HOW TO PLAY

VESSEL: THE ADVENTURE GAME

CYCLE OF PLAY

1. The Guide Player describes the setting.

2. The Character Players decide what they want to do.

3. The Character Players pull from their Vessel.

4. The Guide Player describes their success or failure.

HOW TO PULL FROM YOUR VESSEL?

CHECK YOUR SCORE

The Guide will say “Pull with Body, Mind, or Heart.” Check your

Score with that kind of Pull.

PULL TAGS

Pull a number of Tags randomly from your Vessel equal to your

Score.

TALLY SUCCESSES

Look at your Tags and count up the total number of Successes:

• If a Tag matches the Pull : 2 Successes.

• If a Tag doesn’t match the Pull AND isn’t a Failure Tag: 1

Success.

• If the Tag is a Failure Tag: 0 Successes.

Report your total number of Successes to the Guide. If you get

enough Successes, you succeed! If you don’t, you fail.

SKILLS AND PENALTIES

If your Skill applies to a Pull, you can add your score in that Skill to the

Pull. Skill Tags can count for 2 Successes if pulled during an applicable Pull.

If your Penalty applies to the Pull AND you Pull the Penalty Tag during

the Pull, subtract one Success from your total Successes for each

Penalty pulled. Otherwise, treat a Penalty Tag like a Failure Tag. 

GOALS AND MOTES

Your group goals and personal goals are things your Characters want to

achieve. Whenever you achieve one of your goals, you get a Mote.

Motes are a resource for your Character and can be exchanged for 1

Success during any Pull.

EXAMPLE:

Todd wants to open a locked door. The Guide decides he will need three Successes and tells Todd to “Pull with Body.”

Todd has a Score of 3 in Body, no useful Skills and an “Injured Leg” Penalty. He pulls three Tags at random from his Vessel. He pulls a Body Tag, a Heart Tag, and a Penalty Tag. 

The Body Tag counts as 2 Successes because opening a door uses your physical body so this Tag matches the Pull. The Heart Tag counts as one Success as, while it’s not a Body Tag, it isn’t a Failure Tag, so it still counts as one Success. 

If he had a Skill like “Doorman,” he could have applied it here to pull one more Tag at Random, even getting 2 Successes if he pulled exactly a Skill Tag. Unfortunately, instead, he has the Penalty “Injured Leg” which applies here as he needs his leg to push AND he pulled a Penalty Tag. So he must subtract 1 Success, making his total 2 Successes. 

Todd decides that opening the door is very important and uses one of his Motes. This raises his total to three Successes, and he is able to open the door!

WHAT ELSE IS ON THE CHARACTER SHEET?

CHARACTER NAME / ADVENTURE TITLE

This place is for you to write your Character’s name. The Adventure

Title is the name of this particular adventure.

EXPERIENCE POINTS / LEVEL

Every Character starts with B:1 H:1 M:1 F:4 with no skills and 2

Experience Points (Exp) at level 1. By adventuring, Characters “Level Up” and

gain 1 Exp per level. Levels go from 1 - 10.

Characters can spend Exp to gain additional Tags. It costs 2 Exp.

points to increase a Score to 2, 3 Exp. points to raise a Score 3, and so

on. Skills are twice as expensive.

CHARACTER ART

Just a fun place to draw a picture of your character!

BODY TARGET

This number equals your Body Score plus any defenses. If a Challenger

wants to hurt you, this is the number of Successes they will need to

add one Failure Tag to your Vessel. If they double this number, you receive

two Failures Tags instead.

FAILURES

You start with 4 Failure Tags. You gain Failure Tags by damaging your Vessel.

Keep track of how many Failure Tags you have in the “current” score

section. Your Character dies if you ever have twice as many Failure Tags

as successful ones (Death).

DEFAULT TOTAL TAGS

This number is the total number of all Tags in your Vessel to start.

ITEMS

Things you brought with you or found along the way. Weapons and

armor will have a (+x/+x) section. The first X shows how this item

alters Body Targets and the second shows how it changes the number of

Failure Tags given after a Body Target has been reached.

MONEY

This is where you track how much money you currently have available.

Mark it up or down as acquired or used.

OTHER RULES

VESSEL PULLS

Vessel Pulls are when a character must use all of their Scores

at once. They always pull three tags at random and may add

relevant Skills.

Healing a broken leg, for example, requires Body to hold the

leg still, Heart to calm the person down and Mind to

remember how to properly set it. This would be a Vessel Pull. 

CHALLENGES

If a situation arises where time is a factor, the Guide and

Character Players will take turns acting. To decide who goes first, both

sides do a Vessel Pull with the Guide Player deciding if any relevant factors add or subtract from the Pull. The Character Players can decide to pull from the Guide’s Vessel or one of theirs. 

The Characters and Guide then take turns with all the Character Players acting together and the Guide Player acting as all parts of the setting.