Advantages

Advantages
The Advantages represent resources at your character's disposal at the beginning of play.

During Creation, these all begin at ZERO, and are altered by the Backgrounds you choose for your character.

Equipment: This one covers not basic gear, but the more exotic items a character might need: their access to mounts, travel gear such as tents, survival gear, et cetera. In general, the quality of your gear (the limits of your Armor ratings, among other things) will be limited by either your Equipment or your Wealth score – whichever is lower. This Resource decides what your character starts with, and can be used to circumvent low Wealth scores later on, by trading Equipment. Tests for Equipment will often be to check if your character has something they may need for the situation, such as rope, a lantern, chalk, or a sack for loot.

Contacts: Friends in all sorts of places, this Resource determines how many people are willing to get information for you, and in what sorts of places. Spending a point of Contacts can get your character knowledge they wouldn't otherwise have access to. Contacts won't know everything, though, and expect repayment in kind more often than not. Contacts generally don't get your character anything other than information, but they could point you to services or places you might not otherwise know about.

Wealth: Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy just about everything else. Wealth is a measure of your character's ready funds, and just like the real thing, your character's Wealth can stand in for some other Resources under certain conditions. Not everyone will be susceptible to bribery, though, and it's a risky business. Wealth also caps what kind of gear you can START with, though you can buy or steal better later on. Spending Wealth means spreading it around, but beware: this can attract all sorts of attention, some of it you might not want.

Status: More than a face in the crowd, a character with Status has some authority. Status allows your character to give orders and have some expectation of having them be followed. Spending Status means your character can make things happen that might not fall under the purview of other Resources; in some cases, Status can stand in for other Resources – even Wealth. Of all the Resources, however, Status is the hardest to earn back once expended.

Using Your Advantages
During play, you will have the option of expending these resources in order to further play. They are your character's aces in the hole, so to speak. A point of Resource spent can get your character into –or out of – all sorts of places, but once spent, it must be re-earned. Increasing Resources can be done through play. More on this as it develops.

A character can attempt to use his Advantages to influence the situation. The player explains what his character is attempting to do in narrative terms - bribe someone, buy a service, offer the favors of a noble, whatever - and the storyteller determines how appropriate it is and what the difficulty on the dice roll should be.

When you spend a Resource, the ST will ask for a roll of d20+Resource. Once that roll is made, success means the point of Resource used is not lost; failure means your Resource is reduced.

In situations where more permanent exchanges are being made - a character sells his adventuring gear business for a big payoff, or he makes a particularly large donation to a criminal lord - this can be represented by the character shifting dots out of one resource and into another: from Equipment to Wealth, or from Wealth to Contacts, etc. Again, the storyteller is the final arbiter of what seems appropriate and what has been given sufficient narrative importance.