Tamer

Tamers, huh? Heh. You corpos really don’t get it, do you? You look at some half-naked spacer with a worm the size of a battlecruiser and think ‘primitive.’ Cute. Let me educate you. Those ‘wildfolk’ out there? They’re the reason half your survey teams ever make it home. Drop a Tamer on a jungle world, an ice rock, hell, a molten crater, and they’ll come strolling back three months later with a tan and a new pet. They don’t conquer environments, they sync with them. They breathe when you choke, eat when you starve, and they love it. Nature doesn’t scare them, the real world does.

And that thing they ride with? That’s not a mount. That’s family. Kindred Spirits, they call ’em… Bears, rocs, unicorns, sometimes a damned dragon. Doesn’t matter. It’s not magic, it’s connection. They don’t give orders, they ask, and the beast listens because it wants to. I’ve seen a Tamer and her griffin take on a strike squad and leave nothing but smoke. No chatter, no comms, just instinct. You can’t train that, you can’t implant that, and you sure as hell can’t replicate it in a lab, no matter how much chrome you bolt on those clones, that's for sure.

You think I hate ’em? Yeah, I do. They’re everything I’m not. Flesh and pulse and spirit instead of steel and brutality but they got the same cunning. I traded my skin for armour and they traded fear for freedom. They’re the top of the organic chain - pure apex. Me? I’m the top of the machine one. And I’ll tell you this straight: I’ve seen Tamers do things that’d make your combat drones short out from shame. Laser fire curving around ’em like they asked politely. Missiles missing on purpose. They move like the wild itself’s on their side.

They don’t care for your money, your contracts, or your polite little wars. You can’t buy a Tamer, you hire one and hope you were polite enough they come back when you call. They’ll curse you out, drink your liquor, maybe scare your interns, but they’ll get the job done. Every time.

“So, you can call ’em savages if you want too but remember this: keep your toy soldiers out of their jungles. A Tamer just needs a place to stand and a creature that loves ’em to end your whole little fiefdom. But you know that… It's why you hired me, and to take down Tamers - my price just doubled.


- Tia Matte, minutes from the Pre-Pacification Meeting of Velociux Prime, Mark 6165.

Every Tamer’s got one — their other half, their best friend, their shadow. Some call it a mount, a companion, a guardian spirit, but none of those words do it justice. A Kindred Spirit isn’t owned or commanded; it’s bonded. It’s a connection older than memory, deeper than blood. Two souls cut from the same cloth and stitched back together by instinct. They hunt together, fight together, live together. When a Tamer rides into battle, their Kindred is more than muscle and fang — it’s awareness, trust, and purpose made flesh. Whether it’s a griffin, a death worm, or something even stranger, each pair moves like a single thought: the Tamer sees through the beast’s eyes, the beast feels through the Tamer’s heart. You can’t train it, can’t fake it, and you sure as hell can’t break it.

Trait.

You gain a [Kindred Spirit]. Choose one from the list below. If you [Multi-Job] into [Tamer], you must acquire a [Kindred Spirit] through narrative role play, such as from raising it in the wild or purchasing one from another [Tamer] or merchant.

A [Kindred Spirit] is another [Character] that will act fully independently of your own. By choosing to play a [Tamer] you are effectively choosing to play two [Characters] which is not for the feint of heart. Be aware of this choice, and have a discussion with the other [Players] at the table to make sure they are on board for that, as [Appropriate].

A [Kindred Spirit] is a [Trained] [Beast], as opposed to a [Sapient] like your [Character]. This represents a few basic changes about what the [Kindred Spirit] can and can't do. Below is a brief list of those changes, but please read the [Beast] page in full to better understand the differences.

• A [Beast] can't speak or verbally communicate. As such, it can't perform the [Barb], [Defect], [Speak] actions, nor can it be effected by them. It may understand some verbal commands through [Training], but can't fully communicate.
• A [Beast] doesn't get any formal education and thus can't use any [Knowledge] Skills to perform Checks, Attacks, or Saves. It may attempt to figure things out to the level a [Beast] would understand it, through the use of the [Study] Skill as normal.
• A [Beast] can't gain Skill or Mastery ranks. Anytime it would be required to add Skill or Mastery ranks to a [Roll] or [DC] of some kind, it uses its [Aptitude] instead.
• A [Beast] has the [Surface] [Movement Type] unless otherwise stated.
• A [Beast] has 3 [Packs] but no other [Item Slots], including [Hands], which means they can't use [Equipment] without exceptional circumstances or a Skill Check of some kind.
• A [Beast] has the Luddite Trait.
• A [Beast] uses [Presence] Checks instead of [Swagger] Checks and can't gain [Priority].

However, a [Kindred Spirit] does operate slightly differently to a regular [Beast]. Listed below are the key features of a [Kindred Spirit] that sets them apart from other [Beasts]. Should any of the below conflict with the [Beast] rules, use the [Kindred Spirit] rules instead.

• A [Kindred Spirit] can't be killed or permanently harmed. If reduced to 0 [Health] or [Strain], it will gain the [Downed] [Condition] or it will flee from the Encounter to licks its wounds, as [Appropriate]. It will return on 1 [Health] and full [Strain] at the end of the Encounter, otherwise unharmed. Their [Tamer] can spend [Wyrd Points] to prevent them being reduced to 0 Health, if they wish, which will cause them to stay at 1 [Health] remaining, and preventing any remaining [Damage] in that single instance.
• A [Kindred Spirit] can be ridden as if they were a [Vehicle], up to the maximum number of [Crew] and [Passengers]. The rules for this will be detailed below.
• A [Kindred Spirit] can have [Cyberware] installed, following the usual rules for a Luddite to remove the Trait and receive [Cyberware]. A [Kindred Spirit] as 3 [Dermal], 5 [Core] and 2 [Sensory] [Cyberware Slots] but no [Neural], [Arm] or [Leg] [Cyberware Slots].
• A [Kindred Spirit] can assist it's [Tamer] during [Swagger] Checks. When performing a [Swagger] Check, both the [Tamer] and [Kindred Spirit] may perform a Check as normal, and then the [Tamer] may submit either [Total], but not both. Typically choosing which ever is higher.

Here are the rules for [Crewing] or riding a [Kindred Spirit] like a [Vehicle]:

• A [Kindred Spirit] doesn't have [Life Support] like a [Vehicle] does. Thus, any occupants must have [Rebreathers] to survive in a [Vacuum], and even the [Kindred Spirit] if they otherwise don't have the ability to survive a [Vacuum]. However, any [Kindred Spirit] that has the [Void] [Movement Type] is assumed to carry a limited number of [Rebreathers] on their person, for [Crew], [Passengers] and others they may find or rescue, as [Appropriate]. They will eventually need to resupply, however, it is not an infinite supply. Note: A [Kindred Spirit] can gain a [Rebreather] from a [Vehicle] in the same manor as any other [Sapient] as part of the [Embark/Disembark] [Action].
• The [Crew] and [Passengers] of a [Kindred Spirit] can't pilot, [Move] or [Turn] it with their [Actions]. The [Kindred Spirit] does that themselves. However, they can perform individual [Actions] such as operating [Equipment] or perform the [Interaction] [Action] without [Disembarking], unlike regular [Crew] of a [Vehicle].
• You are typically unable to use any [Piloting] [Abilities] on a [Kindred Spirit], however certain [Traits] may apply, as [Appropriate]. The advantage of a [Kindred Spirit] is that it pilots itself and doesn't require your [Actions] to do so.
• You aren't considered to be in a [Cockpit] while acting as [Crew]. Nor do you provide your [Evasion] to the [Kindred Spirit].
• The [Crew] and [Passengers] of a [Kindred Spirit] still can't be targeted by Attacks, and must instead nominate the [Kindred Spirit] in much the same way as a [Vehicle].
• When a [Kindred Spirit] performs a Check or Attack a [Crew] member may provide the effects of the [Help Action] as a Quick Action. [Passengers] may not.
• A [Crew] member may perform the [Shuffle] [Action] during their [Turn], to the effects of the [Shuffle] [Action] to the [Kindred Spirit], until the end of it's [Turn].
• [Crew] and [Passengers] of a [Kindred Spirit] still have access to their own [Physical] [Perception]. The [Kindred Spirit] will use it's own, as normal.
• Other than what is stated above, acting as a [Crew] member or [Passenger] of a [Kindred Spirit] is the same as a [Vehicle]. The [Kindred Spirit] is not counted as a [Vehicle] for another other purpose other than allowing [Characters] to ride it.

Finally, you don't gain a [Personal Budget] or [Vehicular Budget] based on your [Job], instead, you gain them based on your choice of [Kindred Spirit]. Choose your [Kindred Spirit] and then choose one of the packages, listed below:

Tamers know how to read a storm, track a beast, and find water on a dead moon but put them in a crowded room and they start looking for the nearest exit. They’re built for open air and honest danger, not small talk and corporate manners. Years spent listening to the wild leaves little patience for lies, and most Tamers don’t bother pretending otherwise. They’re blunt, sometimes abrasive, but never false. When they speak, it’s because they mean it, and when they act, it’s with purpose. Out in the wastes, that kind of honesty keeps you alive. In the city, it just makes people nervous. But when the chips are down, and the noise of civilization falls away, you’ll remember why you brought one along — they may not charm the crowd, but they’ll get you home.

Trait.

You gain Proficiency in the Natural Skill.

However, anytime you wish to advance your ranks in the Socialise Skill, it costs 2 [Exp] per rank, instead of 1.

You can’t hit what doesn’t move the way it’s supposed to. Tamers and their Kindred dodge fast and wrong. Wrong for a machine, wrong for a dogfight, the kind of wrong that makes computers stutter and tracking systems curse. Years spent running through jungles, diving through alien currents, and surviving on instinct have carved something unnatural into the way they move. They dip when you expect a weave, twist when they should fall, vanish from a sightline just before the trigger pull. It’s not just speed, it’s a living, breathing dance that machines or even people can’t quite predict and most shooters can’t follow. A lucky bullet can still tag one now and then, sure, but you better bring a lot of them because one bullet doesn't kill a dragon, it just pisses it off.

Free Action.

You gain the [Evasive Movements] [Ability]:

At [Tamer] ranks 3, 5, 7 & 9, you can perform [Evasive Movements] one additional time per Encounter, for a [Total] of two, three, four and five times per Encounter, respectively.

No bond stays still, and neither do Kindred Spirits. Over time, they grow — in size, strength, and something deeper. Maybe their claws get sharper, their hides tougher, or strange new abilities bloom where instinct once ruled. Maybe they just get smarter, start finishing each other’s thoughts or reading each other’s moods before a word’s said. Every partnership matures differently, shaped by the worlds they’ve crossed and the dangers they’ve survived, maybe even just the level of trust grows deeper. The longer they walk together, the sapient and beast become closer, wiser, smarter and twice as deadly.

Trait.

Your [Kindred Spirit] becomes more powerful. (See your [Kindred Spirit’s] profile for details).

At [Tamer] Ranks 4, 6, 8 & 10 your [Kindred Spirit] continues to grow more powerful.

Trait.

You gain a Job Die. A Job Die is a Bonus Die that is added to Checks, Attacks or Saves that you are Proficient or Resistant in, respectively. Your Job Die is a D4.

If you gain an additional instance of this Ability, and you already have a Job Die, you do not gain another; it is Upgrade instead.

At Tamer rank 4, 6, 8 & 10, you gain an additional instance of this Ability.

Trait.

You gain an additional Proficiency. This can be Swagger, Presence, Initiative, Reaction or any Skills.

Please Note: You can select any of the above options, not just the ones listed on the Starting Package, so long as you are not already Proficiency in it.

At Tamer rank 5, 7 & 9, you gain an additional instance of this Ability.

Veteran Tamers have seen giants — starcruisers blotting out suns, mechs tall enough to cast shadows over cities, beasts the size of mountains. And yet, every one of them can fall. That’s the lesson Tamers learn after a lifetime of punching above their weight: size isn’t power, it’s just a bigger target. They’ve studied how the massive move, how they think, how they stumble when the right nerve gets hit. To a Tamer and their Kindred, a tank’s just a slow animal in need of tipping. They duck under plasma fire, strike at joints, dig in where plating is softest, and when the dust clears, it’s the so-called small ones still standing. Because out there, in the wild or the void, it’s never about who’s biggest — it’s about who knows where to bite.

Trait.

Anytime you or your [Kindred Spirit] deal Meat, [A.P.] or Magic [Damage] to a [Vehicle], you deal additional [Damage] equal to your [Job Die]. You add your [Job Die] to [Damage] once for each Class of the [Vehicle].

Example: If a rank 5 [Tamer] and their [Roc] is attacking a [Class]: 5 V.M.G. Giga-Miner, they would add five bonus D6 to any Meat, [A.P.] or Magic [Damage] they would deal.

When a Tamer hits their limit, they don’t call for backup — they call the wild. Every world’s got something big and angry hiding in it, and the Tamer knows how to whisper the right words to make it run. Maybe it’s a herd of six-ton grazers, a swarm of iron-scaled drakyn, or a tide of beasts too strange to name, but when the call goes out, the ground starts shaking and everything else stops mattering. Facilities crumble, fortresses vanish, armies scatter — and even the Tamer knows better than to stand in front of what comes next. It’s an avalanche made of flesh, nature answering violence with violence with only one thing left to do… Get the fuck out of the way!

Trait.
Once per [Cycle], you may call a stampede of animals to barrage through the local environment. This will have any effects, both mechanical and narrative, as [Appropriate].