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From Dry Bones to Breath - Bringing Allies of Majesty to Life

Game features are introduced through 7 stages of discovery, each named in the spirit of Ezekiel chapter 37 to vividly illustrate bringing the Allies of Majesty system to life.

The first stage is Dry Bones, the essential stage of discovery. What you will experience in Dry Bones is by no means all there is to the game. There is so much more to discover. But, how much of it you explore is up to you and your group. The remaining 4 stages, Sinew, Muscle, Skin, and Breath, can be explored at your own pace to add greater depth to gameplay. In fact, it is perfectly fine if you choose to never discover beyond Dry Bones. There’s no need to decide upfront how deep you intend to go. That being said, if playing at Dry Bones for an extended time, you will encounter several game terms and features that you will not have learned about. Omit or change these features as you see fit to make sense for the way you play. Keeping the game moving and fun is a higher priority than getting every rule right every time.

Allies of Majesty is a game system that goes deep if you want it, but also recognizes that going deep can add up to a complex whole that not all groups will want to tackle. The goal is to enable you in whatever you prefer. The best version of Allies is the one you most enjoy playing!

Discovery Stages

Essential
Optional 

Game Features in each Discovery Stage:

Dry Bones

Dry Bones 1
  • Action Points, Segments, & Cycles - the basics of player activity and determining who acts when
  • Measuring Distances & Ranges - using Action Points to Move and determining Ranges between characters
  • Making Strikes - all the details of resolving martial attacks
Dry Bones 2
  • Falter - a mechanic that is a catch all for stagger, stun, and leaving characters off balance
  • Moving while Performing other Actions - some actions allow you to Move while doing them
  • Spiritual Effects - the primary abilities of Ministering Spirits
  • Check Rolls - determining results when a character's Attributes are tested 
Dry Bones 3
  • Songs – the primary abilities of Minstrels
  • Gaining Honor & Spouting Seeds – accumulating Honor after gameplay and improving Attributes that have been used by the player 
  • Increasing in Rank – promoting the character to higher levels of power

Sinew

  • Defensive Stance – grants Guard and Perception bonuses (Martial Mobility)
  • Carry Over & Stand Ready – give more flexibility to the use of Action Points
  • Perception – accounts for noticing the presence of others as well as Perceiving specific details about others, also deals with stealth and the ability to mask others reading your condition or intentions (Situational Awareness, Trained Eye)
  • Social Interactions – Allow characters to try to sway each other accounting for relative skills and personal vulnerabilities

Muscle

  • % Modifiers for Wear – more dynamic damage, better balances Warriors and Ministering Spirits (Strength in Struggle, Resolute Stability)
  • Maneuvers – expanded combat options for Warriors and Messengers, allows for Fighting Styles to differ from one another
  • Spiritual Effects – Ministering Spirits can spread some Spiritual Effects to affect multiple characters, they can use as many as 12 Spiritual Effects during each period as Resolve allows
  • Songs – Minstrels can sing up to 3 Songs, layered together, as Control allows
  • Inspiration Tokens – players get tokens at the start of each War that can be used to influence circumstances in their favor

Skin

  • Passion Effects – Strikers can gain advantages on attacks if their Passion surpasses the Defender's Resolve
  • Full Defensive Stance – an opportunity to commit to Defensive Stance for the entire Cycle in return for a larger Guard bonus 
  • Exertion – characters track their 
  • Social Dominance & Objectives – provides systems for tracking influence of NPCs and enemies, including the ability to Defeat enemies through Social Interactions
  • Obstruction Tokens – certain enemies may be determined an Archon and given Obstruction Tokens that act similar to defensive versions of Inspiration Tokens
  • Inspiration Pool – tracks the flow of War and periodically distributes Inspiration or Obstruction Tokens; Inspiration Tokens are also be gained through Boosting Spiritual Effects and Songs

Breath

  • Harmonizing Songs – multiple instances of the same Affecting Song can stack to greater effect
  • Parley – players or NPCs can request to Parley and either avoid War or affect it in their favor
  • Inspiration Specializations – characters can choose certain uses of Inspiration Tokens they are especially good at using
  • Chief Archons – Archons can sometimes be Chief Archons, and use their Obstruction Tokens to greater effect
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