Because all these words are starting to bleed together into word soup, I’m sharing where v4 of the Personae SRD currently stands in a serialized format in the hopes I can have it buttoned up to my satisfaction over the course of this week. Maybe y’all will catch something I missed?

If you’d like to look at v3 of the SRD, you can do so here: https://keeper.farirpgs.com/resources/craig-hatler/personae-srd/

PERSONAE SYSTEM REFERENCE DOCUMENT

Craig Hatler, author, designer and developer. Todd V. Ehrenfels, lead contributor and consultant. Text by Craig Hatler Games under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (CC BY 4.0). Version 4 (v4) current as of Nov 2025.

I. OBJECTIVE

The primary objective of the Personae TTRPG rules system is to facilitate rewarding, enjoyable roleplaying game experiences.

II. INTRODUCTION

Personae provides mechanics for resolving conflicts within the confines of a shared, collaborative, interactive environment consisting of one(1) or more players, the chorus, and a collective imaginal space agreed upon by the consensus of everyone at the table, referred to hereafter as “the fiction”.

• Every player controls one or more identities: unique entities from the perspective of the game’s mechanics that are capable of challenging (issuing challenges) or responding (answering challenges) to direct the course of the fiction. Identities might be more concrete, such as creatures, people, or places; more abstract, such as ideas or phenomena; or even exist in a state of meta-fiction, such as a mystery, an organization, or a nation-state.

• The terms identity and character might be used interchangeably, but whether an identity is a character is predicated on the circumstances of the fiction; identities and characters are, for the purposes of the game’s mechanics, identical. Every player begins play with at least one identity—their main character—but might control additional identities as play progresses. Some identities may last a long time, and some might be more volatile, depending on their relevance in the fiction.

• The chorus may control one or more identities in addition to the players’ main characters, such as supporting characters, at any time during play. The chorus’ identities might be on the same side as the players’ characters, against them, or somewhere in-between. The role of the chorus is explained in greater detail in "Moderating a Personae Game”.

• The success or failure of actions undertaken by identities is addressed by challenging (issuing a challenge) or responding (answering a challenge). Challenges are resolved by the rolling of one(1) or more ten-sided dice by either players against players, players against chorus, or chorus against players. The faces of the dice are labeled 1 to 10. The outcomes of the dice rolled interact with and may be modified by an identity’s relevant game mechanics statistics, or “stats”.

• Conflicts are resolved through methods of social interaction such as teamwork, problem-solving, critical thinking, improvisation and cleverness, undertaken not only by the players and chorus outside the fiction but within it as well by the identities under their control.

• Other players, as well as the chorus, might offer suggestions as to how an identity might act, behave, perform or function within the fiction, but every player has principle authorial agency over their main character’s details, thoughts, behaviors and actions by default. Any influence over a player or chorus’s identities that come from the chorus or other players may only impact the fiction if the controlling player has given consent; the controlling player has “final veto”.

• Unless otherwise specified, the pronouns of identities, characters, players or the chorus are they/them by default. Identities that represent non-people objects, obstacles or other such phenomena may be it/them where appropriate if there are no objections.

III. BEFORE WE START

Before starting it is highly recommended that the group define lines of subject matter or content, both within and outside the fiction, that should not be crossed, or explored with an abundance of care. Feel encouraged at any time to "pause" or "rewind" gameplay if something uncomfortable happens during a session. Everyone should always be mindful that everyone else is comfortable with the direction of the story. Everyone at the table is present to tell a story together, while at the same time making sure everyone feels safe and comfortable and has a way of exiting the table or group in the event they feel unsafe, whether temporarily or permanently.

-- Here are two toolsets that may be of benefit to you in helping to establish and maintain safety at your table:

• X-Card - John Stavropoulos - http://tinyurl.com/x-card-rpg

• Script Change - Beau Jágr Sheldon - http://briebeau.com/scriptchange

One person is the chorus, the rest are players.

The chorus

• Narrates what chorus-controlled characters (CCs) do;

• Guides the story and presents challenges to the group;

• Asks the group questions and fills the world with their answers;

• Will let things be tried if they're cool!

The chorus is a fan of the whole group, and are players as well!

The players

• Narrate what player-controlled characters (PCs) and identities do;

• Issue or answer challenges when things are risky;

• Fill the world of the fiction with their ideas, take risks, and rise up from their failures;

• Give everyone a time to shine!

Credit to Fari RPGs - Breathless RPG SRD - https://fari.games/en/srds/fari-rpgs/breathless-srd

Unless stated otherwise, everything below exists in the game's mechanics by default. When in doubt, a rule or mechanic is the default, and is open to interpretation, change, omission or addition.