Task Resolution
The core test is simple: d20 + Modifiers vs. DC. Familiar resolution keeps the game moving while consequences, resources, and character choices carry the weight.
PLAYER-FACING RULES
How The Wicked West Plays
The Core Rulebook is the authority for character creation, task resolution, Marks, Powers, equipment, Hex Coins, advancement, burdens, adventuring, and combat.
Classless Characters
Archetypes are optional starting templates, not classes. Characters are built from ability scores, proficiencies, Marks, Powers, equipment, Oaths, and the choices made during play.
Frontier Combat
Gunfights, melee, movement, cover, firearms, injuries, death saves, mounted combat, and specialized firearm techniques all live inside the Core combat system.
Hex Coins
Hex Coins originate in the Veil. Inside the Veil they function as real threshold currency.
Outside the Veil, they are not money. They may Bend Fate, be committed to Go For Broke, or be invested in eligible character advancement.
Repeatedly demanding a different answer from fate can create Hex Debt and supernatural attention.
The Three Burdens
Veil Saturation
Supernatural exposure and pushing Powers beyond the safe threshold place accumulating pressure on a character.
Hex Debt
Bending fate outside the Veil can create spiritual debt that becomes increasingly dangerous if neglected.
Malefic Ledger
Not every supernatural being maintains one. Ledger entries arise only from consequential bargains with a specifically Ledger-capable party, complete terms, and explicit acceptance.
Powers of the Veil
Powers are supernatural abilities governed by their own casting rules, components, focus, duration, and effects. Access does not eliminate consequence; Veil Saturation remains part of the cost of pushing too far.
Marks of the West
Marks are character features gained through creation, advancement, and story. They help define what a person has learned, survived, become, or been changed by.