Dust & Destiny

Post–war West, give or take a decade

The default tech level is the American West after the Civil War: steel rails, telegraph wire, repeating rifles, and a horse that still matters more than a timetable.

• Guns and steel. Revolvers, rifles, shotguns, a cavalry saber. Bows and lances still show up on the trail.
• Distance is days. A letter rides the mail; news rides the wire when the wire is up.
• Light by lamp and fire. After sundown the street is darker than the catalogue photos.
• Work is physical. Ranch, rail, mine, river, and the long walk between them.

Your GM's map can sit anywhere in that bracket. The engine only cares that you and the campaign picked the same genre.

What you might meet

Law, outlaws, trail hands, soldiers, and town folk live in the same catalogs. So do horses, buffalo, and the birds that follow a fight. Plains camps and hunting parties are part of the setting — write them with the same care you'd give any neighbour at the table, not as scenery.

The supernatural, when it appears, is Shamanic: spirit-granted ceremony, not a spellbook. It belongs to Native American characters, or to people who have lived among Native nations long enough to be taught. Talk with your GM about how loud that dial is before you spend points on a pool.

Making a character

Create New Character asks you to choose a genre first. Pick Dust & Destiny for this genre. The skill list, gear, advantages, and power types all come from that catalog.

A character can only join a campaign of the same genre. A wizard from Fantasy will not import into a Dust campaign, and a rancher will not sit in a dungeon crawl. That is a feature.

On the roster, a Genre filter appears when both genres are installed. Use it when the list gets long. Export all still exports everyone.

Worked examples: the deputy, cowboy, and tracker. Use them for the shape of a 50-point sheet. The catalog in the app is still the source of truth for guns and trail skills.

Powers: Shamanic only

Dust characters may claim a Shamanic pool. Magic, Mental, and Priestly stay on the Fantasy genre. The reserve is tight (Willpower, multiplier 1.2) and is meant to want ritual work — gestures, a focus, materials, extra time — before it pays off at the table.

At the table this flavour is for Native American characters, or for those who have lived among Native nations long enough to be taught. The app will not stop a gunfighter from buying the pool; your GM should. It is not a costume. Agree it before you spend the points.

Mechanics: Powers. Dice: Dice rolls.

Guns, mounts, and what is missing

• Range bands on a shot — point-blank, short, medium, long — live in combat. See Combat moves.
• Dodge the lead, don't catch it. You can Dodge a firearm shot. You cannot Parry or block a bullet — that defence is for blades and close work, not gunfire.
• Horses are a mount on the character (HasMount), not a vehicle row. Charge still works. Wagons and locomotives are not an engine yet.
• There is no armour catalog. Buy clothes and kit from general gear. Do not expect plate.

Keep the sun at your back.
The rail ends. The country does not.