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Covenant Roles

Gifts, callings, and role packages for play

Covenant Roles are the game’s spiritual archetypes—callings, not classes. Each Role anchors a hero’s identity in the covenant story and defines how they serve the remnant, confront evil, and carry truth into a broken world. Mechanically, a Role is a pre-packaged Fate Extra: a small, curated rules bundle that gives you permissions, gear-like benefits, and advancement hooks right out of the gate.

What you get when you pick a Role

Choosing a Role grants you a complete starter kit:

Three predefined aspects: a High Concept, a Trouble, and a Covenant Aspect (delivered via that Role’s archetype options).
A Gift Skill (custom to the Role) that starts at +3; it’s distinct from core skills and used when you act squarely from your calling.
A Signature Gift Stunt that showcases the Role’s special edge.

Gift Skills

Gift Skills are independent, role-bound skills. They don’t sit under Heart/Soul/Mind/Strength, they don’t replace a core skill, and they don’t use the core caps. Each Gift expresses your calling as both a method and a resource—what you do and what you can draw on because of who you are.

Standalone: Starts at +3 when you pick the Role. Uncapped. Not raised by normal skill bumps; it advances only through Breakthroughs/Milestones listed for your Role.
Same four actions: You roll a Gift with Overcome, Create an Advantage, Attack, or Defend when the fiction clearly flows from your calling.
No rating stack: You choose one skill to roll—Gift or core. (You can still invoke aspects or apply stunts to modify that roll.)
Fictional permissions: Gifts carry explicit permissions tied to the Role—contacts, sanctified tools, rites, standing, routes, etc. GMs should lower/raise difficulty or grant/deny permission based on those permissions.
Crisis interaction: While in Crisis of Conscience, apply –2 to all Gift Skill rolls until the crisis is resolved.

Designer intent: A Gift is your calling made mechanical—a small, potent Extra that lets you solve problems in ways core skills can’t.

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Influence vs. Exhort (example)

Exhort (core, Heart) is how anyone can persuade, rally, or pressure in the moment—public speaking, moral argument, hard stare, steady words.

Influence (Diplomat’s Gift) is more than technique: it’s who will take your call, what doors open for you, and what alliances you can mobilize. It includes social capital, formal authority, and established channels.

Which do I roll?

Use this quick test:

Is the leverage your technique right now? → roll Exhort.“I de-escalate the mob with calm, truthful words.”
Is the leverage your standing/network/access? → roll Influence.“I call in a favor from the city elders to grant us an audience—tonight.”

What about both? Pick one to roll. The other can show up as:

a difficulty shift (GM discretion),
an invoke (“My Role aspect ‘Envoy of the Council’ backs this call.”), or
a setup CA (Create Advantage with Influence → Council Owes Me a Hearing; spend its free invoke on your Exhort).

Attack/Defend scope:

Exhort is a primary Mental Attack vector.
Influence rarely Attacks directly; it’s usually Overcome/CA (open doors, close avenues, set terms). A Role stunt can explicitly widen that. </aside>

Table Guidance (GM)

Permission first, bonus second. Let Gifts change what’s possible before they change numbers. If Influence makes an audience possible where none existed, set a fair Overcome difficulty and don’t demand the same hoops a non-Diplomat would face.
Keep Attacks narrow. Unless a Role stunt says otherwise, Gifts tend to Overcome and Create Advantage. Core skills (e.g., Combat, Exhort) are your main Attack vectors.
Compels & obligations. Gifts invite compels: owed favors, strained creeds, patients you can’t turn away. Pay with Grace; pressure Conscience when appropriate.
Spotlight rotation. Frame scenes where only a Gift’s permissions truly apply (audience chambers, plague wards, mountain passes, archives) so each Role shines.

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Party composition & table focus

No group requires any specific Role; every Role is viable. Instead of “tank/healer/DPS,” think spiritual diversity and narrative harmony—do you have someone who mediates conflict, defends the weak, offers healing or wisdom, endures suffering, or watches the unseen? Even duplicate Roles feel different through archetypes, aspects, and Gift Stunts. GMs are encouraged to craft scenes that spotlight the Gifts present.

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How to Read a Role (Extra) Write-Up

Each Role entry follows a consistent Extra-style template so you can scan, pick, and play fast:

Identity & Calling (fictional permission): What this Role does in the world and the kinds of problems it’s meant to address. (This also frames what your Gift Skill can justify without strain.)
Gift Skill (+3 start): What it covers, when it applies, and examples of actions it can support (often Overcome and Create an Advantage, sometimes Attack or Defend when fictionally justified).
Notes on Flexibility: Roles aren’t cages—lean into overlap and growth as the story transforms your character.
Archetypes & Aspects: Several archetypes that each provide your High Concept, Trouble, and Covenant Aspect, plus a recommended Level-1 Gift Stunt to match.

Designer’s Intent: A Role is a declaration of purpose, not a min-max package. Let it shape scenes, spotlight your calling, and evolve through faithful play.

Covenant Roles at a Glance

Diplomat — open doors, make peace

Gift: Influence. Your standing and network: who takes your call, what halls you can enter, and the terms you can set.

Pick this if you want to… broker truces, secure audiences and safe-conduct, stabilize volatile scenes.

Healer — make life possible under pressure

Gift: Balms. Consecrated care that treats, cleanses, quarantines, and protects places of healing.

Pick this if you want to… stabilize allies, purge corruption/poison, keep the party moving and alive.

Hunter — win by timing, not haste

Gift: Patience. Withhold, pace, bait, and strike at the one clean moment.

Pick this if you want to… set ambush windows, wear foes down on the chase, end fights before they begin.

Merchant — turn scarcity into enough

Gift: Barter. Routes, credit, and market standing that move goods where they’re needed.

Pick this if you want to… solve logistics, stock the team fairly, lock in favorable terms.

Scholar — make truth usable

Gift: Research. Access and method—archives opened, sources vetted, claims proven.

Pick this if you want to… authenticate texts and relics, find the key detail fast, win formal disputes with evidence.

Scout — own the approach

Gift: Recon. Routes, blinds, timing of movement, and clean egress for the team.

Pick this if you want to… map threats, position allies unseen, decide where contact happens.

Shepherd — keep people together and safe

Gift: Vigil. Boundaries, formations, watches, and orderly escorts under fire.

Pick this if you want to… run evacuations, hold a corridor, rally stragglers and keep the line intact.

Sojourner — open long roads

Gift: Pilgrimage. Seasons, guest-right, wayhouses, and border craft at journey scale.

Pick this if you want to… claim hospitality, plan safe crossings, arrive on time without losing anyone.

Tradesman — build what the moment needs

Gift: Ingenuity. Field engineering under constraint—rigs, braces, fixes that hold.

Pick this if you want to… shore structures, prep battlefields, turn scrap into solutions that work now.

Warrior — confront evil with lawful courage

Gift: Creed. Vows and command presence that steady others and deny corruption.

Pick this if you want to… set the standard of conduct, refuse compromise, anchor the fight where it matters.

:diplomat: Diplomat

Role overview (basic, non-archetypal)

You stand between people who don’t hear one another—cooling hot words, opening shut doors, and turning rivals into neighbors. The Diplomat’s power isn’t just speech; it’s standing: who will take your call, which halls you can enter, and what terms you can set. You serve the covenant by making space for truth to work where force would break it.

How the Diplomat serves (function at the table)

Bridge & buffer. Turn volatile standoffs into talks; convert obstacles into agreements.
Access & permission. Get the party into places and before people they otherwise couldn’t reach.
Stability & order. Secure truces, safe-conduct, and mutual obligations that keep scenes from spiraling.
Truth without flattery. Your influence is not guile; it rests on honor, reputation, and covenant faithfulness.

Starting kit (from the Role): three predefined aspects (High Concept, Trouble, Covenant), Gift Skill: Influence (+3), and a signature Gift stunt. Your core skills (e.g., Exhort, Academics, Awareness) still matter, but your Gift lets you do things they can’t.

Common compels: Owed favors come due; neutrality is demanded at the worst moment; speaking truth strains an alliance; “You opened this door—now you must walk through it.”

Gift Skill — Influence :overcome: :createanadvantage: :defend:

Intent: Influence is your relational capital plus the formal authority and customary channels tied to your office/reputation. It’s not just how you persuade (that’s often Exhort); it’s who you can reach and what you can responsibly promise.