Talents

Overview

Talents are the main unit of character capability in the Resonance Cosmos TTRPG.

A Talent is not an attribute, skill rating, class feature, or generic bonus. It defines when a character can add dice, what they are fictionally allowed to attempt, what extra effects they can create on high matches, what risks or obligations come with the capability, and how it can improve through Talent Points.

Talents should make characters play differently. A treaty witness, a fog-path scout, a warding specialist, and a disciplined fighter may all roll the same core dice, but their Talents should give them different permissions, different high-match effects, and different consequences when things go wrong.

Talent Sources

Talents can come from several character sources.

Species Talents express bodily inheritance, species-level perception, life-cycle logic, or deep ancestral tendencies. They should not reduce a species to one personality or profession. A Dwarf might have a Talent tied to stone-rested endurance, while an Elf might have one tied to living-world attunement, but neither Talent should define every Dwarf or Elf as the same kind of person.

Background Talents express the social, regional, legal, economic, or cultural world that shaped the character. They may grant contacts, standing, local procedure, route knowledge, survival customs, or recognized obligations.

Training Talents express practiced disciplines. They are the clearest answer to what a character can do under pressure: witness, scout, warder, ritualist, speaker, escort, delver, navigator, forge-worker, and similar roles.

Mythic Trait Talents translate rare exceptional mortal traits into play. They should follow the setting’s distinction in Mythic Traits and Demigods: a mythic trait is rare, narrow, socially meaningful, and not the same as trained magic or demigodhood. Mythic Trait Talents should usually be less flexible than trained magical Talents, but they may grant unusual permission that ordinary training cannot provide.

Character creation should normally draw Talents from species, background, and training. Mythic Trait Talents are special exceptions that require explicit table approval, setting justification, or campaign premise support.

Talent Anatomy

Use the following structure for first-pass Talents.

Type: Training, Species, Social, Magical, Survival, Institutional, or Hybrid.

Source: Species, Background, Training, Mythic Trait, Advancement, or Special.

Tier: Basic, Advanced, or Master.

Applies When: The fictional situations where this Talent can enter the roll.

Adds Dice For: The concrete leverage, training, permission, preparation, or support that can add dice.

Permission: What this Talent lets the character attempt, declare, resist, notice, access, or protect.

High Match Effects: A table of extra effects available when the roll includes a high match, as defined in Core Resolution.

Cost or Risk: What can go wrong, what pressure the Talent invites, or what obligations come with use.

Improvement: How Talent Points can deepen or widen the Talent.

High-Match Effect Tables

High-match tables use the strongest matching high-match pattern present on the roll. Match size sets the scale of the effect, while matched value sets its quality. 6-7 effects should stay minor, 8-9 effects should be the Talent’s standard extra benefit, and 10 effects should be strong.

Match Pattern 6-7 8-9 10

Pair

Minor effect.

Standard effect.

Strong effect.

Three-of-a-kind

Standard effect or two minor effects.

Strong effect or two standard effects.

Exceptional effect or two strong effects.

Four-of-a-kind or more

Major bounded effect.

Strong major effect.

Exceptional Talent expression.

Talent Tier Access

Talent tier controls how much of the high-match table a character can use by default.

Talent Tier High-Match Access

Basic

Use Pair effects. A three-of-a-kind may upgrade one step or choose two lower-step Pair effects if the Talent allows it. Four-of-a-kind or more does not unlock the Four+ row unless another rule grants access.

Advanced

Use Pair and Three-of-a-kind effects. A four-of-a-kind or more may upgrade one step or choose two lower-step Three-of-a-kind effects if the Talent allows it.

Master

Use the full high-match table, including Four-of-a-kind or more expressions.

This keeps Basic Talents useful without making them complete. Advancement should usually widen permission, unlock stronger high-match rows, reduce specific risks, or create new applications rather than simply adding more dice.

Sample Basic Talents may show the full table as a progression reference. At Basic tier, use only the Basic-access parts unless the table, Storyteller, or a special rule explicitly says otherwise.

Talent Advancement

Characters improve Talents with Talent Points.

For now, Talent Point costs are placeholders until character creation, session rewards, and campaign pacing are tested.

Advancement Placeholder Cost Default Unlock

Buy Basic Talent

1 Talent Point

Gain the Talent’s permission, add 1 die when it clearly applies, and use Basic high-match access.

Improve to Advanced

2 Talent Points

Unlock Advanced high-match access and choose one advancement direction.

Improve to Master

3 Talent Points

Unlock Master high-match access and choose one major advancement direction.

An advancement direction is the specific way the Talent grows. It should normally do one of the following:

  • Widen the Talent’s permission into a related situation.

  • Unlock or sharpen a high-match row.

  • Reduce a specific cost or risk.

  • Add one new practical application.

  • Extend the Talent’s benefit to another person, a group, a larger area, or a longer time span.

Advancement should not automatically make the Talent add more dice. Extra dice should still come from fictional leverage such as preparation, tools, help, local knowledge, authority, or strong position.

When improving a Talent, choose a direction that fits the character’s history and current play. A Ward-Hand might advance toward larger boundaries, faster crisis work, safer fallout handling, or stronger detection. A Fog-Path Scout might advance toward guiding larger groups, escaping pursuit, reading supernatural route distortions, or moving faster under pressure.

Talent Design Rules

Talents should follow a few baseline rules.

  • A Talent should usually add 1 die when it clearly applies.

  • Strong setup, ideal tools, help, special permissions, or other fictional leverage can add more dice separately.

  • The Talent itself should not become a large static bonus.

  • Every Talent should include at least one high-match effect.

  • High-match effects must add something new rather than only restating the base success.

  • Talents can grant fictional permission even when no roll is needed.

  • Talents should create distinct play patterns rather than renaming generic skills.

  • Improved Talents should usually widen permission, unlock or sharpen high-match effects, reduce specific risks, or create new applications rather than simply adding more dice.

  • Species, Background, and Training should each be able to provide Talents during character creation.

  • Mythic Trait Talents should be rare, narrow, and socially consequential rather than a second general magic system.

Sample Talents

Stone-Rested Endurance

Type: Species / Survival

Source: Species

Tier: Basic

Applies When: You endure scarcity, pressure, long labor, subterranean hardship, or recovery in contact with stone, earth, hold-work, or other stable structure.

Adds Dice For: Stone shelter, dense nourishment, proper rest, hold support, deliberate pacing, or a task that rewards patience over speed.

Permission: You may treat stone, earth, and secured built structure as meaningful support during recovery, waiting, or resistance to exhaustion.

High Match Effects: Use the strongest matching high-match pattern present:

Match Pattern 6-7 8-9 10

Pair

Ignore one immediate exhaustion-related pressure; identify whether a structure is safe enough to rest against.

Keep another character steady through the same hardship; preserve a tool, burden, or carried person through a difficult passage.

Keep yourself and one other character steady; preserve a carried burden without slowing the group.

Three-of-a-kind

Choose two 6-7 effects; preserve a tool or burden through a difficult passage.

Choose two 8-9 effects; keep a small group steady through the same hardship.

Ignore the immediate exhaustion pressure for the group; secure a stable rest point in stone, earth, or built structure.

Four-of-a-kind or more

Bring a group through the hardship with only minor fatigue or delay.

Bring a group and its burdens through intact, preserving position for the next scene.

Turn the hardship into a scene advantage rooted in endurance, shelter, or disciplined pacing.

Cost or Risk: Being forced into haste, unstable ground, open exposure, or disrupted rest can create the Condition Unsettled, Spent, or Overburdened.

Improvement: Recover more reliably in poor conditions, extend steadiness to a group, or resist pressure that would separate you from your carried burden or duty.

Grove-Attuned Senses

Type: Species / Perception

Source: Species

Tier: Basic

Applies When: You read living terrain, growth rhythms, grove health, seasonal disturbance, or the mood of a cultivated or wild place.

Adds Dice For: Familiar ecology, branch custom, patient observation, healthy living surroundings, or help from someone who knows the local land.

Permission: You may notice living-world disturbances that would be invisible to ordinary observation, especially sickness, forced growth, unnatural stillness, or disrupted seasonal pattern.

High Match Effects: Use the strongest matching high-match pattern present:

Match Pattern 6-7 8-9 10

Pair

Identify the source of a small disturbance; notice a safe path through nearby living terrain.

Find a living shelter or safe passage; create a route, clue, or warning from plants, roots, scent, or animal movement.

Calm a minor living hazard; identify whether the danger is natural, magical, or deliberately caused.

Three-of-a-kind

Choose two 6-7 effects; guide one companion through the signs you read.

Choose two 8-9 effects; make the warning useful to the whole group.

Read the living terrain well enough to avoid the immediate hazard and name its likely source.

Four-of-a-kind or more

Turn local living signs into a scene advantage for travel, hiding, or recovery.

Let the group move through the living terrain as if guided by a local path.

Reveal a major pattern in the living world and use it to reshape the scene’s pressure.

Cost or Risk: Blighted, hostile, artificial, or badly wounded environments can overwhelm the Talent and create the Condition Overstimulated, Sickened, or Out of Rhythm.

Improvement: Read harsher environments, extend the reading to another character, or distinguish natural danger from magical contamination.

Treaty Witness

Type: Social / Institutional

Source: Background or Training

Tier: Basic

Applies When: You observe, record, challenge, or defend the terms of an oath, bargain, testimony, contract, or public agreement.

Adds Dice For: Legal standing, recognized witness marks, prepared records, trusted neutral status, or knowledge of local procedure.

Permission: You may demand that a formal statement, bargain, or accusation be clarified in public terms before it is accepted as binding.

High Match Effects: Use the strongest matching high-match pattern present:

Match Pattern 6-7 8-9 10

Pair

Expose a contradiction; require one unclear statement to be restated plainly.

Preserve a statement as recognized testimony; shield one participant from immediate procedural retaliation.

Declare a relevant custom that the table accepts as locally valid; force the dispute into public terms.

Three-of-a-kind

Choose two 6-7 effects; protect the record from casual denial.

Choose two 8-9 effects; bind hostile parties to clearer terms for the rest of the scene.

Preserve the testimony and expose the contradiction it creates.

Four-of-a-kind or more

Make the witnessed statement a major procedural fact in the scene.

Turn the proceeding around a recognized testimony, custom, or contradiction.

Establish a decisive public record that hostile parties must answer before moving on.

Cost or Risk: False witness, bad procedure, or public overreach can create Burdens tied to reputation, retaliation, or legal debt.

Improvement: Gain stronger protection for recorded testimony, wider recognition across jurisdictions, or the ability to bind hostile parties to clearer terms.

Fog-Path Scout

Type: Survival / Travel

Source: Background or Training

Tier: Basic

Applies When: You guide movement through fog, broken visibility, hidden routes, dangerous terrain, or pursuit-heavy wilderness.

Adds Dice For: Local route knowledge, trail signs, weather sense, prepared markers, silence discipline, or native familiarity.

Permission: You may find or maintain a viable route where outsiders would be effectively lost.

High Match Effects: Use the strongest matching high-match pattern present:

Match Pattern 6-7 8-9 10

Pair

Discover a safer shelter point; keep your own signs of passage hard to follow.

Bring another character through without exposure; erase signs of the group’s passage.

Create a route-based advantage for the next scene; slip pursuit for the moment.

Three-of-a-kind

Choose two 6-7 effects; keep one companion from becoming separated.

Choose two 8-9 effects; move the group through without immediate exposure.

Find shelter, erase the trail, and preserve the group’s position.

Four-of-a-kind or more

Turn the route itself into a major advantage against pursuit or exposure.

Bring the group through hidden terrain and set up the next scene on favorable ground.

Vanish through the fog-path or broken terrain in a way the opposition cannot immediately answer.

Cost or Risk: Failure can split the group, expose a false trail, attract a local threat, or create the Condition Lost, Exposed, or Hunted.

Improvement: Guide larger groups, move faster under pressure, or read supernatural route distortions.

Ward-Hand

Type: Magical / Protective

Source: Training

Tier: Basic

Applies When: You reinforce, inspect, improvise, or hold a protective boundary against intrusion, contamination, spirits, resonance pressure, or hostile magic.

Adds Dice For: Prepared warding tools, proper marks, sanctuary law, known thresholds, calm ritual space, or help from trained assistants.

Permission: You may identify weak points in a ward and attempt temporary protection even without a full ritual.

High Match Effects: Use the strongest matching high-match pattern present:

Match Pattern 6-7 8-9 10

Pair

Identify the source of pressure; delay a minor breach.

Extend protection to one extra target; prevent one immediate fallout Condition.

Hold the boundary cleanly against the current pressure; reveal a weak point in the intrusion.

Three-of-a-kind

Choose two 6-7 effects; stabilize a weak point long enough for action.

Choose two 8-9 effects; protect a small group from immediate fallout.

Hold the ward and redirect limited fallout into a prepared vessel, mark, or threshold.

Four-of-a-kind or more

Turn an improvised protection into a meaningful scene boundary.

Hold a larger boundary under pressure and expose the source trying to break it.

Create an exceptional protective expression that blocks the breach and shapes the scene’s safe ground.

Cost or Risk: Overstrain may mark the caster, damage the protected space, draw attention, or create lifeforce strain.

Improvement: Hold larger boundaries, work faster in crisis, or redirect limited fallout into a prepared vessel or mark.

Necessary Violence

Type: Training / Combat

Source: Training

Tier: Basic

Applies When: You use force to end an immediate threat, protect someone, disable an opponent, or create an opening without indiscriminate harm.

Adds Dice For: Defensive position, clear purpose, suitable weapon, teamwork, prior assessment, or protecting a named person or place.

Permission: You may choose nonlethal, disabling, restraining, or protective force when the fiction allows it.

High Match Effects: Use the strongest matching high-match pattern present:

Match Pattern 6-7 8-9 10

Pair

Protect an ally from the immediate consequence; move the fight to better ground.

Disarm or pin the target; end the exchange without collateral harm.

Disable the immediate threat while preserving your position or reputation.

Three-of-a-kind

Choose two 6-7 effects; create an opening for an ally.

Choose two 8-9 effects; control the exchange without escalating harm.

End the immediate threat and protect one ally from the exchange’s consequence.

Four-of-a-kind or more

Take command of the fight’s position without indiscriminate injury.

End the exchange on your terms while preventing collateral harm.

Resolve the scene’s immediate violence decisively while keeping the action bounded by necessary force.

Cost or Risk: Violence can escalate authority response, create injury Conditions, damage standing, or give the Storyteller grounds for retaliation.

Improvement: Defend multiple people, control battlefield position more reliably, or reduce collateral consequences when using force.

Returning Route-Keeper

Type: Background / Social

Source: Background

Tier: Basic

Applies When: You navigate return obligations, ancestral routes, homecoming claims, exile terms, shrine duties, or kin-based travel expectations.

Adds Dice For: Recognized route tokens, kin testimony, remembered waystations, return-law knowledge, carried offerings, or proof of obligation.

Permission: You may ask for shelter, witness, or safe passage under a recognized return custom when the local society accepts that custom.

High Match Effects: Use the strongest matching high-match pattern present:

Match Pattern 6-7 8-9 10

Pair

Identify who has duty to answer your claim; preserve a traveler’s standing despite minor delay.

Turn a hostile refusal into a formal hearing; reveal a forgotten route obligation that still binds the scene.

Secure shelter, witness, or safe passage under the recognized return custom.

Three-of-a-kind

Choose two 6-7 effects; extend the claim to one companion.

Choose two 8-9 effects; make the route obligation difficult to dismiss publicly.

Convert a disputed claim into formal negotiation rather than immediate refusal.

Four-of-a-kind or more

Make the return obligation a major social fact in the scene.

Bring the group under meaningful return protection for the current stop or passage.

Restore standing, passage, or shelter through a binding return claim the local society must answer.

Cost or Risk: Failed or abused claims can create debt, public suspicion, kin entanglement, or the Condition Unwelcome.

Improvement: Extend return protection to companions, invoke wider recognition across communities, or convert a disputed claim into formal negotiation rather than immediate refusal.

Storm-Touched

Type: Mythic Trait / Elemental

Source: Mythic Trait

Tier: Basic

Applies When: You sense, endure, call attention to, or move with storm pressure, charged air, sudden weather, or violent atmospheric change.

Adds Dice For: Active storms, exposed heights, charged metal, ritual grounding, storm-marked lineage signs, or a place where weather is already turning.

Permission: You may notice storm-change before ordinary senses would, and you may use brief storm pressure as leverage for movement, warning, intimidation, or survival.

High Match Effects: Use the strongest matching high-match pattern present:

Match Pattern 6-7 8-9 10

Pair

Act before the storm breaks; notice the direction of immediate storm pressure.

Redirect a minor electrical or wind hazard away from one target; mark a threat with storm attention that others can follow.

Declare a sudden weather sign that changes the scene’s pressure.

Three-of-a-kind

Choose two 6-7 effects; move with the storm pressure without losing position.

Choose two 8-9 effects; protect a small group from minor storm fallout.

Channel a brief storm effect without immediate self-marking.

Four-of-a-kind or more

Turn the storm pressure into a major advantage for movement, warning, or intimidation.

Shift the scene’s storm pressure in a way the group can use and the opposition must respect.

Produce an exceptional storm-touched expression that reshapes the scene without becoming general weather control.

Cost or Risk: The Talent attracts notice. Misuse can create lifeforce strain, collateral harm, omen panic, or the Condition Storm-Marked.

Improvement: Read larger weather patterns, protect a small group from storm fallout, or channel a brief storm effect without immediate self-marking.

Truth-Hearing

Type: Mythic Trait / Perception

Source: Mythic Trait

Tier: Basic

Applies When: You listen for contradiction, oath-fracture, hidden fear, false certainty, or a statement that strains against what the speaker knows.

Adds Dice For: Direct speech, formal testimony, oath settings, calm listening, known context, or a prior relationship with the speaker.

Permission: You may sense when a spoken statement carries meaningful distortion, even if you cannot automatically know the full truth.

High Match Effects: Use the strongest matching high-match pattern present:

Match Pattern 6-7 8-9 10

Pair

Identify which part of a statement is strained; protect yourself from one minor deceptive social consequence.

Ask one focused follow-up the speaker must answer carefully or visibly evade; preserve the moment as contested testimony.

Distinguish deliberate deception from error, panic, or incomplete knowledge.

Three-of-a-kind

Choose two 6-7 effects; keep your reaction hidden from the speaker.

Choose two 8-9 effects; expose the evasion without immediately escalating the room.

Name the strained point and force the exchange into careful testimony.

Four-of-a-kind or more

Make the sensed distortion a major social fact in the scene.

Break through formal evasion while reducing the immediate social fallout of naming it.

Establish an exceptional truth-hearing moment that reshapes the testimony without granting omniscience.

Cost or Risk: Truth-hearing is socially dangerous. Public use can create fear, hostility, legal restriction, religious interpretation, or the Condition Distrusted.

Improvement: Distinguish lies from error more reliably, listen through formal evasions, or reduce the social fallout of naming a sensed distortion.

Future Use

Future species, training, magic, adversary, and advancement rules should reuse this Talent format unless a later playtest shows that a narrower structure works better. New Talent entries should follow the block template at .

Sample Talents should be used to test high-match effects, low-match Storyteller point generation, lifeforce pressure, and condition-based harm before large Talent lists are created.