Inherited and Earned
Bloodline decides what you inherit. Blood and sweat shed in the field decide who you finally become.
A FANTASY MERCENARY COMPANY ROLEPLAYING GAME
Some blood comes from birth.
Some must be shed yourself.
In a war woven by gods, nobles, and merchant houses, you are a mercenary captain. Lead your company, trade spices that rewrite fate, and decide whether a land belongs to blood, coin, or those who bled for it.
MORE THAN AN ADVENTURE
Every choice enters both battlefield and market.
Blood & Spice sits between personal adventure and national war. A hero’s Thoughts decide how they act; blood and spice make success leave debts, mirages, and political consequences.
Magic Is Materiel
Spices can be cast, traded, stockpiled, or cut off. Every miracle is also an entry in the quartermaster’s ledger.
Command a Company
You negotiate and duel in person while your officers, squads, and morale operate on a real battlefield.
The pool decides possibility; faces decide direction.
Groups decide force; collisions decide cost.
A CHARACTER CHECK
Many Thoughts collide. One direction takes form.
Declare the acting Thought
Say what the hero wants to change and which Thought shapes the attempt.
Bring Thoughts into play
Base dice, Expertise, Root Thought, bloodline, and aid form a pool capped at seven dice.
Find Thought Groups
Roll several d6s. Matching faces gather into groups. Pool size sets possibility; faces set direction.
Choose the result
Group size sets force. Strong unchosen groups may return as Echoes and costs.
THE SIX THOUGHTS
Ability is a direction for facing the world.
The first four express capability and style. Wonder and Gloom record how the hero understands miracles, ethics, and cost.
Drive
Courage, resolve, and force of will
Outreach
Affinity, influence, and connection
Calculation
Knowledge, observation, and strategy
Composure
Patience, enticement, and harvest
Wonder
Miracles, wishes, and things beyond time
Gloom
Ethics, costs, and the wear of the world
BLOOD & SPICE
Birth grants power. Bloodshed makes the world acknowledge it.
A bloodline may awaken a gift and leave a Blood Debt owed by body, mind, relationship, or the uncanny. Spice puts magic inside the economy: the same cargo can work a miracle or pay an army.
Bloodbloodline, blood and sweat, Blood Debt, and Deeds
Spiceelemental casting, Mirages, trade, and battlefield conditions
PEOPLE OF RED CANYON
Three factions and one outsider are waiting for your decision.
Three representatives enter the negotiation with their own positions, leverage, and hopes. Ananas brings a fourth possibility that Red Canyon did not have before. Only what players may safely know at first meeting appears here.
CONTRACTS & ROADS
Ida Copperpalm
The Gray Scale guild representative, who believes credit is harder to rebuild than a wall.
Goods must arrive and contracts must hold, or the next caravan and the next mercenary commission lose their foundation. She yields nothing for free, but she will bargain over price, route, and responsibility.
“Tell me what you promised first. Then tell me whom you are willing to bleed for.”
ORDERS & THE GATE
Captain Orfan
The eastern-gate commander who represents House Hesar's claim to wartime order.
He insists that provisions, taxation, and passage answer to the defense of the city. Unlike distant nobles, he cannot leave the cost to someone else. Bargaining with him means finding a road between written law and the lives of the soldiers before him.
“The order came from the marquis. The dead will remain at my gate.”
WATER & HOME
Tara Red Spring
The Red Spring Alliance representative who speaks for mining villages, growers, and water keepers.
She does not oppose every trade. She opposes outsiders deciding what the canyon must sacrifice. To earn her trust, mercenaries must prove that cargo, medicine, and promises will not abandon the residents when danger comes.
“You see a wagon of goods. We see the next sickness, the next well, and the next winter.”
DEEDS & A NEW CITY
Ananas Eden, the Founder
An Eden captain who means to turn mercenary achievement into the foundation of a city.
She arrives with the Eden Guard crest, a locked weapon case, and a city plan that has not yet become law. She may become a buyer, a witness to a ceasefire, or the beginning of the next campaign.
“A lawful sale is not always a just one. A contract must also name who bears the consequences.”
YOUR FIRST SESSION
Choose which side of the table you stand on today.
Players read only spoiler-safe material. The Groundkeeper (GM) may reveal the Groundkeeper downloads after accepting their warning. The rulebook, Red Canyon packets, fiction, and release ZIPs are now available in English.
Choose one character or enter the full crossed ensemble.
- Read the player-safe setting and rules guide.
- Choose Single-Team, Paired Play, or Cross-Portrayal for your group size.
- Assign captains, officers, and their bonds.
- Prepare to escort the last wagon through Red Canyon.
Let contracts, factions, and battle answer what the players truly value.
- Read the full session sequence.
- Accept the spoiler warning before downloading the GM pack.
- Prepare four acts, faction clocks, and final deployment.
- Record Blood Debts, Mirages, and playtest questions.
Single-Team Play
The player portrays one captain. The player or Groundkeeper portrays the officer, as agreed before play, forming one self-contained captain–officer pair.
- The captain sets military direction and gives formal orders.
- The officer’s portrayer decides their immediate response and choices.
- Captain and officer each receive one character action per battle round.
Paired Play
One player portrays only the captain; another portrays only that officer. Each receives one action per round, so neither player must switch sheets.
- The captain sets military direction and gives orders.
- The officer decides how to answer, negotiate, and act.
- A four-player table forms two pairs.
Cross-Portrayal
Each player portrays their own captain and another captain’s officer. The creator gives a past, the commander gives a task, and the portrayer decides the present.
- The officer’s portrayer is not their commander.
- An order creates duty and pressure, not mind control.
- An independent officer action uses the commanding player’s captain action.
At the table
Captain player: “I order you to take the crossbows to the north bank.”
Officer player: “I will, but I am leaving two soldiers to receive the wounded.”
Groundkeeper: “The captain gives the order; the officer decides how to carry it out. Both choices change the situation.”
1–4players (2–4 recommended)
1Groundkeeper
3.5–4.5hours
d6 + cardsmain table tools
EARTH · WATER · FIRE · AIR
The Eight Great Spices are merchandise and strategic resources.
The current release covers spice stock, casting, and cargo conflict inside scenarios. The general price matrix remains a future Alpha module and is not yet a current rule.
SPOILER-FREE SETTING FICTION
A Name Owed to the Wind
Follow the Ashen Ember Company across the Salt-Mirror Waste and discover what Blood & Spice asks of bloodright, orders, trade ledgers, mercy, and cost.
v0.5 · PT1.4-rc1
Get the current English playtest material.
These English files were rebuilt from the current Traditional Chinese source manuscript and checked for text, links, spoiler boundaries, and page rendering.
LANGUAGE AVAILABILITY
Choose the language and format you need
The online SRD and fiction are complete in Chinese, English, and Japanese. Downloadable full PDFs and playtest packs currently exist in Chinese and English.
| Resource | 正體中文 | English | 日本語 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Complete Rules SRD | Read online | Read online | Read online |
| Setting Fiction | Read online | Read online | Read online |
| Complete Rulebook PDF | Download | Download | Not yet available |
| Red Canyon Player Packet PDF | Download | Download | Not yet available |
| Complete Playtest ZIP (Spoilers) | Behind warning | Behind warning | Not yet available |
“Behind warning” opens the spoiler boundary before exposing Groundkeeper files.
PDFPDFZIP
Red Canyon Player Packet
Spoiler-safe · first-session rules, pregenerated captains, officers, squads, and records
Complete Rulebook
Core rules, character creation, Fate, blood, spices, probability, combat, examples, and illustrated fiction
English Player-Safe ZIP
Rulebook, player packet, fiction, and supporting assets · safe to share with players
GROUNDKEEPER ONLY · MAJOR SPOILERS
If you intend to enter Red Canyon as a player, stop here.
The Groundkeeper packet and complete ZIP contain all six truths, faction clocks, enemy decisions, final deployment, event answers, and possible endings. Reading either file in advance will directly spoil investigation, politics, and the finale.
I will serve as Groundkeeper — reveal files with major spoilers
Final confirmation: I understand that these English files contain complete scenario spoilers and will not share them with this scenario’s players.
Download Red Canyon Groundkeeper Packet — Major SpoilersThe complete ZIP places spoiler material at the package root beside the other release files. Share the separate player-safe ZIP with players; reserve this complete archive for the person organising the table.
Download Complete English ZIP — Major Spoilers