Characters at a Glance

Momenta Core Rules · Moment 1 · The Basics · Chapter 05

Attributes

There are six attributes, and they typically range 0–6, with 7–8+ for legendary characters. Attributes cannot be lower than 0.

Cores

Besides attributes, every character also has three cores, representing the foundational elements of every character. The values of each core is derived from their corresponding attributes:

Vitality

Vitality represents a character’s physical health. During combat, attacks cause damage, which is deducted from the character’s Vitality. If damage reduces a character’s Vitality to 0 or below, the character will receive a Wound, and their Vitality is restored back to full. If the character has too many Wounds, they risk becoming Defeated.

A character’s Vitality may never exceed their Max Vitality.

Max Vitality = (BODY + 3) × 3

Strain

Besides physical damage, a character may also gain mental and spiritual stress called Strain. Strain may be caused by powerful enemy attacks, witnessing horror, or even voluntarily taken to power certain abilities. If a character gains enough Strain to reach or exceed their Max Strain, they suffer a Burden, and their Strain is cleared. If a character is carrying too many Burdens, they risk becoming Lost.

Max Strain = MIND + SOUL + 3

Wounds and Burdens

Characters have Wound slots, which represents the maximum number of Wounds that they can receive. If all of their slots are filled, and they need to take another Wound, then they become Defeated immediately.

Similarly, characters have Burden slots, and if a character needs to gain a Burden when all of their slots are already filled, then they become Lost immediately.

Wound Slots = 3
Burden Slots = 3

Resolve

Resolve is a strategic resource that represents a character’s innate resilience, a character’s personal capacity to recover, push on, and endure. Characters can use Resolve during a mission to recover lost Vitality, clear Wounds, and remove Burdens.

Resolve = SOUL + 8

Resolve is refreshed during downtime.

Vigor

Vigor represents a character’s pool of “action points”, that can be spent during combat turns on maneuvers. Some Vigor is restored at the beginning of every turn, but it can never exceed the character’s Max Vigor.

Max Vigor = 7

As characters rank up, their Max Vigor will increase.

Guard

Guard is an abstract representation of a character’s armor and passive defenses, and helps absorb damage. Like Vitality, it is a depletable resource. Whenever a character takes damage, subtract it from Guard first. Only after Guard is 0, then damage reduces Vitality.

At the beginning of every turn, a character’s Guard is replenished to its Max Guard value, which for most starting characters, start at 0.

Max Guard = 0

Equipping armor will increase a character’s Max Guard. Certain abilities and masteries may also increase Max Guard. Guard gained from different sources are added together.

A character’s Guard value may temporarily exceed their Max Guard. When that happens, it is called Over-Guard. A character with Over-Guard will not have their Guard replenished to its Max Guard value at the beginning of the turn.

What Guard stops, and what it doesn’t. Guard absorbs Vitality damage from attacks before your Vitality is touched. Guard does not absorb: Strain damage (mental harm ignores armor and Guard alike); untyped damage (falling, drowning, and other environmental harm — these are not attacks); damage from attacks or effects with the Penetrating tag (including all damage from Wracked conditions); or any damage that is not from an attack. Resistance and weakness apply only to the damage that gets past Guard.

Speed

Speed (SPD) is a stat representing how many squares (or hexes) a character can travel every time they take the Move maneuver. It is determined by the character’s ancestry archetype, and the value generally ranges between 4 to 6.

Combat in Momenta can be played on either square or hex maps. For convenience, we will refer to only squares in the core rules when it comes to movement, but it is applicable to hexes as well.

Senses

Senses (SEN) is a stat representing the effective range in squares that a character can generally perceive without penalty. Like SPD, it is also determined by the character’s ancestry archetype, with typical values ranging between 10-15.

Size

Size (SIZE) is a stat representing how big the character is, and is determined by the character’s ancestry archetype. Most characters will be some variation of Size 1. The number in the SIZE represents the number of squares the character occupies on the map.

To determine which of two creatures are bigger or smaller based on their respective SIZE stat:

(Smaller) 1T < 1S < 1M < 1L < 2 < 3 < 4 (Larger)

Equipment

Characters carry three kinds of equipment. The full rules are in Equipment; the numbers below are derived stats.

• Gear - Weapons, armor, and spell foci, limited by gear slots.
• Wondrous items - Magical items with special benefits, limited by wondrous item slots.
• Consumables - Single-use items, tracked as consumable points rather than as individual items.

Gear Slots = 3
Wondrous Item Slots = MIND
Consumable Points = 2

Threads and Bonds

Threads are chapters of a character’s life; Bonds are the relationships a character develops through play. Both are used mainly in narrative play, and strong Bonds change what characters can do in combat. See Threads and Knowledge and Bonds.

Max Bonds = SOUL + 3