Sanction already has a measure that handles Loss in the Supply Die (Sanction, pp 20 – 21), but the concept has a lot more flexibility than the page of rules outlined allows. In Core, Supply Die is named because you’re dealing with the consumables that someone carries, but which no one cares to track with five-bar gates or tick boxes.

Essentially, Supply Dies have two key reasons to exist in a game. Unpredictable usage rates and tension. Of the former, the quiver of arrows or bandage rolls fall into this spectrum—you use what you need to get the situation sorted without necessarily counting down. At the end of an exciting combat, you check the quiver to see what remains; just as, after a blood-soaked triage you inventory what remains of your first aid kit. Roll the Supply Die; a Falter drops the dice size by one.

The tension approach is not far off really, but usually deals with things like torches, lantern oil and batteries. While running out of bandages has implications, losing communications or being plunged into darkness changes the game state.

That notion warrants thinking beyond your kit bag, and therein lies the concept of Loss.

Going Away

Like Supply, Loss is a diminishing die. Start with, say, a d12. When circumstances take something meaningful away, roll Loss. On a Falter (a 1 or 2), step the die down:

d12 → d10 → d8 → d6 → d4 → Lost

For those who have played Cthulhu Hack, this concept appears rather a lot and you have much greater familiarity with the impending sense of doom that comes with rolling a diminishing die.

Depending on your Genre Setup, Loss could represent many things with the potential to diminish or deteriorate:

• a politician’s marriage or a detective’s career;
• the population of a failing or embattled colony or settlment;
• individual or collective humanity in a transhuman or cyberpunk setting;
• reputation in a game of politics, patronage or noble causes;
• key supplies during an expedition into undiscovered territories;
• hope during a siege or morale in the midst of a pitched battle;
• the remaining members of a doomed fellowship.

In Cthulhu Hack, your checks represent your slide toward dark revelations that connect you to the horrors that you have committed to investigate.

Often you might choose to introduce Loss as a marker, of sorts, that you have someone roll after a scene or at the culmination of a key event. Morale might be checked at the close of every Moment; the population of a colony may be tested as a group closes each Scene. Expeditions may call for a roll every time someone asks to use a piece of equipment, so there’s no need for anyone to record specific gear, but to pull something from supplies necessitates a roll to determine what remains.

All of these approaches are, in some measure, passive. You roll after the fact. How about we make Loss more active and raise the tension?

Voluntary Loss

You could allow players to invoke Loss like a meta currency. When something matters desperately, a player can roll the Loss die alongside the Resource for the Challenge and take the better result. If one of the dice shows a Falter, the Player rolls a single Loss die and a 1 or 2 drops the die size. If both of the dice show a Falter, Loss drops automatically by one.

This gives Loss teeth. The thing you’re seeking to preserve is also something you can sacrifice to succeed. A very obvious application would be during a police procedural where you petition the population of the village for help. If you hunt for something with assistance, roll Loss and your Challenged Resource die together. You raise the prospect of success, but put your people in harms way.

Unlike Hits, Loss should generally be difficult or impossible to recover. Or recovery might be something that takes a long time, like forgiving someone for commiting a heinous act.

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How does Loss manifest or impact in your games? Describe a time when Loss has been too great or created a moment of perfect story. I look forward to reading about it in your RPGaDay post.

#RPGaDAY2026