More on Resources and Setbacks

Rosette Diceless uses Resources and Setbacks to represent transitory aspects that affect your character more situationally than other properties on your sheet. The most familiar of these to your average roleplayer is equipment: many games have the concept of tools that you carry around, use for specific circumstances, and potentially leave behind or use up.

However, Rosette Diceless also uses these rules to represent less concrete things. A wealthy background or a little-known body of knowledge can be just as useful a way to achieve your goals as a weapon or a special-purpose device. A Resource just needs to:

Be able to conditionally grant or block an Edge,
Last over multiple sessions but not be an essential aspect of your character, and
Be capable of being sacrificed for additional benefit.

Setbacks are the unfortunate counterparts to Resources. They can be used as Edges against you once per scene by each opponent and can only be discarded through Conflict negotiation or by sacrificing a Resource.

Supplemental Examples

Here are some examples of Common Resources you could create that aren't in the book:

Commodity

You have access to a supply of a commodity, which gives you an Edge when making a trade deal, bribing someone, or otherwise using it to financial advantage. You might sacrifice it by handing over access rights.

PR Advocate

Someone is helping you manage your image. This blocks any Edges that involve sullying your reputation or spreading misinformation about you. You might sacrifice it by letting your advocate take the fall for your actions.

Here's an additional example Setback:

Hapless Companion

You find yourself in the company of someone prone to getting into trouble. Opponents can gain an Edge when their Attack also threatens your companion.

Resource Brokering

Each player character may gain one Common Resource per session as long as it makes sense how that Resource was acquired. Some Traits may provide additional Resources, and Conflict negotiation may involve Resources or Setbacks. If this rate of Resource gain doesn't suit your game, consider the following.

If your group has consensus, you can choose to let players gain an additional Common Resource each session in exchange for also taking a corresponding Common Setback. If the normal rate of Resource acquisition feels too fast, you might agree that this be the only way to gain Resources outside of Traits and Conflict.