Rules reference

This thread will have all of the rules information you will need. I do hope that you enjoy this game enough that you decide to go and buy it, they're a relatively small publisher and it really is an awesome game.

I found this PDF which is a cheat sheet with the basic rules.

To help with character creation, I'm going to post up here an overview of the character classes etc and how everything works.

Some context about the setting, taken directly from the rule book:

This is Spire. A mile-high city in the land of Destera, ruled by cruel high elves, in which the drow – you, and your family, and your friends – have been oppressed for centuries. A nightmare warren of twisting passages and structures, built and rebuilt, atop itself. A city of a thousand gods. The furthest bastion of a terrible and burgeoning empire. A structure of unknown make that houses a blistering, rotten hole in reality at its centre where the sane dare not tread.

You have joined the Ministry of Our Hidden Mistress, a paramilitary cult that worships a forbidden goddess, and sworn in blood to avenge the wrongs placed upon you and your people. You have made an oath to fight the high elves, to subvert and capture their resources, and to take Spire back into dark elf hands once more. It is a cruel and thankless task, and your family would most likely report you to the city guard if they found out what you did at night. But it is a task you have sworn to perform, and you will kill for it. You will die for it, too.

Spire is a mile-high impossible city, older than anyone can remember. Two hundred years ago, the high elves – or aelfir, strange and beautiful masked creatures from the far north – took it from the dark elves after a brutal and bloody war. Now, they graciously allow dark elves, or drow, to live in the city if they perform four years of service to an aelfir lord once they come of age. From Spire, the aelfir continue their conquest down to the south, and are caught up in a bloody struggle with the hyena-faced gnolls of far Nujab that they fight with armies of ingenious human mercenaries.

THINGS TO KNOW
Before you start play, here are some things to know about your characters, the city, and the people around you.

SUBVERT, DON’T DESTROY.
Wrest weapons from the hands of your enemies and turn them against them. Recruit cells from other organisations, even ones that work against you, and use them as tools. If you kill someone in authority, someone will replace them and they’ll probably be worse; turn them, instead, through blackmail or threats or bribery, and use them. You can’t rule over ashes; you want the city to be standing when you’re done. (Still: when it comes to it, don’t be afraid to resort to bloodshed, especially when your cover is on the line.)

THIS IS NOT A KIND WORLD.
There are soft and gentle parts of it; there are easy lives, but you don’t have one. You were born into an underclass within an underclass. You have struggled for everything you have, and even then someone probably tried to take it away from you. You have been handed such a bad lot in life, in fact, that you have joined a radicalised cell who worship a forbidden goddess and murder people in order to get revenge.

YOU ARE BRAVE.
People don’t know what they want or, moreso, what they need. The drow need freedom, and you’re the one to give it to them, even if that means hiding your actions. You are most likely lying to your loved ones, sneaking out while they sleep, and stockpiling illegal weapons under your bed. You are living one wrong step away from death every second of your life.

YOU ARE GOING TO HURT PEOPLE.
That’s unavoidable. It’s a crime for you to spill blood, but it’s "justice" when they do it. The city guard are drow, just like you – desperate, and hungry, and tired, but they’re duty-bound to stop you. Who are you going to hurt to get what you want? Who
won’t you hurt? What will you do to preserve the secrecy of The Ministry and your mission?

THIS IS GOING TO KILL YOU.
One way or another, you are going to die doing this. Maybe you’ve made your peace with it, and maybe you’re lying to yourself and saying that you’re smarter than everyone else, but if you stay active in the Ministry, you’re going to wind up dead or mad or destitute or all three. The best hope you’ve got is offloading the danger onto someone else, earning the promotion to Magister, or retiring. But no-one really retires. So you burn bright, as best you can, and try to make a difference.

THERE’S ALWAYS ANOTHER LEVEL.
You can’t win this. Listen: you can take a street back, sure. Maybe even a district. But if you make too much noise, take too much territory, someone much bigger and more dangerous than you will notice, and they’ll turn up and destroy you. So it’s slow work, and you have to subvert rather than destroy, and that leaves you with risky assets all over the map, and when you finally secure a victory, one of two things happens: either it gets taken off you by your enemies or your superiors, or it causes you untold problems, and suddenly you’re the bastards in charge, oppressing people. But that’s how it goes, and better you than them. Right?

YOUR OWN FAMILY WOULD SELL YOU OUT.
You know what ministers do? Ministers get people killed. Ministers used to meet in the cellar of the bar down the road, and then the Solar Guard showed up and burned it to the ground with everyone inside. Ministers abduct and kill people for reasons that no-one can fathom. Ministers draw the attention of the watch, and the aelfir, on the poorest, most downtrodden districts of Spire. Far better, then, to report a cell to the authorities, and gain whatever rewards are offered for doing so – better job prospects, a pocketful of
sten, maybe even a nicer flat further up-Spire.

THE MINISTRY WOULD SELL YOU OUT.
The Ministry are not your friends. They can’t afford to allow you to mess up, or to let information slip – they’ve invested so much in getting as far as they have today, and their work has barely started. If you get something wrong and it causes problems, the Ministry will quite gladly give you false information and send you into a trap to confuse their enemies.

The Core Rules

The core mechanic of Spire is to roll a d10 and:

1: Critical Failure
2-5: Failure
6-7: Success at a cost
8-9: Success
10: Critical Success

During character creation you will also unlock several Skills and Domains based on your choices. You can also through progression unlock mastery over particular actions.

If you have the skill you need, roll another d10.
If you have the domain you need, roll another d10.
If you have mastery over the action, roll another d10. You can only add mastery once, regardless of how many things give it to you.

You use the highest die out of all of them, the others don't matter.

Stress

Stress is the game's version of hit points. You take stress to one out of five tracks, based on what is happening to you.

Blood: Physical damage and exhaustion.
Mind: Mental stress, instability and insanity.
Silver: Loss of money or resources.
Shadow: Loss of secrecy, damage to cover identities, police and government attention.
Reputation: Loss of social standing in a group or community.

Then, whenever you take any stress, I roll for Fallout, based on the total amount of stress that you have. This covers serious long term effects of the stress, where the stress itself is just temporary. Suffering fallout removes a little of the stress.

You can remove stress in one of three ways:
You can lay low for a while to remove all stress suffered, but the plot moves along without you.
You can act to remove stress from one track by doing something narratively relevant eg. Going to a doctor to remove blood stress
Each character has one refresh action that you can do in order to remove some stress.

Bonds

Bonds are connections that the player characters share with other people, groups or organisations. You gain some of these during character creation, and I will give you additional ones as you interact with the world.
If you act in a way that directly benefits one of your bonds, you may roll with mastery.
If you hold a bond with someone, you can ask them to perform a favour for you, at which point they roll with their skills and domains, and if they suffer stress whilst doing so the stress is applied to the bond, not to you. Bonds also roll fallout when they gain stress, like characters.
There are three levels of bonds: Individual, Street and City. These reflect the overall capabilities of the person or organisation. You can combine two similar bonds of the same level to advance them to the next level.

Character Creation:

To make a character, choose a durance, a class and two low abilities from it, then choose a name and note down any additional details, like bonds and equipment that come with the class. Characters in Spire die a lot, so character creation is meant to be quick and easy.

For the sake of brevity, I will post here a quick overview of the choices, then when you decide roughly what you're after, message me your choices and I'll send you the mechanical bits to add to your character sheet.

Durance

The aelfir allow dark elves to live and work in the city in exchange for a durance - four years of indentured servitude to a high elf with enough money and influence to support them. In exchange for those four years of free labour, the aelfir in charge is expected to provide food, clothing and shelter.

There are many kinds of durance, based on the needs of the aelfir and the social standing of the drow's family. Generally all of the 16 year olds are gathered up on "Durance Day" every year and bargained for, then traded between lords and ladies.

Selecting this during character creation counts as your history. It is an indication of the kinds of things that your character was doing before they joined the resistance, and the skills and contacts they have gained in that time.

The selection is:

ACOLYTE: You spent time serving as an assistant to an aelfir in the Solar Basilica or researching ancient gods in dusty temples. You
have a broad awareness of religious practices in Spire and are used to helping out during casting of ritual magic.
AGENT: You served as a connection between your master and the underworld, doing whatever needed to be done to ensure the success of their business enterprises. You are adept at covering your tracks, and in the know when it comes to the criminal element.
BUILDER: You designed and built things for your master – machines, structures, bridges, elevators, and so on. You are well-versed in patching things together and understanding the mysterious inner workings of devices.
DEALER: You bought and sold things for your Lord, striving to get a good price, and are not averse to applying pressure to
get what you want. You know the best places to acquire goods.
DUELLIST: You put your life on the line, fighting for the honour of an aelfir lord during their debauched festivals, and you survived. You can comport yourself equally well in a swirling melee or a cocktail party.
ENLISTED: You were a grunt – a front-line soldier, wrapped in scarves to protect yourself from the sun’s light, fighting a war far to the south against the gnolls. You are tougher than most, and can shoot straight.
GUARD: You were one of the thousands of drow forced to police Spire. This thankless task gave you a reputation as someone
who’s useful to know, and a keen understanding of how to cut through bureaucratic red tape.
HUMAN EMISSARY: You dealt with the humans, a strange and shortlived race from beyond the eastern ocean, and grew used to understanding their strange technology before buying it off them.
HUNTER: You hunted wild beasts around the minarets of the upper Spire; either you aided your master in their hunts for sport, or you hunted alone for their table.
INFORMATION BROKER: You applied your unique talents for your lord’s benefit, buying and selling information, secrets and allegiances to further their political schemes. You have a keen eye for information, and are hard to track down.
KILLER: You murdered the enemies of your lord in cold blood; strangling them with their silken bedsheets, pushing them off gilded balconies, or shooting them in the street. You have an aptitude for death, and going unseen.
LABOURER: You toiled in the enormous factories of the Works or the endless fields of the Garden district alongside multitudes
of other drow. It made you tough, and instilled a keen sense of rebellion in you.
OCCULTIST: You plumbed the depths of arcane knowledge for your master, risking your sanity by poring over forbidden tomes in an effort to unlock the secrets within. You are used to concealing your activities from the authorities and decoding ancient spells.
PERSONAL ASSISTANT: You handled the day-to-day business of your lord, giving you an unusual level of authority and a small stash of embezzled money that has nearly run out.
PET: You were kept as an objet d’art, too pretty to put to work, and shown off at parties. You have retained some of the trinkets and cash from your previous life.
SAGE: You worked in one of the universities up-Spire, or perhaps in a private collection, understanding and distilling a broad
array of topics for your master. You have a wide understanding of the sciences and history.
SPY: You were employed as a spy, infiltrating societies and guilds to spread misinformation and report back on their activities to your lord. You are adept at lying, cheating, and moving unseen.

Or, you didn’t serve an aelfir lord at all, and instead you:

-Kept a low profile in Derelictus
-Fought to protect your community
-Led a doomed uprising
-Joined a cult or two
-Toughed it out in Red Row
-Fell in with a gang of thieves
-Spent your time in jail
-Hid in plain sight
-Helped the Ministry wage their war

Classes

AZURITE: You are a trader, deal-maker and hustler from the south docks, clad in sacred blue and gold. You are welcome almost everywhere, and have connections all over Spire from previous business deals and debts owed.
BOUND: You are an acrobatic vigilante, accustomed to dealing quick and decisive judgement to criminals. You worship the small gods in your armour, your ropes, your weapons, and they take care of you.
CARRION PRIEST: Part of the followers of Charnel – a heretical sect of death worshippers who live atop Spire in the towers and oubliettes of New Heaven – you believe that the bodies of the dead should be eaten by sacred hyenas to ensure the safe passage of their souls to the afterlife.
FIREBRAND: You are a revolutionary, a rabble-rouser, a dangerous criminal in the eyes of the authorities, who hangs out in the lawless undercities of Red Row and Derelictus. As you gain power, the people of the city begin to worship you, and you can bestow blessings on them by focusing their belief through your actions.
IDOL: You are a beautiful artist and revolutionary, and your creations can reshape the world through bleeding-edge, half-understood sorcery.
KNIGHT: You are a member of an ancient order of knights who were given the right to police the northern river docks of Spire. Over the centuries, your order has splintered and become ever more corrupt, and now you are little more than heavily-armoured gangsters with a penchant for organised fighting tournaments.
LAJHAN: The Lajhan, or "silvered," are the chosen of Our Glorious Lady, the light side of the moon, whose light does not burn the drow as the sun’s rays do. Lajhan serve her and spread her wisdom throughout Spire, providing aid and nourishment to the impoverished drow.
MASKED: You spent your durance serving a high elf master in the upper echelons of Spire. You are well-accustomed to wearing a ceremonial mask in company, as all aelfir and their servants are expected to do, and you are a master of subterfuge, going unnoticed, and quiet acts of rebellion.
MIDWIFE: You are one of a line of ancient scholars and defenders of the drow, blessed with an arachnid bloodline that you have been taught to augment via sorcery and meditation. In addition to this, you are responsible for the future of your race: you take care of unborn drow while they gestate in their egg-sacs, watching over them and keeping them safe from harm.
VERMISSIAN SAGE: The Vermissian is a grand failure – an attempt at a mass transport network in Spire by over-funded human retroengineers – that buckled the walls between worlds and fell into ruin. Now, in the mazelike tunnels and dead-end corridors, a sect of drow historians is attempting to use the non-euclidian space to store information and relics of their home nations. You are one such drow – a sage of the Vermissian Vault.

And there are some additional sub-classes that you can gain advances in through progression. Mostly they are based on particular groups and cults within the city, and being part of the group gives you access to their abilities.
CITY GUARD
CHOSEN OF THE HUNGRY DEEP
ENLISTED
THE FAITHFUL OF KING TEETH
GREYMANOR INVESTIGATOR
HELLIONITE
LUCK-PRIEST OF STOLZ
MINISTER
SOLAR DEVOTEE
VIGILITE
THE VYSKANT