Playing the Game¶
How you play as a Character and command your retinue in Blitz Eternal: Adventures Beyond the Mists.
What Roleplay Looks Like¶
Your Character is the protagonist of their own legend. You make choices about who they are, what they care for, what they swear to do. You describe their actions, narrate their words, decide how they respond to the world in front of them.
Your retinue does not detract from your Character's agency. It amplifies it. A knight does not quest alone; they command a household. A sea captain does not raid by themselves; they captain a crew. These soldiers are part of who your Character is, bound to their choices and their story.
At the table, you will spend most of your time playing your Character. You will also, in certain moments, play as members of your retinue. The boundary between these two is deliberate and fluid. When it matters to the story, you cross it.
Playing Your Character¶
Your Character is a named, known person with a voice and a presence. They initiate actions. They speak in council. They make promises. They face the consequences of their choices. When your Character rolls dice in combat, they are rolling their own personal die alongside their company's contribution to a shared Pool.
Outside combat, your Character leads through roleplay. You decide whether they take shelter at a roadside shrine or ignore it, whether they greet a stranger at an inn with warmth or suspicion, whether they keep a promise that has become inconvenient. These choices define what kind of leader they are and, by extension, what kind of company they attract and keep.
If your Character acquires a Bonded soldier of Bond 2 or higher (a Distinguished member of your retinue with a distinct relationship to you), roleplay that relationship. Ask them questions. Remember their concerns. Let them challenge you or support you when it matters. A Bonded lieutenant is not an NPC the GM controls. They are part of your story.
Combat¶
When you roll in a combat turn, you roll a Pool that includes your personal die and your company's dice. The total Pool belongs to you; you resolve it as a unit. You bank and push as a single player, read your class's combos off the banked total, and decide where the hits land. Your Retainers contribute their dice, but you direct the attack.
See core-rules, Part Two, for the full resolution system. See companies-and-command for how your company's structure affects the Pool.
Your Retinue: Control and Agency¶
By default, your retinue obeys you. They will not betray you, disobey you in combat, or wander off of their own accord. You control what they do, how they move, and when they act. They are not autonomous NPCs. They are soldiers under your command.
What this means at the table: you decide their movements and their targets. You roleplay their general bearing (stern, joyful, cautious) if you want. You do not need to be ambiguous about their loyalty or calculate whether they would obey a suicidal order. They obey. You command.
The focus stays on why you gave that order and what it costs you, not on managing their dissent.
Retainers and Story¶
A retainer can be the source of a story hook. The GM might suggest something like:
"Your archer, Tam, approaches you at camp after the day's march. He says, 'Captain, my brother was taken in a raid three seasons back. There's a slaver's nest two days south of here, if we've got time. I would owe you a debt if we had even a chance to look.'"
This is the GM offering a collaborative story. You can accept it and change course. You can decline it. If you decline, there is no penalty. Tam does not grow resentful. He does not stop obeying. He accepted your decision because that is what soldiers do.
If you want to engineer a richer story around your retinue, you can. You might orchestrate a mutiny where soldiers test your leadership. You might have retainers leave after a quest and return later, changed. You might build a long rivalry between two members of your company. These stories come from your choices, not from the GM's mechanical pressure on you.
Retainers With Names and Bonds¶
Naming a Retainer is free and always available. You do not have to earn it, spend anything, or reach any threshold. Name the archer on your first day if you want to. Most Retainers stay generic anyway, a type rather than a person, because most of them are: a Soldier is a Soldier, an Archer is an Archer, and you cannot know all of them.
Bond is what you spend on the ones you do know. Each time a Retainer's Bond rises, you choose what they gain from a short menu: another Hit Point, more Speed or a mount, a small trait, or something specific to their role. Two Retainers who started identically end up genuinely different soldiers, because you chose differently for each.
One thing is not a choice. At Bond 2 a Retainer's Hit Range widens one step, automatically, once, and never again. That arrives whether you want it or not.
At Bond 2, a Retainer becomes Distinguished. That is not a combat stat. It means they are known: rumors reach places before they do, a lord recognizes the name. More importantly, they become a character worth investing in.
A Bonded retainer is still yours to command. But they are also a person the table cares about. When they fall in battle, it matters. When they make a choice that affects the story, it is meaningful. You may find that you want to protect them, or you may decide to test them, or you may mourn them when death finally claims them.
That is roleplay.
Full rules in companies-and-command, Part Three.
Playing as Your Retainers¶
In certain scenes, you cross the line. Instead of describing what your retainers do, you become them.
This typically happens when a small group of your company goes on a discrete mission while you do not. Perhaps two of your soldiers scout a goblin camp ahead of the main force. Perhaps a lieutenant parleys with an enemy captain while you prepare an ambush. Perhaps you send a trusted retainer to carry a message to an ally.
In these moments, the table shifts. You roleplay as that individual soldier or small unit. You describe their actions, make their choices, speak with their voice. Your GM narrates the world around them. Other players, if they have soldiers on the same mission, do the same.
This keeps play engaging. Rather than describing a scouting mission in the abstract ("My soldiers report back with maps"), you are living it. You are creeping through bracken, whispering to a companion, deciding whether to risk approaching closer.
When This Works Best¶
This is most useful when: - The scene is discrete and time-limited (a short scouting run, a brief parley) - Multiple players have soldiers involved, or the scene is interesting enough to hold the table's focus - You have enough roleplay investment in the retainer to make the scene personal
It is less useful when: - The retainer is generic and you have no sense of their voice or personality - The scene would take the same amount of table time if described abstractly - The character involved is so minor that no one cares whether they succeed
The GM's call to suggest a retainer-roleplay scene, your call to accept or decline. When it serves the story, it is powerful. When it drags, you skip it.
When Your Character Falls Mid-Fight¶
Your Character is Fallen and unavailable. What happens to your company?
You still control them. You continue to roll their dice, bank and push, and direct their attacks. The only thing that changes is that your Character's personal die is no longer in the Pool until the Mists return them.
If you have a Bonded lieutenant of Bond 2 or higher, you now play that character instead. You shift your attention to them. They become your primary viewpoint. This is why cultivating at least one Bonded lieutenant is valuable; the alternative is continuing to direct your soldiers' actions without a named character to anchor the experience.
Either way, you are not sitting idle. Your company fights on, and you lead them.
Recovery¶
When the Mists return your fallen Character, they rejoin your company intact. Wounds close. Lost limbs are restored. They return at a location the GM determines (usually near where they fell, sometimes elsewhere). The GM brings back all Fallen combatants from a given period together, not staggered, so the company is restored as a unit.
In a campaign, your Character will fall multiple times. Each fall costs one of their six lives. This cost is real and accumulates. The sixth fall sends them home to the Known World permanently. Until then, death is a setback, not an ending.
Example: A Scout and a Parley¶
Your Character is a Knight commanding a Company of five Retainers. You are preparing an ambush on a merchant caravan suspected of slaving.
You send two soldiers to scout the road ahead. One is a generic Archer. The other is Marcus, a Bonded skirmisher (Bond 3). You want to know the caravan's position and strength before committing.
At this moment, you step back. You become Marcus. The other players become any of their soldiers involved. The GM narrates the road, the guards, the sounds and sights ahead.
You and the other players roleplay the scouts' approach. You describe Marcus moving low through tall grass. You discuss with the Archer whether to get closer or send a runner back. You make choices and face consequences. If a guard nearly spots you, you feel the tension. If you extract critical information, you feel the success.
After five or ten minutes of play, the scouts report back. You step forward again as your Knight. You receive the information. You plan your ambush. The scene is done.
That small interlude deepened the story and gave Marcus real presence. The next time Marcus falls in combat, it will matter to you.
Example: A Retainer's Request¶
Your Character is a Sea Captain. One of your crew is Henrick, a Bonded boatswain (Bond 2).
At camp one evening, the GM says, "Henrick approaches you with his hat in his hands. He says, 'Captain, I've been meaning to tell you. My sister's family lives in a village not far off the trail here, maybe a half day if we're willing to change course. I haven't seen them in three years. If it's not going to cost you, I'd be grateful if we had the chance to visit.'"
This is the GM offering a story hook. You have choices.
You could agree. You change course, visit the village, meet Henrick's sister. You might discover that the village is under attack by locusts and a possessed druid. A small adventure unfolds. You have enriched your company's story and deepened your connection to Henrick.
You could decline. "Tell him we're on schedule, but we'll come back through after we've handled what we came for." Henrick nods and accepts. There is no penalty. He does not grow bitter. He understood the job when he signed on. Later, when you do return and keep that promise, it means something.
Either way, the story is yours to shape. Henrick's loyalty is not a resource you can spend. It is assumed.