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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.

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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

  • 7d12 Roll Process: all rolls in Allies of Majesty follow the same general process
  • Action Points, Segments, & 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
  • Spiritual Effects: the primary abilities of Ministering Spirits
  • Moving while Performing other Actions: some actions allow you to Move while doing them
  • 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

Sinew

  • Carry Over & Stand Ready: AP can sometimes be carried over to the next Activation; characters can Stand Ready to perform declared actions
  • Defensive Stance: a cautious, wary posture improving defense, awareness, and stealth
  • +/-% Wear: certain effects add or subtract compounding increments of 10% to Wear inflicted
  • Order-Related Bonuses: bonuses making Orders more unique from one another
  • 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

Muscle

  • Martial Maneuvers: special War abilities adding variety and tactics for Warriors and Messengers
  • 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
  • Attribute Perks: limited-use bonuses determined by a character’s choices of Primary and Secondary Attribute
  • Martial Mastery: Martial Mastery rewards Warriors for using mastered Maneuvers
  • 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
  • Disciplines: subclasses for Single-Order and Dual-Order characters

Skin

  • Melee Influence: Magnitude of multiple nearby characters are considered and more than a single Adjustment may be awarded
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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 inflicting WearR

Breath

  • 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 discuss terms of War or possibly avoid War
  • Inspiration Pool: 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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