DnD5 Icons Rules

Icon Relationships

• You will receive a certain number of points (3 plus 1 for each additional five full levels of advancement). These points are allocated among the Icons of the setting to reflect a character's interactions with them.
  • Frequency, not Intensity: The ratings of a Relationship do not speak to the intensity of that connection, or how close to the Icon they are. It speaks solely to how frequently the influence of that Icon comes up in the character's life.
• Relationships have two category types: Allied Relationships and Adversarial Relationships.
  • Allied Relationships: You have a relationship of some favor and regard with the Icon, whether a personal one through the Icon themselves or one of their lieutenants, or an organizational one through their followers or minions. When you generate tokens, they come in the favor of the Icon or their organization aiding and abetting you, or from others recognizing your connection to them and assisting as a result. When you generate complications, they come in the form of the Icon levying obligations on you, or the enemies of your Icon seeing you as a viable target against the Icon.
  • Adversarial Relationships: Your relationship is antagonistic towards one of the Icons: you do not like what they do or what they stand for. You haven't necessarily set yourself up as an enemy directly, but you tend to be outspoken against their goals. When you generate tokens, they come in the form of useful knowledge about the Icon that you can leverage to your advantage, or assistance from others who also oppose them. When you generate complications, they are usually in the form of the Icon's agents or allies working against you.

Rolling Relationships

• At the beginning of each game session, players may roll a number of six-sided dice equal to their rating in each of their Relationships, one at a time.
• If a die generates a 6, it generates a token for that Icon.
• If a die generate a 5, it generates a token and a complication for that icon.

Using Tokens

Generated tokens can be utilized in a number of ways, for a number of benefits. While the character doesn't usually choose these, the player generally does so, although some are wholly in the realm of the DM to spend (with the player's permission).

• Gain Coin: Sometime during the game session, the character secures a small windfall of coin. This may be for previous services rendered, or because the Icon's agents or enemies hope to sway the character. Each token spent on this gains the character 3d10 x 5gp.
• Gain a Magic Item: Each player must generate a wish list of Icon-based magic items before play starts. These lists should include items of every rarity from uncommon through very rare. This may only be done once per character level. This item makes its way into the hands of the character at some point during the level, either as a gift from the Icon, or something discovered but unlocked using secrets gained from the Icon.
  • 3 Tokens: Gain an item of uncommon rarity (rare at higher levels).
  • 5 Tokens: Gain an item of rare rarity (very rare at higher levels).
• Gain a Secret: If an Icon is involved in a given scenario – or simply might know something about it – a player may spend tokens to gain access to a secret they already knew from their past experiences.
• Gain a Social Benefit: The player may spend a token to gain advantage on a social check with an NPC. This automatically causes the character to be recognized as associated with the Icon in some way, with an uptick in respect or fear of them accordingly.
• Gain Support: A player may spend tokens to gain assistance from the agents, allies, or enemies (depending on their relationships) of the Icon, particularly if the task at hand is of interest to the Icon.
• Gain a Useful Flashback: During a difficult task or undertaking, a player may spend a token to gain a flashback for useful information to get them out of the current situation. If there is a die roll involved, it gains advantage.
  • Example: While lost in an underground labyrinth, a player Allied with the Great Clans remembers an ancient learning rhyme taught to dwarven youngsters in ancient days that teach them how to get out of a maze reliably.
• Gain an Icon-specific Benefit: Some Icons have specific benefits they grant to those who are Allied with them. These often have to be unlocked through adventures and expenditures of tokens to establish the context for the benefit. See the individual Icon descriptions for a rough idea of what these are, although the specific mechanics are not available until it is unlocked. This might include access to a resource, to a specialized training, to ongoing favors, magical benefits invoked with token expenditure, or other benefits.
• Gain a story-specific Benefit: Some adventures will have built-in ways of spending the tokens of specific Icons. An adventure out in the Frostwood may have the opportunity to spend 2 Tokens to gain healing by a unicorn in service to the Unicorn of the Frostwood, for example, but only during that adventure.

Using Complications

Similar to Tokens, Complications are a resource spent to alter how the story flows. Instead of being a player resource, however, they are for the DM to use, to increase the challenge of stories as they're told (although doing so ties the story in with the Icon in question, so the DM will only do this if it makes sense for the narrative in question). Like Tokens, Complications can be saved up over successive stories.