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

Game features are introduced through 3 stages of discovery, each named in the spirit of Ezekiel chapter 37 to vividly illustrate bringing the Allies of Majesty system to life.

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The first stage is Dry Bones, the tutorial. 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 deeply you explore is up to you. The remaining 2 stages, Flesh (basic) and Breath (complete), can be explored at your own pace to add greater depth to gameplay. If not advancing past Dry Bones, you will encounter several game terms and features you haven’t learned about. You will need to omit or change these features as makes the best sense for your group. And if you came for the setting, but find you really want a more rules-light game, there are suggestions for lighter ways to play.

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

Discovery Stages

Game Features in each Discovery Stage

image-1727288678849.png  Dry Bones

  • 7d12 Roll Process: all rolls in Allies of Majesty follow the same general process
  • Action Points, Turns, & Cycles: the basics of player activity and determining who acts when and what all they can accomplish
  • Measuring Distances & Ranges: using Action Points to Move and determining Ranges between characters
  • Making Strikes: all the details of resolving martial attacks
  • 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
  • Songs: the primary abilities of Minstrels
  • Levels of Effect for Boosting Songs: determining how much benefit characters gain from a Boosting Song
  • Check Rolls & Resist Checks: determining results when a character's Attributes are tested or when Resisting Spiritual Effects and Songs 
  • 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

Once your group is comfortable enough with the concepts learned in Dry Bones, you may want to discover more advanced options. Flesh and Breath, offer players a richer, more balanced, more tactical, and yes, more complex gaming experience. Here is an overview of what you can expect as you discover each new stage.

image-1727288813381.png  Flesh

Flesh, the basic version of Allies of Majesty, adds the true meat of the game. Action Points become more flexible. Orders become even more unique. Martial combat becomes far more interesting. Ministering Spirits and Minstrels can do more. Characters can influence each other and humans. Stealth and Perception are introduced. Player characters and powerful enemies gain the ability to alter the flow of battle.

Possibly the biggest change is the introduction of Disciplines, which are subclasses for Single-Order and Dual-Order characters.

Many of the descriptions of the new additions reference other additions and so you won’t be able to fully understand them until you have learned about the others as well.

  • Order-Related Bonuses: bonuses making Orders more unique from one another
  • Attribute Perks: limited-use bonuses determined by a character’s choices of Primary and Secondary Attribute
  • Carry Over & Stand Ready: AP can sometimes be carried over to a later Turn; characters can Stand Ready to perform declared actions
  • +/-% Damage: more effects add or subtract compounding increments of 10% to damage
  • Defensive Stance: a cautious, wary posture improving defense, awareness, and stealth
  • Superior Magnitude: If a Melee Striker has greater Magnitude than the Defender, the Strike gains an Adjustment
  • Martial Maneuvers: special War abilities adding variety and tactics for Warriors and Messengers
  • Spiritual Effects: Ministering Spirits can use up to 12 Spiritual Effects at once and can use Compounding ones on multiple Targets as once
  • Layering Songs: Minstrels can sing up to 3 Songs at once, distributing their SPP between the Songs being sung
  • Perception: Incidental Perception addresses awareness and stealth, Intentional Perception addresses reading details about others
  • Social Interactions: Social Attributes are used to resolve attempts to encourage, persuade, or intimidate others
  • Acquiescence & Social Objectives: characters can potentially be overwhelmed by adverse social pressure; improved structure for determining success of Social Interactions having specific aims, especially interactions with humans
  • Disciplines: subclasses for Single-Order and Dual-Order characters
  • Inspiration: Inspiration Tokens are given to player characters at the beginning of each War and can be used to alter situations in the character’s favor
  • Archons & Obstruction: Archons are leaders among enemy forces, which affords them limited protections in the form of Obstruction Tokens which can be used defensively to alter situations in the Archon’s favor

image-1727288766842.png  Breath

Breath puts the final touches on depth and balance. Several features are added that simulate meaningful factors such as overwhelming your enemies with greater presence or greater drive, experiencing the ebb and flow of morale, pushing yourself to exhaustion, and coming to terms rather than blows. These all enhance the game, but they also add more steps to pay attention to. Breath truly is the most rich version of Allies of Majesty, but may be more than many players want to take on without the full AoM Ally app doing the heavy lifting of tracking and applying it all.

  • Passion Effects: account for the effects of superior drive and zeal during War
  • Full Defensive Stance: commit to Defensive Stance for an entire Cycle to gain more Guard
  • Melee Influence: Instead of only the Striker and the Defender, the Magnitude of multiple nearby characters are now considered and more than a single Adjustment may be awarded
  • Exertion & Poison: as characters push themselves, they will build up Exertion, which is compared to their Stamina. Poison now adds Exertion to a character rather than damaging Resolve
  • Harmonizing: Minstrels who know versions of the same Song can sing harmonize together to achieve greater Range and effect
  • Parley: a formal negotiation between holy and unholy parties to possibly avoid War or decide Terms of War
  • Gaining Inspiration and Inspiration & Obstruction Pools: mirrors the flow of battle and can cause players to gain additional Inspiration or enemies to gain Obstruction
  • Inspiration Specializations: characters can choose specific uses of Inspiration to excel in
  • Chief Archons: strong Archons that use Obstruction to greater effect
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