Chapter 7: Grit & Current

“You think we’re all the same? You think a healer is the same as a gun-witch? That’s like saying a scalpel is the same as a stick of dynamite. Sure, both can open a man up, but one leaves a scar, and the other leaves a crater.”

Caleb, Dust-Born Psy-Slinger

The Current is a single, chaotic source, but the human mind cannot grasp it in its entirety. To channel it without burning out instantly, a Psionic must filter the energy through a specific framework: a philosophy, a metaphor, a way of understanding power. These frameworks are called Disciplines.

This chapter covers both halves of what makes a character exceptional: Mundane Talents, earned through grit and practice and open to anyone, and the five Psionic Disciplines, which draw on the Current at a price.

In This Chapter

Understanding and Learning Talents: what Talents are, how you use them, how you learn them, and how to read one.

Mundane Talents: the shared list, plus the signature Talents of the five mundane Callings.

The Five Disciplines: Psy-Slinger, Mindweaver, Seer, Flesh Shaper, and Bastion Soul, each from Rank 1 Cantrips to Rank 5 Miracles.

Section I: Understanding Talents

What Are Talents?

Skills measure how good you are at something. Talents are what you can do that others can’t. A Gunhand with Ballistics 3 is a fine shot; a Gunhand with Fan the Hammer can empty a revolver into one man before he clears leather.

Every character starts with two Talents and learns more through play. A Talent never replaces the dice unless it says so. Instead, it changes what a roll can accomplish, what it costs, or when you can make it.

Two Kinds of Talent

• Mundane Talents: earned through practice, scars, and repetition. Anyone who meets the prerequisites can learn them. They cost Mettle or have limited uses and carry no supernatural risk. Psionics can learn them too.
• Psionic Talents: drawn from the Current through a Discipline. Only Psionics can learn them. They cost Strain, Erosion, or Memory, risk Backlash, feed the Tension Pool, and mark you as something the Redeemers hunt.

Using a Talent

• Declaring: say you’re using a Talent before you roll. A Talent with a Tempo takes your action for that Tick. A Talent marked Passive is always on.
• Paying: spend the cost when you declare. Mettle spent on a Talent only counts as a Reaction if the Talent calls itself one.
• Limits: “once per scene,” “once per session,” and “once per Beat” reset at those boundaries (Chapter 5 defines Beats and Scenes).
• Stacking: a Talent’s bonus is one source among many. Two uses of the same Talent don’t stack, but a Talent and a piece of gear do (Chapter 4, Section IX).

Psionic Talents and the Modifier System

Psionic Talents can grant Pool Bonuses, which are otherwise rare in The Veil & Lead:

• Mundane advantages (Aim, equipment, position) give Roll Bonuses and TN modifiers
• Supernatural advantages (Talents, artifacts) can give Pool Bonuses

A Psionic with psychic enhancement and good equipment can reach dice pools no mundane character can match, and pays for it in Strain, Erosion, and their very identity.

The Five Disciplines

Every Psionic channels the Current through one Discipline: a framework that turns raw power into something a human mind can survive. Your Discipline is set by your Calling and never changes. Each has its own Talents from Rank 1 to Rank 5, and you can learn only those of your own Discipline.

A Focus is the object a Psionic channels through. Without it you can still Channel, but at −2 dice, and any Backlash is doubled (Chapter 6, Section I).

Talents in the Fiction

A Talent is something the world can see. A Gunhand with Quick Reload keeps spare cartridges between her fingers; a Mindweaver’s Talents leave strangers uneasy for reasons they can’t name. When you use one, describe it. The Game Marshal builds on what you describe, and so do the people watching.

Section II: Learning New Talents

When You Learn

Talents are learned during Downtime and bought with XP (Chapter 2, Section II). Each one should come from somewhere you can point to in play: a fight that taught you something, a teacher who owed you a favor, a book you shouldn’t have opened. When you buy a Talent, take a sentence to say where it came from.

Every character begins with two Talents. A mundane Calling grants one of its Calling Talents and one Mundane Talent of your choice. A psionic Calling grants a fixed Rank 1 Talent of its Discipline and one Mundane Talent of your choice.

Requirements

To learn a Talent, you must meet every requirement that applies to it:

• Prerequisites: each Mundane Talent lists its own, usually a Skill at Rank 2 or an Attribute at 3
• Calling Talents: only characters of that Calling can learn them
• ECHO and Channel (Psionic only): your ECHO must equal or exceed the Talent’s Rank, and you need Channel at Rank 1 or higher
• The ladder (Psionic only): Psionic Talents come only from your own Discipline, and you must already know at least one of its Talents of the previous Rank. Rank 1 Talents have no such requirement
• A source (Rank 3 and up): a Mentor or a Grimoire (below)
• The Game Marshal’s approval (Rank 5): Miracles reshape campaigns, so discuss one with the Game Marshal before you buy it

XP Costs

A Talent’s cost never rises with the number you already know. A tenth Mundane Talent costs the same 4 XP as your first.

Mentors

A Mentor is a living practitioner willing to teach you, which on the Frontier is rarer than the knowledge itself. Mentors teach only what they know, and they rarely teach for free:

• Service: a mission, a favor, a debt settled on their behalf
• Secrets: information they want, often about the Veil or a rival
• Sacrifice: something precious to you
• Scrip: rarely. Knowledge this dangerous isn’t usually for sale

Finding a Mentor is a story of its own. A Circle of Ash archivist might teach in exchange for what you’ve seen beyond the Veil; a retired Gunhand might teach Fan the Hammer to anyone who’ll sit with him while he drinks. The Redeemers hang those who teach the Current, so every psionic lesson carries risk for both of you.

Grimoires

Grimoires are texts of psionic knowledge: field journals, Circle manuscripts, notes scratched into the margins of a hymnal. They turn up in ruins, in the Circle of Ash’s vaults, and in the saddlebags of dead Psionics.

• Contents: 1–3 Talents from a single Discipline
• First reading: SAVVY + Lore against TN 13
• Failure: the alien concepts scar your mind. Take 1 Erosion, and try again after a week
• Fumble: take 2 Erosion. You cannot attempt that Grimoire again until your ECHO increases

Once read, a Grimoire is a source for every Talent it holds. It can be traded, stolen, or burned, and the Redeemers would rather see every one of them burned.

Example: Caleb, a Psy-Slinger with ECHO 3, knows Ricochet (Rank 2) and wants Seeking Round (Rank 3). His ECHO meets the Rank, and Ricochet satisfies the ladder, but he still needs a source. He finds a Grimoire sewn into the lining of a dead Circle courier’s coat, rolls SAVVY + Lore, and beats TN 13. During his next Downtime he spends 6 XP and describes the nights he spent firing at targets he couldn’t see.

Section III: Reading a Talent

Every Talent in this chapter follows the same layout, so you can find what you need mid-fight. Mundane and Psionic Talents share most of it.

Mundane Talents

• Name and flavor line: what the Talent feels like from the inside
• Prerequisite: what you need before you can learn it
• Cost: usually Mettle, spent when you declare. “Passive” means always on
• Tempo: if the Talent takes its own action, how many Ticks it costs
• Effect: what happens
• Limit: how often you can use it, if it isn’t unlimited
• Special: exceptions, interactions, and edge cases

Example: Brutal Strike requires Melee 2 or Brawl 2 and costs 1 Mettle. You declare it before a melee attack; if the attack hits, it deals +3 damage and the target must pass GRIT + Resilience at TN 11 or be Staggered. If you miss, the Mettle is still spent.

Psionic Talents

• Name and flavor line: often in the Psionic’s own voice
• Rank cost: the Strain, Erosion, or Memory you pay to Channel and the TN you roll against. It appears in the Rank banner and in each Talent’s title bar
• Tempo and Range: how long the Channel takes on The Count, and how far it reaches
• Effect: what happens when the power manifests
• Steps: how a strong Channeling roll improves the effect (below)
• Resist: how a target can fight the effect off, if it can
• Special, Requirement, Cost to Others: exceptions, conditions for use, and any price paid by someone other than you

Reading Steps

Every 3 points of Margin on a Channeling roll is a Step, and the Talent’s Steps line says what each one buys. Many Talents cap their Steps; the cap is listed in parentheses.

The Five Ranks

• Rank 1, the Cantrip: small manipulations. Sensing a lie, curving a bullet a hair off its path
• Rank 2, the Tactic: combat-ready power. Deflecting a bullet, blowing open a lock
• Rank 3, the Power: real alterations of reality. Reading a mind, knitting bone
• Rank 4, the Devastation: feats that announce you to anything paying attention
• Rank 5, the Miracle: the impossible, paid for with a Memory

Individual Talents may vary from these defaults; the Talent’s own entry always wins.

Example: Ghost Bullet is a Rank 1 Psy-Slinger Talent, so it costs 1 Strain and its TN is 9. Its Tempo is Weapon Base, so with a Peacemaker it takes 4 Ticks like any other shot. Beat TN 9 by 3 or more and each Step lets the bullet pass through another foot of barrier.

Section IV: Mundane Talents

Not all exceptional abilities come from the Current. Some come from years of training, natural aptitude, or sheer bloody-minded determination. Mundane Talents represent the height of human ability without supernatural help.

How Mundane Talents Work

Unlike Psionic Talents, Mundane Talents:

• Need no ECHO or Channel: anyone who meets the prerequisites can learn them
• Carry no supernatural risk: no Erosion, no Backlash
• Are powered by Mettle or limited uses: per scene, per session, or always on
• Can’t be Disrupted: salt and damage don’t interrupt them
• Stay quiet: they don’t feed the Tension Pool unless the Talent says so (Old Tongue does)

Mettle as a Budget

Most Mettle-powered Talents cost 1 Mettle, and a starting character has 1 to 4. The same pool pays for Reactions, Desperation, and Steel, and it refreshes at the start of each session (Chapter 4, Section VI). Mettle spent on a Talent in the first fight is Mettle you won’t have for a Dodge in the last. Passive Talents cost nothing and never run out.

Learning Mundane Talents

• Cost: 4 XP per Talent, during Downtime
• Requirements: meet the Talent’s listed prerequisites. Calling Talents also require that Calling

Mundane Talent Categories

• Combat Talents: fighting, surviving fights, and controlling them. Open to anyone
• Non-Combat Talents: the land, the trade, the people, and the edges of the Veil. Open to anyone
• Calling Talents: the signature tricks of the Gunhand, Muck-Raker, High-Roller, Shepherd, and Rail-Jack, open only to that Calling

Finding the Right Talent

Talents are cheap enough that most characters collect several. If you know what you want your character to be better at, start here:

Building a Repertoire

Passive Talents work every fight without touching your Mettle. Mettle-powered Talents are stronger in the moment but compete with your Reactions for the same small pool. Most characters carry a mix.

Example: A Gunhand with Mettle 3 takes Quick Reload and Hard to Kill, both Passive, and Dead Eye, which costs 1 Mettle. Her reloads are always fast and she is always harder to kill. She saves Dead Eye for the shot that has to land, which still leaves Mettle for a Dodge or two before the session ends.

Browse the Talents

A selection of Talents from every Calling and Discipline is available in the Talents section, and each Discipline has an overview page under Disciplines. The full lists, from Rank 1 Cantrips to Rank 5 Miracles, appear in the Player’s Codex.