters that may serve other uses, such as currency during negotiations.
When preparing your amulets at the start of a Scenario or at a House of Healing, choose one type of amulet to start with at no cost to current life points. However, if you craft a new amulet during play, it will cost 3 life points per usual. Be advised that no character gains expertise for the skill Make Shielding Amulet.
Any newly crafted amulet should quickly create its specified effect. Any character holding or wearing it is immediately protected, repelling spiritual harm as its description states (but not exorcizing a spirit if the character is already possessed).
Revive #
Energy Boost is one of the core skills that all Rafa learn by default.
If a character has 0 life energy, then players must perform Energy Boost immediately to stabilize them. At the Storyteller’s discretion, all Rafa that are present may attempt to use Energy Boost in order to stabilize a patient in this way. If the current life energy doesn’t return above 0 after the intervention because of lack of successes or side effects, then the character dies.
It is possible that players can push themselves to 0 life energy through energy bending, but it’s not an encouraged tonal style for a Society of Rafa game.
Learning new skills #
After resolving a scenario, each player gets to learn one new skill or gain expertise on an existing skill.
Rafa can choose to learn skills in another specialty, but they can never become an expert in skills outside their specialty. If a Rafa wants to change their speciality, they should work with their Storyteller to make that narratively matter.