Player's Guide

Welcome to Nightcap

Nightcap is a narrative system for modern supernatural stories — the city after midnight, the things that keep offices and covens running, the people who know what the sirens are really for. Dice are here to decide the moments nobody at the table can call. Everything else is talking.

This book holds three things: how to build a character, how rolls work, and how the HUD in your hands does the bookkeeping. If you are new, read the first two sections and start playing. The rest you can look up when it comes up.

First Build a character

Four traits, a few points, three dots of powers. Fifteen minutes with a Storyteller.

Character creation →

Then Learn the roll

Count dice equal to a trait. Sevens and up are successes. Tens count twice.

The dice mechanic →

In play Push and contest

Willpower buys certainty. When two people want opposite things, both roll.

Contested rolls →

The character sheet

A character is a handful of narrative fields, four rated traits, and two pools that drain over a night and refill over a day.

Origin

What you are, at the root — Mage, Human, Vampire, something with no agreed name.

Subgroup

The faction, clan or tradition you answer to. Virtual Adept. Children of Ishtara.

Aptitude

Something you are naturally good at. When the scene turns on it, the Storyteller grants +1 die.

Advantage

A perk, a contact, a debt owed to you. This opens doors in the story rather than adding dice.

Weakness

A bane, a flaw, a thing you cannot walk past. Mostly narrative, and it should cost you something real.

Powers

Supernatural abilities, or mundane talent taken to an unreasonable extreme. Rated by tier.

Core traits

Rated 1 to 5. The number is your dice pool when the trait is the one that matters.

Trait	Covers
Physical	Strength, dexterity, stamina, fighting.
Mental	Intelligence, perception, knowledge, willpower under pressure.
Social	Charisma, manipulation, presence, command of a room.
Spirit	Your connection to the supernatural, magical affinity, inner resonance.

Pools and health

Willpower Mental resilience

Starting maximum equals Mental + Spirit. Spend 1 before a roll and one success is guaranteed, whatever the dice do.

Essence Supernatural fuel

Powers and healing run on it. Basic powers are free as long as at least 1 Essence sits in the pool.

Health Ten levels

Ten damage leaves you Incapacitated. 1 Essence heals 1 level through the Health menu.

Powers and their tiers

Every power has a tier. The tier sets what it costs to use and how many dots it cost to learn.

Tier	Dots	Essence to use	Notes
Basic	1	0	Free, but the pool must hold at least 1 Essence.
Adept	2	1
Advanced	3	2
Epic	4	3	Beyond starting reach — earned in play.
Legendary	5	4	Beyond starting reach — earned in play.

Using a power means paying the Essence and then rolling the trait the power keys off. Casting below your maximum tier is allowed and costs the lower amount.

Creating a character

Character generation

A new HUD arrives in CharGen mode. Your sheet is unlocked, your budget is waiting, and nothing is final until a Storyteller approves it.

Traits Six points to place

Every trait starts at 1. Distribute 6 more across the four of them — ten dots on the sheet when you are done. Nothing may start above 4, and only one trait may sit at 4; the rest stop at 3.

Powers Three dots to spend

Basic costs 1 dot, Adept 2, Advanced 3. Three Basic powers, one Advanced, or a Basic and an Adept — all legal. Epic and Legendary are not available at creation.

When the budget is spent, tell a Storyteller. They read the sheet and lock it, the HUD switches to Gameplay mode, and from then on changes go through them. Locking also pushes the finished sheet to the Discord log.

Point budget calculator

Sketch a build here before you touch the HUD. Nothing is saved to the Vault.

Trait points left

Power dots left

Add a power

Rolling dice

The dice mechanic

Nightcap runs on ten-sided dice. When an action is risky or someone is pushing back, roll a number of d10 equal to the relevant trait, plus or minus whatever the situation is worth. Read every die on its own.

8 7, 8, 9 — one success

The die did what you asked.

10 10 — two successes

A critical. It counts twice.

4 2 through 6 — nothing

No help, no harm.

1 1 — subtracts a success

A botch die. It eats one success from the total.

Add the successes, take away one for every 1, and read the total. One or more and the action lands. Zero and it fails. Below zero and you botch, which means something goes wrong beyond simple failure — the lock breaks in the door, the lie is believed by the wrong person.

Chance die

If penalties drop your pool to 0 or below, the HUD gives you a single chance die instead. Only a 10 succeeds, a 1 is a botch, and everything between is a failure. It is not a good place to be.

Dice roller

A practice table. Your real rolls go through the HUD so the Storyteller log sees them.

Trait / pool

Modifier

Dice to roll

Opposing pool

Their modifier

Opposition

Spending willpower

Before the dice leave your hand the HUD asks whether you want to spend a point. One Willpower buys one success, added after the dice are read. It cannot be spent afterwards to rescue a bad roll, and it does not stop a botch from being a botch — it only moves the total by one. Save it for the moment where failure ends the scene.

Degrees of success

The total is not a pass mark, it is a measurement. Storytellers read it as how much you got, not whether you got it.

Total	Degree	What it means at the table
Below 0	Botch	Failure with a consequence attached. The Storyteller adds a complication.
0	Failure	No progress. The fiction does not move in your favour.
1	Marginal	You get what you asked for and nothing more, often with a cost or a delay.
2–3	Solid	Clean success. This is the ordinary shape of a competent action.
4–5	Strong	You succeed and gain something extra — speed, information, position.
6+	Overwhelming	The scene bends. Ask the Storyteller for a detail and you will probably get it.

Difficulty and modifiers

Nightcap moves the pool rather than the target number. Sevens are always sevens; what changes is how many dice you get to throw. Players may propose their own modifiers on the HUD, and the Storyteller has the last word.

Modifier	Situation
+1 to +2	Good roleplay, time taken to prepare, the high ground, the right tool.
+1	Your Aptitude applies to this specific roll.
−1 to −2	Rushed, injured, distracted, working in bad weather or bad light.
±3 or more	Extreme circumstances — supernatural assistance, or a hindrance you should probably talk your way around instead.

Modifiers stack, then the pool is checked. At 0 or below it becomes a chance die.

Conflict & contests

Contested rolls

Draft — edit freely

When two characters want incompatible things and neither can simply be described as winning, both roll. Build each pool from the trait that fits what that character is doing — they need not be the same trait. A shove against a doorway is Physical against Physical; a lie against a suspicious detective is Social against Mental.

Both sides state what they are attempting and which trait carries it.
The Storyteller sets modifiers for each side separately.
Both roll. Willpower may be spent by either, and is declared before the dice.
Subtract the lower total from the higher. That difference is the margin.
The higher total wins, and the margin decides how completely.

Margin	Result	Read it as
0	Deadlock	Nothing changes hands. Whoever held the advantage keeps it, and the moment can be rolled again next turn with the situation worsened for both.
1	Narrow	You win and it shows — out of breath, out of position, out of a favour.
2–3	Clear	You get what you wanted on your own terms.
4+	Decisive	The loser is left with a lasting problem: disarmed, exposed, believed, held.

Both sides botch

If both totals fall below zero, nobody wins and the Storyteller narrates the situation getting worse for everyone. This is where the interesting scenes live.

Combat turn order

Draft — edit freely

Combat is a contest run in turns. When it starts, everyone involved rolls once for order.

Order. Each combatant rolls Physical with no modifiers. Highest total acts first, then down the line. Ties are broken by the higher Physical rating, and then by the Storyteller.
Your turn. One meaningful action — a strike, a power, a run for the door, a sentence that might stop this. Movement and talk come free if they do not replace the action.
Defence. Defending is not an action. You roll against every attack that comes at you, on other people's turns.
Round end. When everyone has acted, the round ends. Order holds for the whole fight unless somebody spends their action to change it.

Damage and soaking

Draft — edit freely

An attack is a contested roll: the attacker's relevant trait against the defender's. The margin is the damage.

Damage Margin equals health levels

Win by 3 and the defender takes 3 damage. A deadlock is a miss, or a hit that only knocks someone back. Weapons and claws are worth a modifier on the attack rather than a separate damage roll.

Soak Armour and hide

A character with armour, thick hide or a protective power reduces incoming damage by a flat amount the Storyteller sets from the source — usually 1 or 2. Soak applies after the margin is worked out and never takes damage below zero.

Wounds Ten levels, then out

Damage is tracked on the HUD's Health menu. At 10 you are Incapacitated: no more actions, and your fate is in the scene's hands. Storytellers may apply a penalty of −1 or −2 to pools as wounds pile up.

Healing One for one

Spend 1 Essence to heal 1 health level. Anything faster or stranger than that is a power, and powers cost what their tier costs.

Extended actions

Draft — edit freely

Some work does not fit in one roll: picking apart a ward, researching a bloodline, tailing someone across three nights. The Storyteller names a success target and how many rolls you get to reach it, along with what each roll costs in time.

Successes accumulate across rolls until you hit the target.
A roll of zero successes costs you the interval and nothing else.
A botch removes your accumulated successes down to zero and hands the Storyteller a complication. A second botch ends the attempt.
Willpower may be spent on any roll in the sequence, one point at a time.

A useful default: target 5 successes over 3 rolls for something difficult, 10 over 5 for something that should take real effort.

Teamwork

Draft — edit freely

One character leads the action and rolls. Anyone helping says what they are actually doing — holding the ladder, keeping the guard talking, feeding Essence into the circle.

Each helper whose contribution makes sense gives the leader +1 die, to a maximum of +3 from teamwork.
Helpers do not roll and cannot botch on the leader's behalf.
A helper may spend their own Willpower to make their die a guaranteed success instead.
Some things cannot be helped with. Two people cannot both be the one telling the lie.

Powers against powers

Draft — edit freely

When two supernatural effects meet, the tier matters as much as the trait behind it.

Both sides pay their Essence, then roll the trait their power keys off.
Add +1 die per tier above Basic — Adept +1, Advanced +2, Epic +3, Legendary +4.
Resolve as a normal contest: higher total wins, margin sets how completely.
A mundane character can resist a power with a plain trait roll, but gets no tier dice. This is why walking away is a skill.
Essence is spent whether you win or lose. Power is expensive.

Worked examples

Straight roll Picking a lock in a hurry

Mira has Physical 3 and an Aptitude in locks (+1). The Storyteller calls the corridor rushed (−1). Pool: 3.

9 5 10

One success and one critical: 3 total. Solid. The lock opens before the footsteps arrive.

Contest A lie under a detective's eye

Dorian rolls Social 4. The detective rolls Mental 3, +1 because he has read the file.

7 8 3 1

Dorian: two successes minus one botch die, total 1. The detective rolls 8, 6, 4, 2 for a total of 1. Margin 0 — deadlock. The lie neither lands nor breaks, and the detective asks the same question again, differently. Dorian could have spent Willpower here and walked away clean.

Damage A strike in an alley

The ghoul attacks with Physical 4 and a length of pipe (+1). Its target defends with Physical 2. Attacker totals 5, defender totals 1. Margin 4: four health levels, and by the margin table the defender ends up on the ground. Leather jacket soaks 1, so three damage sticks.

Tools

Using the player HUD

Attach the Nightcap Player HUD to your screen and click it to open the menu. Which menu you get depends on whether your sheet is locked.

CharGen menu · unlocked

Character Info — name, Origin, Subgroup and the rest.
Traits — spend your trait points.
Powers — add and name your starting powers.
View Sheet — prints the sheet to your private local chat.

Gameplay menu · approved

Roll — pick a trait, then apply a modifier if the scene calls for one.
Use Power — pick the power and the tier, pay the Essence, roll the trait.
Sheet — prints your official sheet to local chat.
Health — track damage, or spend Essence to heal.
Daily Check-In — claim the day's regeneration.
Refresh — pull your latest sheet from the Vault.

Daily check-in

Once per real-world day the HUD rolls your Spirit for you. You regain Essence equal to your successes, and 1 Willpower regardless of how the dice fall.

Chat commands

Almost everything lives in the HUD menus. One thing does not.

+prove Prints your core traits, Willpower and Essence to local chat so anyone in the scene can check them. Approved sheets only.

Storyteller's Guide

The Vault and connectivity

Every sheet in the game lives in one Vault object rezzed in the sim. It stores the sheets and handles the Discord exports. Both the ST HUD and every Player HUD need the Vault rezzed in the same region to work at all.

Authorisation runs through it too. The Vault's owner is a Storyteller by default and can add others from their own HUD.

The ST HUD menu

Option	What it does
Roll	An ad-hoc or NPC roll. Enter a pool size; it broadcasts to local chat as an NPC or situational roll and logs for other STs.
Sheets	Opens the character roster held in the Vault.
Announce	A region-wide popup to every player wearing a Nightcap HUD.
Emote	Broadcasts a roleplay emote, either to local chat for an NPC or region-wide to all HUDs.
Give HUD	Scans the sim; type any part of a name to send that avatar a Player HUD.
Manage STs	Add or remove Storytellers by avatar UUID.

Managing the roster

Unlocked Sheets — everyone still in CharGen, waiting on you.
Approved Characters — active, locked characters in play.
Search by Name — find one sheet without scrolling the roster.
Force Web Sync — pushes every approved sheet to the ST Discord channel. It runs slowly on purpose so Discord does not rate-limit the batch.

Editing a character

Selecting a character from the Sheets menu opens their management profile. The ST HUD enforces no limits: traits above 4, more powers than a player could buy, Legendary tiers handed out on the spot.

Approve / Unapprove

The important toggle. Locking takes a player out of CharGen and into Gameplay mode. The moment you click Approve, the Vault sends their finished sheet to Discord.

To Discord

Exports this one sheet as it stands now. Use it after making major edits to a character who is already approved.

Roll Stat

Forces a roll on the character's own stats, with a prompt for a modifier. The result goes to local chat and the ST log.

Edit Info / Traits / Powers

Alter any part of the sheet. Trait entry uses a 0–9 pad; Custom takes anything higher.

Set WP / Ess / Health

Move their current resources by hand — rewards, environmental damage, the price of a bad decision.

Running the table

The ST log is always on

You do not need to be standing next to anyone. Every player roll, power use and daily check-in is broadcast silently to a hidden ST channel with the full dice breakdown. Wear the HUD and it appears in your chat.

Ask for +prove

Faster than opening the roster mid-scene. Their HUD prints traits, Willpower and Essence to local chat. Works on approved sheets only.

You own the modifiers

Players can set their own on the HUD, and you can overrule any of them. Reward description and preparation with a die or two rather than saying yes to everything.

Reward advancement, not just survival

Advancements come from you. A trait dot, a new power, a raised tier — hand them out for characters who changed over a story, not for characters who won a fight.

The system loses to the scene

Nightcap is narrative first. If a roll would flatten a good moment, do not call for it. If a botch would end someone's night early, make it a complication instead. You have the final say on every rule in this book.